[StBernard] FEMA workers masquerade as reporters

[Westley Annis]

FEMA workers masquerade as reporters 
Employees asked questions at last-minute California wildfire briefing
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:00 p.m. CT Oct 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency
on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of
wildfires in southern California.

The agency - much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina
over two years ago - arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of
independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E.
Johnson, the agency's deputy director.

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query
from an agency employee.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the
questions were posed by agency staffers instead of reporters. FEMA was
responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White
House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.

"FEMA has issued an apology, saying that they had an error in judgment when
they were attempting to get out a lot of information to reporters, who were
asking for answers to a variety of questions in regard to the wildfires in
California," Perino said. "It's not something I would have condoned. And
they - I'm sure - will not do it again."

She said the agency was just trying to provide information to the public,
through the press, because there were so many questions.

"I don't think that there was any mal-intent," Perino said "It was just a
bad way to handle it, and they know that."

FEMA gave real reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday's news
conference . But because there was so little advance notice, the agency made
available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although
it was a listen-only arrangement.

On Tuesday, FEMA employees had played the part of reporters. Johnson issued
a statement Friday, saying that FEMA's goal was "to get information out as
soon as possible, and in trying to do so we made an error in judgment."


"Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many
questions we have received," he said. "We can and must do better."

Officials at the Homeland Security Department, which includes FEMA,
expressed their concern.

"This is simply inexcusable and offensive to the secretary that such a
mistake could be made," Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said
Friday, referring to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Stunts such as this
will not be tolerated or repeated."

Keehner said senior leadership is considering whether a punishment is
necessary.

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URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838/