Deception in the Ranks (again)

Gator

Gator

U of B and B Alumnus
FEMA workers masquerade as reporters
Employees asked questions at last minute California wildfire briefing

Updated: 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - One way to get decent coverage in this rough-and-tumble city is to arrange to have your own employees interrogate you at your news conference.
That would seem to be the strategy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago.
FEMA scheduled an early afternoon news briefing on only 15 minutes notice to reporters here Tuesday to talk about its handling of assistance to victims of wildfires that were ravaging much of Southern California.

But because there was so little advance notice for the event held by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy FEMA administrator, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.
At the news conference itself, some FEMA employees played the role of reporter, asking questions of Johnson - queries described as soft and gratuitous.
"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from a person who was an agency employee, not an independent journalist.
Asked about this, Mike Widomski, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, said, "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."

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."
The story was first reported in Friday's editions of The Washington Post.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838/

Par for the Course, nothing new here as far as I'm concerned.

How anyone can trust anything at all coming out of this Administration without even the hint of cursory scepticism is beyond me, but, in any case, to each his own.

"We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."

Seems still to this day no one at FEMA knows how to plan ahead for even the most mundane of events, such as in this case the Press Conference, so, is it really any wonder why they fail so easily at so many other things?
 
Did these people learn nothing from the WH Jeff Gannon/Guckert incident? That whole incident was very embarrassing for certain people you'd have think they'd learn the lesson.
 
mmarsh said:
Did these people learn nothing from the WH Jeff Gannon/Guckert incident? That whole incident was very embarrassing for certain people you'd have think they'd learn the lesson.
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Add to that the fact that FEMA Employees seem to be sitting around with nothing better to do other than wait to play Reporter if needed while Fires rage in California.
 
you should trademark that.

Brown swears he was the scapegoat, which doesn't surprise me, but what was the head of the US Arabian Horse Association doing running FEMA anyway?
 
Chertoff blasts FEMA’s faux press conference
Calls agency’s use of fake reporters ‘one of the dumbest’ things he’s seen
Updated: 7:21 p.m. ET Oct 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Michael Chertoff said.
"I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment," he added.

Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules.
"There will be appropriate discipline," he told reporters at a news conference with New York's governor where they announced an agreement on a driver's license plan.
Chertoff said he knew nothing about the matter until after it happened and that he "can't explain why it happened."
The White House on Friday scolded FEMA for the faux press 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 reporters at the event Tuesday and question Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy director.
The questions were soft and gratuitous.
"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.
FEMA gave reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday's news conference. But because of the short notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. Many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.
Johnson said in a statement Friday 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."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838/
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Well, there's the word from on high.

In my opinion, just another house cleaning needed at FEMA, top to bottom, to include one Vice Admiral, who I feel needs to be reduced in Rank before he is shown the door.
 
5.56X45mm said:
In my honest opinion, get rid of FEMA. It's a entire waste of time and resources.
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God, I get shivers when you start to make sense. :smile:

It seriousness though FEMA as always been the dumping ground for all political hacks everywhere. No previous experience required.

The former head of FEMA's last job was 'President of the Arabian Horse Racing Federation'. I am sure the people who work for FEMA (the grunts) were perfectly competent but the first 3 levels of senior management needs to be fired and replaced with people who actually know something about Emergency Management or administration of a Government office.
 
Hey, I against FEMA because it's a symbol of Big Government..... Also I'm for people getting proper help from government, not some waste of tax money and resources.
 
5.56X45mm said:
Hey, I against FEMA because it's a symbol of Big Government..... Also I'm for people getting proper help from government, not some waste of tax money and resources.
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Well then you'd agree that you need some sort of Government organization to make sure that government aid goes to where its needed. Otherwise God knows where it will go? Right? So we do need FEMA.

What we don't need is the rampant crony ism and mismanagement that follows FEMA around. FEMA needs restructuring not destruction.
 
We need a group but it does not have to be FEMA. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army does a far better job in my opinion. I'm not for FEMA having such large police state like powers.

I 100% believe that FEMA should be replaced with a far smaller and less powerful organization. What is needed is a Civil Defense type organization, something along the lines of a local CERT team that is spread out nationally. If you have it spread out the resources will be better position and also there will not be an issue with wanted waste of tax money and man power.
 
5.56X45mm said:
We need a group but it does not have to be FEMA. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army does a far better job in my opinion. I'm not for FEMA having such large police state like powers.

I 100% believe that FEMA should be replaced with a far smaller and less powerful organization. What is needed is a Civil Defense type organization, something along the lines of a local CERT team that is spread out nationally. If you have it spread out the resources will be better position and also there will not be an issue with wanted waste of tax money and man power.
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Both the RC and the Salvation Army are private, non-profit organisations.
Both deal with problems much smaller than FEMA. I don't see how you can fix a huge problem like Katrina with a small agency. Its like trying to invade a large country with too small an army. The worst thing we could do is privatize FEMA, the last thing we need is KBR or Halliburton mucking about here.
 
Well, they could turn the Federal Budget for FEMA and FEMA Employees over to the National Guard Bureau, and try their luck with that.
 
The private sector has its own issues as well.
They will work to make profits at the expense of the country's best interests or security.
So it's a tradeoff.
But in this case, Red Cross and the like will do just fine.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
The private sector has its own issues as well.
They will work to make profits at the expense of the country's best interests or security.
So it's a tradeoff.
But in this case, Red Cross and the like will do just fine.
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That is an excellent point.

When people say 'privatize this, privatize that' they fail to understand the real problem with corporations.

People assume corporations can be trusted to what is the public's best interest. That is a wrong assumption, a corporation first and only interest is to make money. That means do the least among possible (cost) for the maximum profit. They are concerned as less concerned about efficiency then keeping the books in the black.
 
They're generally more efficient because you need to be efficient to cut costs and maximize profits but it's the policy. For example, let's say doing project A will mean using up a LOT of taxpayer dollars (or other losses and damages) but would lead to high revenues on their end... and their lawyers say it's legally good to go, they're going to do it.
 
Odd, I talked to a a buddy of mine who lives in San Francisco, the opinion in CA is that FEMA and the Federal government handled this problem wonderfully, to use a term coined by... CNN I think "This was the anti-Katrina."

Let's see, who did the most to put out the wildfires? Fire fighters from California and Nevada, the National Guard, FEMA and it was bankrolled by Congress. Hmm, I a list of organizations financed by local, state and federal governments, with little to no involvement of the private sector. Oh now I remember, Fox, CNN and NBC all had their helicopters overhead taking pictures, getting in the way, and reaping the benefits of the advertising dollars they will receive. That was the private sector's involvement. Privatizing FEMA isn't the solution, the Salvation Army and Red Cross can't come close to matching the spending power of the federal government and don't even try to say that people will give more money to the Red Cross since their tax dollars will no longer be paying for FEMA. Everybody knows that's BS, people will take their tax refund (if there is a refund, in all honesty the money would go towards some other program, probably one that tells people who bought a brand new car from Detroit that they made the right choice) and spend it on something stupid, like a 42" LCD TV, which of course their $50 in tax savings won't come close to covering.

You know why the federal government had to pay so much to the families of New Orleans following Katrina? They couldn't afford insurance at the inflated prices private insurance companies were offering.
 
FEMA needs to be shaken up every once in awhile to keep the staffs blood flowing achange of personnel might not hurt either.
 
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