In all the media surrounding the California wildfires the last few weeks, you might have missed the fact that some of it was staged by FEMA officials.
FEMA officials hurriedly called a press conference on October 23, giving media outlets only a few minutes notice. When no reporters were present for the conference, FEMA staffers asked questions of the agency's No. 2 official, Harvey Johnson. Reporters were allowed to call in for the conference, but they were kept in listen-only mode and not allowed to ask questions.And what did many of those questions sound like?
Within days of the fake press conference coming to light, one official involved announced they were leaving the agency. After which he was promptly offered a new post as the head of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. No joke. Today, another official resigned."Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" a reporter asked. Another asked about "lessons learned from Katrina."
"I'm very happy with FEMA's response so far," Johnson said, hailing "a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team." [...]
Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.
Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.
But don't worry, folks. The White House is aware of the situation.
"It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House."
Except that you have employed it at the White House.
Paging Jeff Gannon.
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