last night i was perusing the paper because saturday night live didn’t seem funny at all, and i had to read one story twice. apparently, on friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency held a phony news conference about assistance to victims of the wildfires blazing in southern california.
what? why would they do this? i guess they were uncomfortable there at FEMA about all the bad press they got regarding their lack of taking care of hurrican katrina victims. so, somebody at FEMA decided they’d hold a PRETEND news conference, filled with easy questions for FEMA to answer, like “do you feel that FEMA is doing a good job?”
according to the story in the paper, FEMA only gave real, actual reporters 15 minutes notice about the “news conference.” because there was so little time, the agency gave reporters an 800 number to call. but they couldn’t ASK questions, they could only listen – to the PHONY reporters ask the easy questions. Maybe the FEMA reporters were celebrating halloween early and were all dressed as reporters.
it’s just so bizarre, isn’t it? i mean, for one thing, who thought up this stupid idea? “hey, let’s TRICK the real reporters into thinking that OTHER reporters are asking all the questions, and then they won’t ask us anything we might not be able to answer,” somebody must have said. maybe, though, this somebody was just KIDDING, maybe he or she had eaten too much candy corn and was on a serious sugar hight, but then others (also jonesing on too much halloween candy) heard the idea, and since they were clearly all panicked about the possibility of ANSWERING REAL QUESTIONS, they all jumped onboard.
so why didn’t anybody there at FEMA say, HELLO, PEOPLE, the real reporters probably have IQs over 50, and they’ll figure it out! or better yet, somebody could have said GEE, THIS SOUNDS A LITTLE UNETHICAL PLUS REALLY STUPID.
surely, surely, SOMEBODY at FEMA at least had thoughts like this. but clearly, the ones who were rational were all dressed at Marcel Marceau for halloween and so they couldn’t say anything at all.
here’s the statement that FEMA issued after they were found out. their 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. we can and must do better.”
the white house press secretary, dana perino, said she didn’t condone FEMA’s moronitude, and that this was something that she was sure that FEMA would not do again.
there was no mention of the “error in judgment in the paper today, so i guess everything must be all good at FEMA again; everybody there has had the whole weekend to get over their candy highs, hopefully they rested up and thought about their incredible stupidity, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll do better in the upcoming week.
not that i’m counting on it.
ok for now,
sunday grace.