FEMA apologizes for fake 'reporters'

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Bob Juch · #1 Post by **Bob Juch** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:33 pm

FEMA apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a news briefing on California's wildfires that no journalists attended.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, still struggling to restore its image after the bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, issued the apology after The Washington Post published details of the Tuesday briefing.

"We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson, who conducted the briefing, said in a statement. "Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received."

No actual reporter attended the hastily called news conference in person, although some camera crews arrived late to film incidental shots, officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN26619054

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #2 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:58 pm

It's a huge waste of manpower. Wouldn't it be better to have these employees helping people who had been displaced by the fire?

BackInTex · #3 Post by **BackInTex** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:22 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:It's a huge waste of manpower. Wouldn't it be better to have these employees helping people who had been displaced by the fire?

Given the exhibited intelligence of those involved, I would think their best contribution IS staying out of the way.