In the annals of American media-government relations, government attempts to deceptively package messages, and acts by an agency of a government that do nothing bring derision and denunciations upon itself there is a new nominee for The Darwin Awards.

In fact, a separate Darwin Awards book should be issued for this one:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s No. 2 official apologized yesterday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.

Somehow an apology may not be enough on this one to (a) satisfy the press and editors who now more than ever will distrust and “diss” the seemingly perpetually hapless emergency agency (b) bury the story and allow higher Bush administration officials to distance themselves from a stunningly inept, inappropriate and dishonest media event. The Washington Post continues:

“We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent,” Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA’s deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.

“We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment,” Johnson said, a view repeated yesterday by press officers at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, who criticized the event.

“Doing” better isn’t going to cut it. Having agency officials pose as reporters isn’t something that happens by accident: it is deception. Just look at the bare facts:

FEMA announced the news conference at its Southwest Washington headquarters about 15 minutes before it was to begin Tuesday afternoon, making it unlikely that reporters could attend. Instead, FEMA set up a telephone conference line so reporters could listen.

In the briefing, parts of which were televised live by cable news channels, Johnson stood behind a lectern, called on questioners who did not disclose that they were FEMA employees, and gave replies emphasizing that his agency’s response to this week’s California wildfires was far better than its response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

This can’t be called “public relations.”

Despite its sometimes negative connotation in some quarters, public relations is a very honorable profession staffed by many people who are skilled communicators and/or former journalists who know how to navigate around perilous media waters so that positive points about their clients can also enter into an info news stream often dominated by negative material. Editors can pick and choose what seems valid and what is “spin” (and they do all the time).

“Spin” is a bit more insidious because it can border on lying. Still, it is accepted by most Americans (and editors) as a wink and nod by rote recitation of one side trying to put the best case to advance its side.

But this is pure, unadulterated deception. And unless you fell off a turnip truck about an hour ago, it appears clear that those who set it up wanted real reporters to watch a video feed and assume those asking questions were reporters.

But they never said it was real when it took place? Unless you fell off a turnip truck a minute ago, you can easily fill in the blanks on the intent.

House officials such as John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s director of external affairs, and White House Press Secretary Dana Perino scrambled to put as much distance between themselves and the phony journalists as a junior high school student being offered tickets to a Barry Manilow concert.

And you have to believe in sincerity on this one: White House and top FEMA p.r. people may come under attack but they don’t qualify as people seemingly having the intelligence of a can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli sitting on a shelf in a grocery store. This was a “news event’ bound to backfire.

This quote says it all:

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke called the staged briefing “totally unacceptable,” adding, “While it is an isolated incident, that does not make it any more tolerable.” He said reprimands are “very probable.” FEMA is part of DHS.

The Copley News Service’s Finlay Lewis, a longtime Washington correspondent, has an interesting post on the paper’s newsblog titled “FEMA: We’ll ask the questions, and give the answers” that provides an excerpt showing how the White House was trying to distance themselves from it. It’s opening paragraphs:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been pretty open about how it hopes its response to the California wildfires will redeem the organization from its dismal performance after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

But FEMA may be trying a little too hard already, by holding a news conference with staffers acting like reporters. Check out this back and forth, provided by a White House transcript of a briefing Friday with Press Secretary Dana Perino…

Read the entire exchange.
The story was thrust to the forefront by Washington Post columnist Al Kamen, whose entire column should be read here. A few excerpts:

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.

Asked about this, Widomski said: “We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute.”

But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. “We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day.” Despite the very short notice, “we were expecting the press to come,” he said, but they didn’t. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.

Oh. And:

“If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, “trust me, I’ll be happy.”

Heck of a job, Harvey.

You’ve read the post..now see..the video:

How has this played? In weblog world, FEMA’s stage-managed “let’s-put-on-a-show!” debut is being panned by people on all sides of the political spectrum. Here is a small sampling of a rare coming-together by political weblogs:

– Michelle Malkin:

Fake Emergency Media Actors.

Fraudulent Emergency Mismanagement Asshats.

Flabbergastingly Exposed Mendacious Artifice.

Send me your suggestions or leave comments below.

–Gun Toting Liberal:

While the Bush Administration may be pretending to be “horrified” that such a manipulation of the MSM could occur, this incident underscores the importance of a REAL “Press”, staying constantly on the heels of the government, challenging “Big Brother” every step of the way; something mainly found almost exclusively in the blogosphere today.

–Ed Morrissey has a must-read post (as usual):

Who comes up with ideas like this? It’s almost as if the writers of The Onion have infiltrated the government. The most mind-boggling aspect of this event is that someone in FEMA actually opened their mouth and proposed staging a fake news conference — and everyone else went along with it. Everyone, from Admiral Johnson to the plants in the audience, who took part in this phony presser did so with full knowledge of their fakery.

And every one of them should get canned for it. The American public shouldn’t have its officials lie to them, especially by pretending to take real questions from real reporters. People who listened to that press conference did so not from some arcane, wonkish interest in policy, but because lives are on the line in Southern California. Over 1600 houses have burnt to the ground. People have died, and many more have risked their lives to save the rest. This is life and death, and FEMA offered us a stage play.

–Newshoggers:

Executive branch agencies have been caught manipulating the media in similar ways throughout the Bush administration. Remember ace reporter Karen Ryan sending out pro-administration “news reports” to local stations? Remember Armstrong Williams accepting federal money to promote No Child Left Behind? Or Jeff Gannon, working for Bush’s Texas cronies’ Talon News, lobbing softballs at Scottie McClellan before hopping into the West Wing for hang out time with his buddies?

I can’t imagine why FEMA personnel engaged in this type of fakery in the aftermath of a successful response to a serious disaster in a very populous state except that this type of behavior appears to be built into the Bush administration’s operational DNA. Happily, it was caught quickly, but unhappily, even if everyone involved is canned, we’re stuck with the same playbook for another year.

–Political Machine:

While FEMA’s apology seems weak, the White House’s reaction is expectedly comical. An administration famous not only for the aforementioned Gannon and Ryan, but also for manipulating the media using news leaks, and for having in Fox News what many people view as a latter-day Tass, the condemnation rang hollow. I kept expecting Perino to offer them tips for next time.

–Wake Up America gives the agency its “rubber chicken” award:

Congratulations to FEMA, particularly Michael Chertoff who heads Homeland Security, for showing us once again how much we can trust the agencies of our federal government, and please accept this Rubber Chicken Award as a token of the depth of our gratitude in keeping ourselves ever vigilant in calling the hand of corrupt and inept government.

–Vice Zilla’s Views:

What can one say, other than is there nothing this Administration won’t do to try and make themselves look better than they are?

….If Mr. Chertoff is so offended by the faux news briefing, then he should fire everybody that was involved in the affair.

It’s about time somebody in the Bush Administration was fired for screwing up.

–Post An Apology (a site that must get a lot of material these days):

Who’s apologizing now?
Dumb ol’ FEMA - what were they thinking?!?

–Right Thinking From The Left Coast:

If you’re going to line someone up to lob softballs at you, at least contract it out…Of course, Bush isn’t good at identifying incompetents and dismissing them being one himself.