The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the news media outlets that broadcast its fake news conference should be ashamed at what transpired while the California wildfires burned.
FEMA, the agency disgraced by its poor response to Katrina, held a staged news conference during the fires, with its own employees asking scripted questions. No actual news media was invited to attend the "news conference," but it was made to look as though the tough questions were being asked.
Apparently FEMA learned the wrong lesson from Katrina. The lesson the agency seems to have learned is its only mistake during the hurricane was not working hard enough to deceive the American public into thinking it was doing a good job. Call us crazy, but we believe the lesson was something more along the line of actually DOING a good job.
The image of FEMA officials spending their time role-playing and practicing a farce news conference while our most populous state burns, that's just unforgivable.
Maybe it's naive of us to expect politicians to actually give a fair assessment of a situation or tell the truth. But we're not ready to give up and say that honesty shouldn't be the goal Washington someday strives for.
ADVERTISEMENT
During the past few years, we've witnessed this fake news conference, fake news report packages being prepared by government officials to look like real TV news reports, and payments directly to commentators to speak favorably about the administration's initiatives.
It's shameful. Why, exactly, are we supposed to send our tax dollars in for government hacks to formulate ways to lie to us?
But we'll save our harshest criticism for the two media outlets that carried the farce live on America's airwaves: MSNBC and Fox News. This is how easy it is to dupe the 24-hour news networks: just ask 'em. If these so-called news organizations can devote live coverage to an event, shouldn't they ask if they can send a reporter? Isn't it a red flag that this big event is happening and no one from their organizations was there?
The two channels should have their license to broadcast suspended for a week by the FCC. It's such a small penalty for being completely aloof as a bumbling federal agency pulls the wool over their eyes.
This goes to show how much vetting actually occurs in these newsrooms: exactly none. And if you get your news from 24-hour news networks, this is a harsh reality that must be faced: the heavy lifting of checking things out is being passed on to you, the viewer.
