FEMA, the federal emergency management system, held a conference about the fires in Southern California. But no news people were able to arrive in time to attend the conference since there was very short notice. So instead they used their own staff members to pretend to be reporters. So these "reporters" asked stupid questions that made their company look good.
So, here's the link to the actual article since now you have the background. I thought this was very strange... How about you?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/30/ED25T2RHB.DTL
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8 comments:
This is probably one of the stupidest stories I've heard of just because I wouldn't think any respected administration would pull a stunt like that. The situation is even worse because this fake news conference was addressing, and therefore, disrespecting the wildfires that have damaged hundreds of homes. I mean, the solution to the problem of no reporters is simple, which is to reschedule the news conference. Not to mention that news conferences should not be scheduled in such short notice. Whoever set this conference up should be punished.
Definitely strange but, the FEMA has been under a lot of stress since the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. Obviously, the organization did not respond effectively to this natural disaster. There have been calls to dismantle the FEMA because many see it has ineffective. I think that Philbin just wanted to rebuild the FEMA’s reputation as a reliable governmental service. Lying was a risk he was willing to take. It seems pretty ridiculous to me that a person would take such an enormous risk just to enhance his or her job but given the threats of tearing down the entire organization, I suppose his motives are understandable.
btw it says in the article that Philbin's fake news conference cost him "a chance to become top public information officer for the director of national intelligence". do you think this is a good punshiment?
This just goes to who how corrupt and ignorant the government has become. They try to pass off fake reporters and then have the confidence to think that the people would not find out about it later. They are trying to make fools out of the American people.
To Josephine: I think he could be punished at least a little more...
Though their motive is understandable, this certainly doesn't seem like the right way to go morally, and it didn't even help them in the end. Like Josephine said they have been under a lot of stress, and this stunt was just to help them rebuild their reputation. But they had to have known that they were going to get caught in the end. It just seems like this only hurt them, and the end result was inevitable.
How can there be no real reporters there when within seconds of any major event every news channel will have breaking news about the issue. It smells a little fishy around here.
This is so strange and it totally shows how weird people can be when they are trying to project an image. To companies and politicians these days, image is everything and stupid stunts like this seem to be the fall-back of this image game.
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