Fake News Conference Costs More Jobs at FEMA
 

Official in fake reporters flap out of job
Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:08pm EDT
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Bush administration official whose department had government workers pose as journalists in a news conference has been dropped from a planned new job as media chief for the top U.S. spy agency.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Monday that John Philbin, who until last week was external affairs director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would not be taking up a similar job with the intelligence office.

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...55777020071030

(Insert "Queen - Another One Bites the Dust" Here)

Sheeh - propaganda is alive and well :winkwink::thumbsup

I'm gonna have the next corp AGM held at 17 longtitude, 16 latitude and shareholders will be given a full ten minutes notice - and the press are already here *LOL*

You could also provide shareholders with a phone number to call in but in listen only mode, like they did. That whole mess really reeks.

Yeah, that was a sham job like no other I ever saw.
If this was done on any other issue, like say Iraq, heads would be rolling for ever.

business as usual...

more fake news about fake facts to accomplish fake goals ....:2 cents:

I love the last bit how the Spokesman for the Department Of Homeland Security is supposed to replace em...

Fucken Jesus H Christ...
How come Americans are not burning buildings and having riots or throwing the fuckwad's in jail for the bullshit or better yet just execute them bastards playin games with our money and lives?

There has to be a point where Americans start doing shit about all this crap, there has goto be.

Voting is rigged, false war's declared and a system that does not give a shit about our homes, school's or roads.

its hard to say what really happened, but it sounds like it may have been a poorly planned conference and when they didnt have anybody show up to ask questions, they asked them themselves, then people painted the picture of them having a "fake news conference"

I heard somewhere I forgot where, the difference between the usa and alot of the european countries. Is in the European countries the government is afraid of the people and here the people are afraid of the government.Thats why nothing really happens.

I know, look how our fore-fathers reacted to a tax on tea!

None of that would have mattered if the people asking the questions had identified themselves. But they didn't because they wanted the questions to seem like they came from reporters. It was a fake.

Because people here are so dumbed down that they no longer think for themselves. I blame the government schools for most of it, turning out complete and utter retards, compliant with the whims of the people who programmed them. The fire in the belly of the American people is gone. People no longer want freedom here, they want safety and they think that they can trade freedom for it. Ben Franklin had something succinct to say on this practice.

Its a different time. If this was happening even 150 years ago, every single politician in this country would be tried to treason and hanged. Well, for that matter, it would never get to that point. They'd be hanged long before they ever made it into top offices and had a chance to corrupt the entire system. We'd see alot of hangings at the local level. Almost all of these schmucks in Washington today started somewhere on a county council, as a sheriff or the mayor of some pathetic spineless little town.

But it was the death of a thousand cuts for freedom. A little nick here, a little slice there. Hell, the first few didn't even bleed, so no one even noticed. Many more after that didn't bleed very much and only a few noticed that America was no longer healthy. Now we are cutting veins and major arteries and blood is flowing by the gallons, but the smaller cuts siphoned off so much blood collectively that America is now light headed and has begun to embrace its death. There will only be a few more cuts needed to inflict terminal injury.

Of course, that's what everyone does when the press don't show up. They waste time getting any old rabble in to ask questions - like they matter? duh?:winkwink:

This is not the first time and sure won't be the last, despite it was strongly condemned by the Whitehouse - past players in exactly the same PR propaganda. They seriously must think the public are total idiots.

Very well said kudos to you. :thumbsup

Very true Tony :thumbsup The general attitude is the govt exists to serve the people are they not too sympathetic or tolerate when govt screws up :winkwink:

Flipside is politicians, especially leaders, have to stand up and explain themselves weekly in parliaments, be accountable, and face their critics in front of cameras. Some of these sessions are kinda heated and lying and deception has a tendency to hit them in the face or end up in year long investigations :)

Generally the attitude towards any authority, whether govt or LE is cynical until legitimate foundation is established - then there would be cooperation. But if not - they are fairly often crucified and can disappear into oblivion.

Thanks. I also forgot to make one point that I started to make before the phone rang and broke my train of thought...

Where I said:

Almost all of these schmucks in Washington today started somewhere on a county council, as a sheriff or the mayor of some pathetic spineless little town.

This is exactly why it is important to pay close attention to your LOCAL elections. Many people only vote in presidential elections, skipping the others and I know some people who only vote for president, senator and rep and on issues and leave the rest blank, and when its only a local election, they don't vote at all unless there is a compelling local issue.

Few people walk off the street and get a nomination to run for a high level state or federal office from either party and the Libertarians don't yet get enough votes to really apply in this context, thats one of the only redeeming things I can come up with about the two-party system.

Local elections are your chance to get rid of the little shits BEFORE they start to fester and become BIG SHITS. Candidates for local offices are at their weakest, they don't yet have war chests of millions of dollars to sling it out on TV to the point that no one knows where anyone stands. Defeating some schmuck who is running for a local office is pretty easy, really. A few letters to the editor and some coffee shop chat can be all thats needed. Its much easier to get rid of the little shits before they become big shits. Then you need an army to keep them out.

sure, i understand that side of it, and im not sure if in those press conferences (i dont watch a lot of them), thye state their names in the beginning

but the flip side of that is, you have FEMA, who by most accounts did a pretty good job during the fires, who intentionally hold a conference where the only questions asked are by fema shills, with legitimate reporters listening in, who are presumably aware the questions are being asked by fema. and they dont think this would cause an uproar?

you have to think that out of that group, they are not all idiots and didnt realize that this would result in a PR nightmare.

i was trying to find an explanation that makes some sort of sense

BTW minusonebit - here's a couple of reasonable movies worth a watch tho not related specifically to this thread topic.

Both are from John Pilger who has covered almost all conflict areas of the world from Vietnam onwards and give an insight into various other problems.

Both movies are an hour to 90 mins long, but some good interviews with people who matter and directly involved - plus raw documentary footage which tends to dispell common myths..

John-Pilger:-War-on-Democracy covers mainly the Venezulan and Central America democracy issues.

Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq was produced around 2000 and deals with the sanctions imposed on Iraq and the effects on population.

Watching now.

It's not just fake news conferences, but fake stories too:

http://www.gfy.com/showthread.php?t=...news+storie s

Crazy gov't we have.

heres what makes sense to me. real shitty planning, somebody threw something together that was just a clusterfuck. i see that happen all of the time


FEMA employees last Tuesday posed as reporters at a news conference in Washington about the Southern California wildfires. The briefing was called on short notice and no journalists were on hand when it started.

Instead, FEMA deputy director Harvey Johnson stood before a FEMA camera feeding live images to television networks and took questions from agency employees posing as reporters.



you know how it goes. you have this briefing planned for a few days or a week, you have the cameras there for the live tv feed, feed times all set, the speaker has their taking points ready, then oh shit.

an hour before you realize you forgot to try to get reporters for the conference (maybe there is not a whole lot of excitement about this in reporting circles, they think its a dog/pony show for fema)

you call them, your live on tv in an hour, they dont show up and you have to start with something. some dumbfuck didnt set the phones up to project over the loudspeaker, so its only one way with reporters.

you have to start, so the staff starts making up questions and asking them

Or you just cancel the press conference and be done with it? Admit that you made a mistake? Yeah, that would suck for someone's ego, but I doubt it would have been a carrier ender and it would have been reported on the page right before the editorials below the fold. Whatever the reasons for it, the people deserved to lose their jobs. As the courts say, its not just impropriety, its the appearance of an impropriety that is to be avoided.

Wow, the second one really is something. About halfway into it, just listening to audio since I need to work right now as well, but I will definitely find the time to stick this on the screen and devote 100% attention to it.

Yep - just took time off to watch that second movie in full earlier today - and seriously sad shit for which there would never, ever, be an excuse.

Pilger has done some good research and lived in war and conflict zones for years. He covered conflict in East Timor and embarrassed a few govt's who claimed they never provided aircraft and arms to massacre the population - and ended up an expert witness in court over this and where the jury found a group of teachers innocent for their role in destroying military aircraft designated for delivery to East Timor.

He was also one of the last people to sit with the US Ambassador in the embassy during the Vietnam conflict and documented this well - along with the aftermath when US forces were pulled out.

And... to keep you busy - here's Pilger's reports for the last few years :winkwink::thumbsup


2001 The New Rulers Of The World

John Pilger explores the impact of globalisation, taking Indonesia as his prime example, a country that the World Bank described as a 'model pupil' until its 'globalised' economy collapsed in 1998. Under scrutiny are the increasingly powerful multinationals and the institutions that back them, notably the IMF and The World Bank.

2002 Palestine Is Still The Issue

John Pilger returns to the Occupied Teritories of the West Bank and Gaza where he filmed a documentary with the same title, about the same issues, in 1974. He finds the basic problems unchanged: a desperate, destitute people whose homeland is illegally occupied by the world's fourth biggest military power. He hears extraordinary stories from Palestinians, though most of his interviews are with Israelis whose voices are seldom heard, including the remarkable witness of a man who lost his daughter in a suicide bombing. This film was nominated for a BAFTA, a British Academy Award.

2003 Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

This film, set in Afghanistan, Iraq and Washington, looks at President Bush's 'war on terror' and the 'liberation' of countries where bloodshed and repression continue. In Afghanistan, Pilger investigates the claim that life has improved for the women of Iraq now that the Taliban have gone. In Washington, he interviews leading American officials, 'neo-cons' in the Bush regime. John Bolton, of the State Department, now the US Ambassador to the United Nations, says he regards the figure of 10,000 civilian deaths in Iraq as 'quite low'. Breaking the Silencewon a number of awards, and was nominated for a BAFTA, a British Academy Award.

2004 Stealing a Nation

Pilger tells a story literally 'hidden from history'. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity' . In March 2005, 'Stealing a Nation' was awarded Britain's most prestigous documentary prize - the Royal Television Society Award.

minusonebit how many fake nicks have you burnt though? Funny, how as soon as one guy stops posting the daily govt BS threads.. The next one starts up...

Some of the responses in that thread were scary. :helpme

I was amazed how seemingly "with-it" people were trying to defend something so unbelievably foul.

I saw a need going unfulfilled... I decided to fulfill it. :)

I always have liked how posting anything critical of the US and the way the government works is automatically determined to be hating the US.

You can also always tell when someone doesn't have a fucking clue on an issue when their comeback is of the "You believe everything you see on TV" garden variety.