FEMA just gets better and better

Did anyone see this story? Apparently, John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s former external affairs director, held a fake press conference last tuesday regarding the Southern California fires, complete with FEMA staff members posing as reporters..

No genuine journalists attended, although they were given a conference call number they could use to listen in — but not ask questions. A half-dozen questions were asked at the event — by FEMA staff members posing as reporters.

“At the end of the briefing, questions were asked. I should have intervened and I didn’t,” Philbin said.

Philbin said he may have asked a question at the very end of the briefing because, at that point, “the ships had sailed.”

“We’ve worked really hard over the past year to improve our transparency,” Philbin said. Philbin took over in March, as FEMA was going through a major reorganization because of its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “I feel absolutely horrible that this happened,” he said.

“I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in government,” Chertoff said over the weekend.