Word: fema
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...None of this was disclosed by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator of FEMA, who dutifully responded to the softballs from his underlings (i.e. "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?") as if they were real...
...credit, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lambasted FEMA after the story broke in the Washington Post several days later. "I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Chertoff said. "I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment...
...here's the irony: in a way, FEMA had responded as it had trained to respond. Since 2000, the nation has held four full-scale exercises to simulate a major terrorist attack. Each time, the "mock media" is played by fake reporters - paid PR people, to be specific - just like in the fake FEMA press conference last week...
...Before the simulation, I asked FEMA why they weren't using real reporters instead. I was told that the material was too sensitive, for one thing, and for another, real reporters would change the dynamic of what was intended to be a learning atmosphere...
...FEMA's decision last week to exclude real reporters from a matter of real national security - in which half a million people had been evacuated from their homes due to uncontrolled fire - would suggest that the best way to provide an atmosphere of learning would be to include real reporters before the disaster strikes. Maybe if FEMA had established good relationships with more real reporters before the wildfires, the agency would feel confident enough to allow them to ask questions during press conferences...