Are we living in Bizzaro World?
On Tuesday, October 23, FEMA called a press conference to talk about their response to the Southern California wildfires.
Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices.
They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a “listen only” line, the notice said — no questions.
Vice Admiral Harvey E. Johnson, FEMA’s number two, took the podium ready to answer questions from an absent press corps. Instead of postponing the briefing and waiting for the press to actually show up, FEMA staffers played the part.
We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.
What were they thinking?
What was so important they needed to hold the press briefing with only 15 minutes notice? Couldn’t they have waited an hour or two to allow the press to show up?
Who made the initial decision to hold the press briefing and when did they make it? Who was responsible for setting up the press conference? Who came up with the questions for the FEMA staffers to ask? Is it standard practice to have staffers ready with questions?
A series of bad decisions
Tuesday was a busy day. President Bush declared a state of emergency that morning. Bush’s declaration gave the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA authorization to coordinate relief efforts and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Chief R. David Paulison were on their way to California.
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., VADM Johnson was in charge of FEMA. As Chief Operating Officer, VADM Johnson should be a busy man. Something like a press conference would have to be cleared through his office and it’s extremely unlikely someone other than him scheduled an extremely short notice press conference.
So, why did VADM Johnson decide to hold a press briefing at 1 p.m. and give the press 15 minutes notice (Bad Decision #1)? Did they have critical information to share? Based on the briefing, no. Information sharing wasn’t the point. FEMA was establishing their presence on the scene, trying to appear proactive, and attempting to deflect potential criticism about being slow to respond.
FEMA wanted to prove they’d learned from Hurricane Katrina and were following their disaster response plan. Holding a press conference in the first six hours was probably according to plan. In an odd twist, using fake reporters was also according to plan (Bad Decision #2).
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.
According to plan or not, Michael Chertoff called the fake press conference “one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen.” Letters of reprimand were placed in the personnel files file of those involved and the White House distanced itself from the whole affair.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said FEMA was responsible for the “error in judgment,” she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Philbin
The man most responsible for FEMA’s embarrassment on Tuesday, John Philbin, was scheduled to leave the agency that Thursday, one day before the story broke. Philbin, FEMA’s Director of External Affairs and participant in the faked news briefing, was getting a promotion. As of Monday morning, he was going become the Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. Things changed.
McConnell’s office issued a statement saying that FEMA’s director of external communications at the time, John “Pat” Philbin, is no longer scheduled to serve as the DNI’s director of public affairs. DNI spokesman Vanee Vines said Philbin will not serve in any other capacity.
Some people are calling Philbin a scapegoat. He’s not. As the Director of External Affairs it was his responsibility to ensure communications with the press were handled properly. VADM Johnson may have called the press conference, but it was Philbin’s job to handle the rest. Giving the press 15 minutes notice (Bad Decision #3) and substituting FEMA staffers for reporters (Bad Decision #4) were his responsibility.
“It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly . . . I should have stopped it,” said John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s director of external affairs. “I hope readers understand we’re working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it.”
Failure and accountability
FEMA was recovering from the organizational and leadership failures of Hurricane Katrina and this was its chance to redeem the organization’s image. John Philbin messed it up. By most reports FEMA’s done a fine job of responding but, because of Philbin’s fake news briefing, you’d never know it.
