Another Bogus 'Press Conference' Revealed, This Time at Homeland Security

Source: Editor & Publisher

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's fake October news conference wasn't a first.

A Homeland Security public affairs official acted like a reporter asking questions during a briefing in San Antonio in January 2006.

A Homeland Security Department investigation found that an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a question during that news conference. A Homeland Security letter to House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson

The ICE official was standing with about 12 reporters but didn't identify herself when she posed the question, Homeland says the employee was verbally reprimanded for asking the question after the news conference.

Unlike the recent FEMA incident, the ICE official was advised against asking the question but asked anyway and didn't identify herself as staff. San Antonio reporters knew she was a public affairs official at the time.

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677593

during Stalin, or Kruschev, for chrissakes, and far away.

If nothing else, this adminstration is causing the ones among us capable of snapping out of it, to wake up, and face a whole new reality we never would have guessed could exist in this country. Once aware, we have to start operating with a whole new set of reference points: we can't go "home" again.

That America, if it ever really existed, is obviously GONE.

Gotta find out what the new rules are, apparently.

From the article:

Reporters that day were given 15 minutes' notice for what turned into a staged question & answer briefing with a FEMA deputy administrator about the California fires. No genuine journalists attended, although they were given a conference call number they could use to listen in but not ask questions.
(snip/)

Sad, isn't it?

A Homeland Security Department investigation found that an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a question during that news conference.

Homeland says the employee was verbally reprimanded for asking the question after the news conference.

I mean, at least use an unidentifiable shill -- ya don't have one of your own PR people asking. Geez, pulling wool over people's eyes ain't that hard, but this gang ain't even trying.

But the way it's worded you can't tell for sure.

More shoddy journalism.

THEY DID THE SAME THING IN GERMANY!

THEY DID THE SAME THING IN GERMANY!

THEY DID THE SAME THING IN GERMANY!

HOW MANY MORE "NEWS CONFERENCES" WERE SHAMS? I"M WILLING TO BET NEXT WEEK'S PAY THAT THIS IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.

the tip of the iceberg.

Yes, it was done in Germany and it is happening here. Insidiously.

I've read a lot of different newspapers, watched a lot of local news in a whole lot of different cities around the country and I've never, ever seen anything at all as absolutely incompetent to the point of outright irresponsibility as is the press in San Antonio.

San Antonio (population 1 million+) will have the stigma of being the largest small town in the country for many years to come. Remember the dancing in the streets in Pakistan a few years ago when they exploded a nuclear device? They seemed to be dancing around saying "We're somebody!" That was San Antonio's attitude when the population hit 1 million. Talk about a lame city. They still suck hind tit in every category of a major city in the country but think they're going to get an NFL team any day now... and they'll really be somebody!

And then...

Don't get me started...

Keep San Antonio Lame.

My city vies with Fayetteville (huge military base) as the armpit of the state, so that gave me a big laugh.

nothing is sacred with this administration. Whatever is needed to fool the populace.

No better than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia on the propaganda front.

boricua79

It is still one big diference between Germany in the 1930s, and the Soviets before and after the WW2.. In bouth this country the population KNOW that the goverment lie, or was starting to lie soon...

In America the public still belive in the honest of the public servant, and are swalling this crap as they are really news.. And with a Media who dosent care to do its job, who are to say, when and if the goverment lie for the public.. Then you are up for this type of thing.. And I fear, and I wil almoust bet on it. This is not the first time the current Administration have liet, sheated and wrongdoing the american public. And it is not the last time they was to do it either.. The 4 goverment power, the Press have been slopy the last 7 year, and if they dont get the act togheter, soon.. It wil go the same way with the american news publisher, as it was when the german public was duped to belive that THEY was special, and that everyone in the best of times, was to be ruled by the germans... And in the worst of times, was to be enslaved as servants for the master-race

That is what is at case here.. No less... Even the "irellevant" stupid Europan as the right wing want you to belive we are. have learned the hard way, that to trust the goverment 110% is wrong, and can be deadly in the end... But you are all free to learn it the hard way, if you dosent want to learn it the easy way...:sarcasm:

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language...

Benjamin Franklin said that....America has forgotten too much since!

Demeter

True.. And that is bad, becouse I belive US really, really need the experience before it happend.. Cant someone who surived the Nazi-regime and are living in the States stand up and tell?

Or, are they to old to stand up, and fear to be labeled "un-american" even if they have fighting for the US in the wars that followed the WW2...
I have read about many american who lately are been attaced by "uber-patriotic" people who never itself was in the armed forces, but are quick to labeled they who was fighting...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language

it does seem like a lot of this country is still asleep at the wheel.

boricua79

Mybee it is.. But I belive the GIANT is starting to wake up... And when US are waking up for real, the neo-cons should be happy if they just get a long, hard prison sentence.. But I fear it wil be late, to punich the crocks and pirates of Mr Bush Administration...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language

And I have made that same point more than once on this site. The Russians in particular developed amazing skills for reading Pravda between the lines.

As you will learn if you hang around here for while, we are not all duped by our propaganda machine. Thanks to the Web, those who care to know what is going on are able to find out, without having to huddle around our shortwave radios trying to tune in weak Radio Free America signals.

Jackpine Radical

Det er flott du forstår min dårlige engelsk;)

Tru, you have and you are absolutely right in that too.. And the Russians was when the "shell" fall of their ayes extremely good to read Pravda between the lines, to se what was really happening in Russia.. Some times it was enough to se who was in sharge to se whits type of First letter they was using in their name. If they was in bold letter, he was in sharge, if the man/woman had the first letter in smal letter then you was on your way out, gracefully off course, but you was not in the power-sircles anymore... Spesially under the later day of Stalin/Chrushcow where it was more comon to send peopole to Sibiria to get some farflung farm industri up and going then to just shot them... Stalin was by the way a man who was verry stright of have the russian newspaper writing Correct gramar.. if they dont.. O the man in sharge can find himself in his way to sibiria or worse..

Yes. Many, as I have seen, are not duped by the propaganda machine. It is amazing to se what pepole are finding about the Administration, and what they are trying to embazzle and stealing for the public in US.. It is GOOD to se that americans, are not yet totaly duped, and belive the first word that are coming out of mr Bush as coming from our Lord and Savour.. It is just so comforting to se, that not everyone are on the same bandwagon anymore.. Maybee some who initaly was not excactly disaproving about mr Bush..Are now some of his most important advisares.. What USA need, are another Eisenhower who everyone KNOW cant be coorscet, and that everyone KNOW that is a real hero.. And cant be "swiftboated" as Mr Kerry was in 2004.. But I am afraid for the moment you dosent have that man/woman who can stand up, and tell the price of darknes and the overlord of darkness (President Bush is just a prince of darkness, mr Chenney IS the overlord of the darkness if you ask mee) That their time is up, and its payback time on all frontes..

And Internet is amazing, you dont need, as you put it try to huddle around shortwave radios and trying to tune in on Radio Free America signals anymore.. If the Internet was inventet 20 year before it was, What world cant we have now then...

But then, regimes as mr Bush, and Cheneny wil allwasy sometimes manage to live some times. But wil ALLWAYS be beaten, be it with the full force of a internet or that the public are just going mad enoght to trow them out... Either way. This Administration wil not live forever.. And its idelogy and rule, wil not rule forever.. That is something history, and we itself can prove time and time again..

But I fear it wil come some hard, peanfully year to try to fix what mr Bush have broken... But US wil someday raise again...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelisn, not my native language

Oh no actually less fake than that

them to the public, pushing them off as real.

No, that wouldn't happen anywhere unless the government was severly corrupt and no longer represented the people.

Nobody really seems to give a shit that the Executive Branch has basically co-opted the media. Not to mention that the media hasn't called the administration out on it. At this point, I'm not even sure if it matters anymore, the media bends so far for Bush.

Are we so used to a manipulated media that the idea of the government becoming a "reality show" is seen as innocuous?

edited to add: Hey, I just noticed who I replied to. How's it going? Gonna caucus here or Iowa City or ???

That's where I'm from.

and we had severe flooding in May of this year - we are a really rural community made up of mostly farmers and livestock.

Long story short - FEMA called and told me that they having a sign-up for those that were impacted by the flooding - I drove 60 miles for their "sign-up emergency set-up" and guess what?

No one showed up to make a claim. No one. No claims were filed. The requirements were stringent: only if you lost life-changing assets, i.e. bedding, flooring, refrigeration, would you be eligible for FEMA help. Swamped farmland was covered under an entirely different part of the disaster assistance - this was to help those directly impacted by flooding.

No one came to make a claim.

FEMA personnel were idle. No one had anything to do. They their mobile communications bus (a huge RV) and 15 people - from loan makers to claim takers - ready to assist. They were standing around with nothing to do. After the PR guy (who had called me to the site) had introduced me around and taken my picture being explained to by his photographer - then he wanted me to take pictures of the idled personnel talking to the other idle personnel and write the story as those people were being "assisted".

No.

That was the lie.

The story that I wrote (and that was printed) was entitled:

The Story is No Story

No one came. No one bothered. There are no homes affected and no one can fit within the small window which is to show a claim for damages caused by the flooding of mostly rural farmland. FEMA has come in force to prove that this area is not affected and the pronunciation of a disaster area did not affect people - only crops.

So to me this is not new. FEMA and the Homeland Security (of which FEMA is a part) is a joke and has been since this mal-administration has taken over.

:hi:

UIA

they have paid reporters, shipped out promos disguised as news, faked news conferences, plastic (turkey) photo ops, Gannon'ized the press corp and deceived at every turn.

As the bumper sticker says...if you ain't outraged you aren't paying attention....

but mainly..why don't these crack reporters rehash some of the aforementioned with each new "revelation"? The RW shrill factor loves hashed and re-hashed!

After all, it was the tireless, fearless bulldogs of the Fourth Estate who have allowed themselves to be used time and again at fake press conferences and phony photo ops by this administration. They've submitted questions in advance, and been told that Bush would only call on certain reporters, and they've shown up in their usual pack. They've allowed Bush administration people to frame and re-frame their questions, and skate away from any real answers. One of the deans of their profession, Tim Russert, has even acknowledged that his default setting for any conversation with a newsmaker is "off the record."

Can the pros even affect outrage over this? Mild displeasure? Or is that precious, precious "access" so valuable that even these repeated demonstrations of their utter uselessness and disposability doesn't disturb their somnambulent pose?

and still doing it?

Like he was really a Journalist...he was probably funded by the RNC by Rove...

planted questions have been a staple of the Bush admin...

I bet many are

And BTW, :wtf: does this mean in your sig?: Welcome to you're "DOOM"

Welcome to you are DOOM? Sure, and All Your Base Belong to Us as well.

And I don't know if this is in reference to your Chavez comment, or your very strange sig line. :shrug: