Friday, October 26, 2007

Journalism Made Easy

"I'm not a reporter, but I play one in a FEMA press conference."

That's right, the Bushies, possibly embarrassed by the Jeff Gannon fiasco, have finally decided to cut out the middleman and have the government officials themselves ask the questions at press conferences.

One can see where this is leading. Someday, in the not-too-distant future, all reporters will be banned from press conferences, and the press secretaries will ask as well as answer all the questions.

It should make for a much more efficient process.

UPDATE: Jen Clark, my first ever commenter, notes that the FEMA presser itself was an exercise in unnecessity, since FEMA didn't actually do much during the SoCal wildfires. So, to recap: they held a fake press conference to announce insignificant measures. Jen thinks this is a sign of overwhelming stupidity, but I think it's more sinister. This is what happens when the people running the government know they won't suffer any penalty when they do something wrong. As proof, I offer this: John "Pat" Philbin, one of the FEMA employees-turned-fake-reporters, has received a lateral promotion to head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

UPDATE 2: Like a demon from a medieval grimoire, apparently speaking Jeff Gannon's name causes him to appear in a flash of fire and brimstone. Unlike a medieval demon, however, instead of trying to eat your soul, Gannon just deposits long rants full of lame-ass right-wing talking points in your comments section. Sic transit gloria mundi.

UPDATE 3: In her latest blog post, Jen Clark reminds us just how breathtakingly awful FEMA still is two years after Katrina.

4 comments:

Jennifer Briney said...

The funny thing is that it was a press conference that didn't even matter. FEMA has almost nothing to do in the case of a forest fire, and even if they did, California was already on top of it (I love my state!)

If they had just been cool with the press, given them more then 15 minutes to get there, and taken their questions, no one would even be talking about FEMA.

No heat is the best kind, right?

Morons. They can't even get something right right anymore.

Johnny Pez said...

Wow! An actual comment from JimJeff GannonGuckert on my own humble little blog! I feel honored! And soiled! Both at once!

Say, JimJeff, do you do google searches for your name every day? That is so mindbogglingly pathetic that pathos itself seems not-so-pathetic by comparison.

Jennifer Briney said...

Hey Johnny - thanks for the shout out!

It's pretty cool that you are already getting propaganda on your blog. You must have really hit a nerve.

Congratulations! Wear that right-wing rambling comment as a badge of honor.

You know what the funniest part is... I don't even know who Jeff Gannon is.

Johnny Pez said...

Follow the "Jeff Gannon fiasco" link in the original post. That'll give you the basics.

And glad to oblige. We fifth-tier bloggers have to stick together.