The Real Fake News

The Internets are bursting with spluttering, red-faced rants flogging the public servants at FEMA, who staged a phony press conference about the California wildfires and answered fake questions from agency employees posing as reporters. Was it a monumentally boneheaded thing to do? Sure. Should they not have done it? You bet.

Even so, you have to give these people at least a little credit. Unlike other federal agencies, which are dens of infighting and backbiting, FEMA's very special employees pulled together in a crisis. The playtime press conference involved a bunch of FEMA officials—one pretending to be the briefer, others playing reporters, another guy manning the sound. At most other workplaces the whole scheme would have fallen apart under the weight of internal bickering and naysaying. One guy would be bellyaching about how they were all going to get fired if anyone found out; another would moan about how it was unethical or possibly illegal; a third would complain it was a stupid, stupid idea, and warn they'd never get away with it. At FEMA they didn't fall prey to that kind of negative thinking. The agency motto—"There's no I in FEMA"—is deeply ingrained. In a less cynical time this level of esprit de corps might have been considered refreshing. At least the government had the good sense to house all of these people in one relatively obscure agency, where they can't do much harm. Imagine, for instance, what could happen if the Defense Department employed officials with that kind of poor judgment.

As it turns out, the fake press conference wasn't all that different from a real press conference. Take a look at some of the questions the fake reporters lobbed at the fake briefer:

"Sir, there are a number of reports that people weren't heeding evacuation orders and that was hindering emergency responders. Can you speak a little to that, please?"

Good question! If this had been a real press conference, you can bet a real reporter would have asked that. One of the most dangerous problems emergency responders face is the person who insists on toughing it out and has to be rescued, at great peril, later.

"Can you address a little bit what it means to have the president issue an emergency declaration, as opposed to a major disaster declaration?"