Media: Doin’ a heck of a job there, FEMA (UPDATED)

I don’t know whether or not to laugh, or begin packing my bags to move to Canada before Big Brother finally succeeds.

Via the Washington Post:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s No. 2 official apologized yesterday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.

“We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent,” Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA’s deputy administrator, said in a four-paragraph statement.

“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.”

They held a press conference, told everyone it was real, kept the real reporters out of the room, had some FEMA staffers toss some lame softball questions at the FEMA honcho, while the real reporters were supposed to dutifully transcribe the utterances and regurgitate them later.

This was not a “bad decision. A bad decision getting the $3.50 “rib sandwich” lunch special at some dive of a tavern. This was a highly organized conspiracy that required detailed planning by many, many, many people within the agency.

I’m laughing at the audacity. I’m frightened at the prospect that Bush’s defenders will no doubt claim this was absolutely acceptable, and justifiable because of liberal bias or some other crap. And I don’t doubt for a minute that the Democrats are filing this away for use in the Hillary Clinton administration, under the premise that if the GOP does it, we have the right to do it to or there’s a double standard.

Note, well at least one conservative commenter is “flabbergasted” at FEMA.

UPDATE: I was wrong. There seems to be much disgust among the conservative bloggers, according to Gun Toting Liberal:

Other bloggers weigh in, courtesy in part of MemeOrandum — Interesting, both Right and Left bloggers seem to be equally appalled: The Democratic Daily; Tennessee Guerilla Women; Shakesville; Comments From Left Field; Crooks and Liars; The Carpetbagger Report The Reaction; Michelle Malkin (Right)

Hat tip: The Moderate Voice.