Fema Official Regrets Fake Press Conference

By the standards of Fema, the US government agency that notoriously botched the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina, the attempt at news management following the California wildfires seemed relatively benign. At least it didn't leave thousands of people stranded without food or shelter.

When no reporters showed up to a last-minute news conference on the fires last week, agency staff members simply asked the questions themselves.

Even those familiar with the Bush administration's efforts to manipulate the media joined the criticism of the fake news conference. The homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, called it "one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government".

On Monday the stunt cost a Fema official his job. John Philbin, who planned to leave Fema anyway to become press officer for the director of national intelligence, told CBS television he regretted the charade. "I should have canceled it quickly. I did not have good situational awareness of what was happening," he said.

Mr Philbin insisted there was no intention to score propaganda points for Fema, whose image has yet to recover from Katrina. He claimed that the Fema deputy director, Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson, did not realize he was being questioned by members of his own staff - even though he addressed some of them by name.

The questions from Fema personnel to Adm Johnson included such challenging posers as: "Are you happy with Fema's response so far?"

The press conference had been called at just 15 minutes' notice, which meant that only a single camera crew was able to reach Fema headquarters in time. Reporters were invited to listen in on a conference call but were not able to ask questions.