FEMA Does California

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices.

[...]

So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.

  WaPo

Heckuva job, Harvey.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

"Things That Sound Great in the Hot Second Before You Think About Them"

People are still watching Fox News?!?

If they are, they're learning that al Qaeda may have set the California fires! Fox claims to be citing a report from the Arizona Republic of five or six days ago.

Raw Story offers an MSNBC video of Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow exposing the propaganda.

Olbermann cited a report yesterday carried by Fox News which suggested that Al Qaeda may be the true culprit behind the rash of recent California wildfires. Basing their coverage on an article it said ran "five days ago" in the Arizona Republic, the Fox and Friends morning program discussed an FBI memo stating that an Al Qaeda detainee had brought up the possibility of such a plan.

Calling the the report "almost all wrong," the host took the network to task for grossly misreporting the age of the memo:

"The memo is from July 11, 2003. The Arizona Republic is a newspaper. Congratulations, Fox. But it has not been carrying the story...the guy who reported it doesn't even work there anymore."

And, speaking of the fires, Dick Cheney was busted on film (again at Raw Story) napping during an emergency cabinet meeting regarding the situation. Raw Story reports that he was also caught napping at a meeting on Iraq, and at the press briefing by President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Narcoleptic or just bored?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.