u235

I have to hand it to the Bush administration, they constantly come up with new ways to expand my horizons. In this case it happens to be with a fabulously transparent, imitation press conference. Here's the brief:

Having been lambasted for a pathetic response to Katrina, FEMA wanted to be seen as pro-active with regards to the wildfires in California. So, they decided to host a press conference to discuss how well they were handling the situation. Only having a real press conference was too risky, since real reporters might actually ask real questions. Thus FEMA staged a "fake" press conference where FEMA employees posed as reporters using scripted queries.

Oh the press were there, well they were invited at the last minute... but they were only allowed to listen by calling in on an 800 number and not ask any questions.

The excuse behind this charade was "to get information out as soon as possible".

cha·rade
Pronunciation[shuh-reyd; especially Brit. shuh-rahd]

noun 1. charades, (used with a singular verb) a game in which the players are typically divided into two teams, members of which take turns at acting out in pantomime a word, phrase, title, etc., which the members of their own team must guess.
2. a word or phrase acted out in this game.
3. a blatant pretense or deception, esp. something so full of pretense as to be a travesty.

Of course once this event was exposed for the fully scripted vignette it was, administration officials took the high road and claimed complete ignorance and disgust at the event.

Do you think they would have been as outraged if they hadn't been caught?