Getting Irate So That You Don't Have To

Getting Irate So That You Don't Have To

Wednesday 31 October 2007

News Management - US Style

Being an inward-looking Little Englander, I haven't written an article about anything happening abroad yet (unless you count Scotland as being abroad, which I'd dearly like to).

But the US Federal Emergency Management Administration has recently behaved with such spectacular, magnificent cynicism that they couldn't go unmentioned. These boys take spin to a completely different level.

Get this. They faked an entire press conference about the fires in California. Recently criticised for their response to the diasaster, they gave 15 minutes notice of the conference to news agencies, and then, when no real live reporters could make it, they got their own press officers to put soft, planted questions to the Deputy Administrator.

Tragically, the man held responsbile has paid a heavy price. John Philbin, the agency's Chief PR Officer, who planned to leave the agency anyway to become press officer for the director of national intelligence, has been left without a job.

Still, I'm sure New Labour's News Management operation can find a role for him. Jo Moore, eat your heart out.

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