Just the natural evolution of our Orwellian administration.
NEW YORK- It appears the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has found the answer to nosey reporters in the two years since Hurricane Katrina: have a press conference and have your own people ask the questions.
According to columnist Al Kamen in The Washington Post, a FEMA press briefing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday related to the California wildfires included several limitations that made press involvement difficult.
(snip)
Kamen later states: "the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters.....
FEMA officials told Kamen that their people did not make up the questions and Johnson did not know what was to be asked. (ed note- Sure.)
(snip)
Noted Kamen: "Heck of a job, Harvey."
Next thing you know, people will be conducting interviews with themselves..... oh, wait. Nevermind.
video is of a painfully stupid Howard Kurtz interviewing..... himself.
It's bad enough when Jeff Gannon shows up at a White House press conference, asking softball questions. It's worse when the administration stages a Town Hall meeting, with only handpicked Kool Aid drinkers present to genuflect at Dubya. And even worse when it took five tries for Karl Rove to get his grand jury testimony straight during Libby's trial.
And of course, Perino and Snow just making stuff up over the last two or three years is just the icing on a very stale, bitter cake.
All of this is sometimes known as 'controlling the message'.
George Orwell is doing a half gainer in his grave.