FEMA Offers New Guidelines Governing Press Conferences That Look Suspiciously Like The Old Guidelines That Should Have Governed Press Conferences In The First Place

FEMA Administrator David Paulison, appropriately chastised by the "Anglo-Saxon" remarks of David Chertoff, wants you to know that he's sorry for the pretend press conference his organization staged last week. A fall guy has been selected and dealt with, various personnel deck chairs are being reshuffled, and the whole episode is being treated as "an avoidable incident that should not taint an otherwise strong response, in support of local officials, to the California wildfires."

To that end, Paulison has proffered a revision of the guidelines that govern how the agency "works with the media." These include:

• "...providing reasonable notice for press events..."
• "...permitting reporters who participate in press events telephonically to ask questions..."
• "...transcribing press events when possible for public release."
• "Finally, under no circumstances will anyone other than media be allowed to ask questions at press events."

In other words, effective immediately, FEMA will officially adopt the same press room policies that any reasonable citizen would demand as a matter of course.

Golly. Thanks.