What Not To Do In A Crisis: Call in FEMA

October 31, 2007

Courtney Barnes

Halloween came early this year for employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (more colloquially known as FEMA), some of whom were asked to “dress up” as reporters for an October 23 press conference regarding the wildfires that are ravaging Southern California.
FEMA hasn’t won many gold stars for good behavior in the past, and it looks like they're not interested in reversing that trend.  After being publicly lambasted for their non-response in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the most recent natural disaster has proven that, as far as PR and reputation management, the cream doesn’t always rise to the top.

In a PR debacle worthy of every Hall of Shame award, the agency hosted a press conference on October 23 that turned out to be, of all things, fake.  Come again?

“I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve ever seen since I’ve been in government,” Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff was reported as saying. The statement in and of itself suggests something out-of-this-world ridiculous to have garnered such a title.  As it turns out, he wasn’t joking.

To “get information out as soon as possible” and, in trying to do so, making “an error in judgment” (all according to Deputy Director Harvey E. Johnson), FEMA employees-turned-faux-journalists pitched softball questions to Johnson during the conference.  True, the agency did invite bona fide reporters to the costume party, but only if their attendance was virtual; with only 15-minutes notice of the conference, reporters were given a 1-800 number to RSVP.  They got to listen and take notes, but, thanks to the one-way call-in system, they were unable to ask questions.

Were this an official “drill” to practice for a real crisis, it would have been a textbook success.  However, by passing it off as the real thing, the organization is back in the hot seat. There are so many things wrong with the strategy that it is more time-effective to focus on what was right … 

That would be nothing. 

“I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,” Chertoff said.

Lucky for FEMA, he used Anglo-Saxon English this go-round.  Apparently the plain English used after the Katrina debacle was tough to decipher.

FEMA’s Chief David Paulison did cut the public affairs staff in the wake of the incident, including Pat Philbin, the director of external affairs, who was about to take a new post with the director of National Intelligence.  Needless to say, that offer has been rescinded.

I guess if you don’t like fielding tough questions during press conferences, this is one way to get around it – you know, if cleaning up the mess after “it” hits the fan is sounds like a better alternative. For FEMA, the rubber gloves are going to have to come out for this one.