FEMA follies show dispect for reporters

Oh, FEMA. FEMA, FEMA, FEMA. You are not doing a heckuva job.

When the FEMA PR staff decided to put on a phony news conference last week, it highlighted the incompetence of this agency and its top officials. It also displayed the disdain with which this government looks at reporters. There are so many instances of government employees shunning the media and then putting their feet in their mouths, it's almost funny. Too bad it's real life.

Jon Friedman of MarketWatch said correctly that this instance shows how little the feds think of reporters. They think that anyone can be a journalist. Even if they're actually employees of the agency they're "covering."

That brings about the subject of citizen journalism. So many people are crowing about the genius of citizen journalism, but FEMA highlights the exact problem with it: zero credibility. Citizen journalists -- and I have dabbled in it before -- are people who are free to display their bias and generally don't act as watchdogs or responsible dissemination of news. Now, many will see the mainstream media fails at this, too. But the fact is that MSM has some sort of credibility built into the establishment.

When FEMA decides that its PR people (!) can be journalists as well as any trained reporter, they show the value of real news people and the absolute lack of credibility from so many people in this government.