Folks,
FAIR reports on FEMA's response to FAIR's earlier piece (brought to
our attention by Nick) here:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2926
FEMA officer James Stark denies that FEMA policies prevent members of
the media from contacting residents, and goes on to say that FEMA has
a responsibility to protect their privacy.
It sounds to me like the Advocate reporter ran into some over-zealous
guards. I found the quotes from the guards in the first piece
unconvincing as evidence that there is such a policy in place. The
guards simply sounded like guards: "Hey, you're not supposed to be
here."
There may not be an anti-media policy in place, but there does seem
to be a serious lack of coordination and communication of whatever
policies there may be.
The FAIR report also says:
It seems difficult to square Stark's claim about FEMA's policy
with the statement by FEMA spokesperson Rachel Rodi quoted in
the Advocate: "If a resident invites the media to the trailer,
they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on
the interview....That's just a policy." How likely is it that a
FEMA spokesperson is misinformed about FEMA's policies on FEMA
spokespersons?
About 7, on a scale of 1-10, I think.
Dave
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