File This Under Ridiculous

FEMA, struggling to recover from the black eye it gave itself two years ago over the handling of Hurricane Katrina, faked its own news conference - by filling the journalists' seats with federal employees.

"We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute," said deputy director Mike Widomski, of FEMA's public affairs.

As someone who has organized and attended press conferences, I'm still trying to decide why they thought faking a press conference would be a good idea.

FEMA was once one of my clients - during my short stint working for a PR firm in downtown DC. They were ridiculous then, but that was 7+ years ago. Their recent antics make their issues when I was their bottom-of-the-totem-pole PR girl look like nothing.

If I was Mr. Widomski, I think I'd be packing for an extended stay at someone's remote Italian villa about now.