Job offer yanked over fake news conference

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 30, 2007 | by Pamela Hess

WASHINGTON -- The man who oversaw a fake Federal Emergency Management Agency news conference is out of a job.

John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's former external affairs director, was to take over public affairs for the director of National Intelligence on Monday. But after Philbin's involvement in staging a fake FEMA press conference, DNI Mike McConnell decided not to have him as his top public information officer.

Philbin, who previously worked for the U.S. Coast Guard and Anteon Corp., was involved with a hastily called FEMA news conference last Tuesday on the California wildfires. The session was announced on short notice and featured questions for FEMA's deputy administrator, Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson.

In letters sent over the weekend, FEMA administrator R. David Paulison scolded the public affairs staff involved in the incident. And in a letter to FEMA staff Monday, Paulison called the incident "an egregious decision" by the external affairs director and his staff. "As I continue to investigate this matter further, I may take additional disciplinary measures," Paulison wrote.

Speaking from his Herndon, Va., home Monday, Philbin said there was no plan to stage a fake news conference, and he assumed the media advisory went out much earlier than it did.

"But at the end of the day, I'm the person in charge and responsible for this," he said.

The staged question-and-answer session was harshly criticized by both the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department oversees FEMA.

No genuine journalists attended, although they were given a conference call number they could use to listen in -- but not ask questions. A half-dozen questions were asked at the event -- by FEMA staff members posing as reporters.

"At the end of the briefing, questions were asked. I should have intervened and I didn't," Philbin said.

Philbin said he may have asked a question at the very end of the briefing because, at that point, "the ships had sailed."

"We've worked really hard over the past year to improve our transparency," Philbin said. Philbin took over in March, as FEMA was going through a major reorganization because of its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "I feel absolutely horrible that this happened," he said.

"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Chertoff said over the weekend.

FEMA apologized for the phony news briefing and said it was reviewing its procedures for dealing with news organizations. Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke has been temporarily assigned to FEMA to develop new press procedures and help find a replacement for Philbin, Paulison said in his letter Monday.

"I am extremely displeased by what transpired and will make the necessary changes in order to regain confidence and credibility in the eyes of the people we serve," Paulison wrote in the letter.

"We can confirm that Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence," DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein said Monday.

McConnell had offered Philbin the director of communications at the intelligence office prior to the FEMA event, according to Feinstein. Philbin said he understood McConnell's decision.