National News: FEMA under criticism for holding fake news confrence
MSNBC (AP): Chertoff blasts FEMA’s faux press conference
CNN/Time: Why FEMA Fakes it With the Press
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) held a news confrence on Tuesday, October 23 in order to address the wildfires in California. FEMA informed the media about the confrence just 15 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, and allowed them to listen in, however they could not respond with questions. Because there were no reporters present to ask questions, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy director of FEMA answered questions fielded by FEMA employees and PR representatives, which were reported as being soft and gratuitus. Homeland security chief Michael Chertoff said "I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government." FEMA has been under scrutiny since it's "sluggish" response to Hurricane Katrina.
I thought it was interesting how both orginizations talked about the news of the story and the comments made by Michael Chertoff in response to it, but their follow reporting differed greatly. CNN/Time focused on why specifically this might occur while MSNBC focused on the consequences of the situation. This may be due to the format differences between Time and MSNBC's websites, or the time of publication (Time's was posted one day later).