Signs of Disarray

In the FEMA of old it was an article of faith that the Public Information Officers always returned reporter’s phone calls or emails.

Always.

Even if the question was difficult or unpleasant, you always returned it.
The reason you sometimes waited a bit was to seek higher authority for the answer, or to formulate your thoughts so you could give a good answer that, at the very least, put the agency in a somewhat favorable light.
That’s why it’s so disturbing to this former FEMA PIO to see more and more news stories saying, “FEMA did not return calls.”

That, folks, is a clear signal that the agency is in disarray.

Bad enough that the head of FEMA, Mike Brown, was sacked in the wake of Katrina.

Bad enough that the president has to do public penance for the government’s failure in this disaster.

Bad enough that the confidence of a nation is in the trash barrel.

All because of a hurricane that hit a city that should never have been built, and the inability of a central government to respond because it has had its collective eye on the wrong target.

And now the spinmasters aren’t even returning phone calls. What’s with that?

And, if you don't believe me, there's this insider look from Stephen Barr of the Washington Post.
Arjay