Archive for October, 2007

I have been aware that the religious leaders of the Washington National Cathedral have been pushing a Christian-only, pro-Iran agenda for some time. Last night, I witnessed it first-hand at, “an evening of respectful engagement and open discussion between representatives from the United States and Iran.”The purpose of the event, held in the Cathedral nave, appeared nothing more than an opportunity for Cathedral leaders — The Right Reverend John Chane, Bishop of Washington, and the Reverend Canon John Peterson, director of the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation — to bash the U.S. and Israel and push their own political opinions and agendas.

First, I was offended by the anti-Semitic tone of these Christian leaders, who trumpet a theme that Iran is right, Israel is wrong. Further, I do not believe the Washington National Cathedral should be a front for a political action group, such as the one headed by Peterson. There was a time, by the way — before Chane and Peterson — when the Washington National Cathedral was a symbol of all religions in America.

Both Chane and Peterson regularly have made first-class visits to Iran, all expenses paid by the Iranian government, and they return to promote Iran’s allegedly peaceful intentions and to criticize American foreign policy towards Iran. They never mention Iran’s harsh, violent and oppressive regime which restricts religious rights and punishes freedom of speech in Iran, among other things. They never mention Iran’s para-military Revolutionary Guard which is coordinating covert operations in Iraq that kill American soldiers.

Perhaps it is time for both Chane and Peterson to step down and run for elected public office or begin to act as responsible religious leaders and embrace all faiths, not just their own agendas.

(You can view the Cathedral event online - click here.)

As the scandal intensifies over last week’s fake FEMA news conference, it appears that the character who was behind it will not be getting a promotion. The media today is reporting that John “Pat” Philbin will not be named head of public affairs for the nation’s top intelligence official, Mike McConnell.

If Philbin brought such disgrace to the reputation of FEMA — a government agency still reeling from its poor handling of the Katrina crisis two years ago — what damage might he cause in the intelligence world?!

Meanwhile, satirical blogs and Web sites are having a field day with the story, referring to the former head of FEMA public affairs as “Pravda” Philbin or announcing, with tongue in cheek, that he will be named White House spokesman.

John “Pat” Philbin, the top public affairs guy at FEMA, told CBS News today that he should have stopped a fake FEMA press conference last week when no reporters showed up. No media was present at the briefing simply because Philbin and his FEMA staff staged the phony event with only 15 minutes advance warning to the media, effectively guaranteeing that no reporters would be there. And … they got caught.

Philbin now say he feels terrible about what happened. He should feel shame. In fact, he should have gotten fired for his stunt.

How do such characters … lacking in solid public affairs and communications credentials … land such jobs in Washington? Maybe they are well-suited in this city where lack of accountability has become the norm.

It should be underscored that experienced and honest communications and public affairs professionals would have known not to have staged such a bogus event in the first place. 

Why am I not surprised?! FEMA or the Federal Emergency Management Agency staged a fake news conference last week for propaganda purposes to brag about how well the beleaguered agency had responded to the fire devastation in south California. FEMA PR people pretended to be reporters and asked fluffy questions in an attempt to make their bosses look good.  

TIME magazine reports that Ogilvy public relations is behind helping FEMA to stage fake news events. Flacks helping flacks.

What they all did is dishonest, unethical and just plain not right, contributing further to the already damaged reputation of the agency. What were they thinking?! Probably nothing.

Maybe the lesson is this … when working with the media, it is important to be open and transparent. It helps to behave properly.

News anchors and reporters for cable news channels CNN and MSNBC are live, on-the-scene in southern California today, covering the out-of-control fires that are sweeping the region. Their respective Web sites … using instantaneous blog technology … reflect outstanding and updated coverage.

The anchors for the traditional TV network news programs — NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Early Show — are safely and comfortably back in New York … business as usual, seemingly clueless about the scope of the fires in California. They are showing their typical menu of trivial feature stories. Their Web sites are … well, yawn. One day they will wake up and wonder the audiences went.

It seems like Katrina and New Orleans all over again … FEMA and the enormous, bloated federal agency, Homeland Security, move at snails-pace toward possible help for hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes and businesses in southern California because of raging fires.

On the other hand, Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger is again demonstrating authentic leadership, and California emergency services leaders are outstanding.

President Bush said today he has sent federal officials to California … “to listen.” Listen?!!! Yes, that’s the word he used.

The National Guard, which would normally be called in to help with disasters of this scope, is in Iraq.

I have written about Alexis Debat and ABC News before because it is such an odd story in the mainstream news media –

After two internal investigations, ABC News says it has found that anti-terrorism consultant Debat did no false reporting as the network had originally alleged.

The network’s explanation is ambiguous and deftly dances around the issue of whether Debat’s editorial input was bogus or not — “None of these discrepancies would rise to the level of a formal, on-air retraction because none of them was material to the substance of our report,” according to David Westin, president of ABC News.

Nonetheless, the company says it is changing its hiring practices regarding consultants.