Phony Events by Phony PR People

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.