PressEthic

Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, told the investigative committee that his two biggest mistakes during the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts were: 1) overestimating local government leaders, and 2) failing to address the media immediately.

In a FOX News report, he is quoted as saying:

I failed initially to set up a series of regular briefings to the media about what FEMA was doing throughout the Gulf Coast region. And instead, I became tied to the news shows, going on the news shows early in the morning and late at night, and that was just a mistake," he said.

“We should have been feeding that information to the press and in the manner and in the time that we wanted to, instead of letting the press drive us," he said, adding that when things started going badly, the press began attacking him personally

Brown was definitely the scape-goat the media turned to when recovery efforts started going badly, but a government agency that can’t handle swarms of reporters is woefully ill-equipped to handle disasters.

Whether it’s fair or not, the media shapes the nation’s perceptions of all major events. The Federal Emergency Management Agency should have set public opinion as a high priority, for the sake of averting mass panic, outrage, etc., especially with the threat of a terrorist attack always looming. The fact that Michael Brown let the media get the best of him is reason enough for him to lose his job. Leaders are always going to come under public fire, and Brown just couldn’t stand up to it.

Is the media’s critisism of Brown justified? It’s hard to say. Of course I expected FOX News to be on Brown’s side, but I also knew that The New York Times would paint a different picture of his hearings. The last paragraph of the REUTERS article, “Brown Blames Locals for Katrina Response,” quotes Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi as saying:

Surprise, surprise, surprise. The administration sends over their crony to testify and whitewash the committee that it wasn't (the Bush administration's) fault.

Both sides will probably never stop arguing about blame, and likely both sides share some responsibility for the Katrina fiasco, but Michael Brown’s largest mistake was witnessed by the whole world: He underestimated the media.