For the gang that puts together fake-news segments, this doesn’t seem like a huge surprise.
A Mississippi couple whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina said two men who later identified themselves as Secret Service agents pretended to be Fox News journalists when surveying their neighborhood in advance of a March 8 visit from President Bush.
The men arrived on March 3 at the site of the beachfront home that Jerry and Elaine Akins are rebuilding in Gautier, Miss., Elaine Akins said in a telephone interview yesterday.
“They didn’t show any cards or anything,” Akins said. “They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox. They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: ‘You know, we really weren’t with Fox. We’re government, Secret Service men.’ “
To its credit, the White House acknowledged that this was wrong and said the two officials will face disciplinary action (in this case, they will be “verbally reprimanded”).
As it happens, however, these officials were actually lying twice. First they claimed to be with Fox News (what other network could they have picked?), which wasn’t true. Second they claimed to be with the Secret Service, which apparently wasn’t true either. Tom Mazur, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he did not know who the men were but they were not Secret Service officials.
On the one hand, I suppose these advance team staffers deserve some sympathy. If I worked for Bush and had to go to the Gulf Coast, I wouldn’t want to admit it either.
On the other hand, given the White House’s standards for veracity, I’m also not sure why these guys are going to be disciplined. Doesn’t the Bush gang believe in rewarding those who mislead?
After the verbal reprimand, I fully expect these two be promoted. I hear there’s an opening in Claude Allen’s office.