This is a little bit unusual, and I don’t generally recommend going to a bizarro leftist narrative article for full review; however, in this case it is worth it.
Politico has written an article about FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, saying disinformation about the federal government response to Hurricane Helene, “is absolutely the worst I have ever seen,” Criswell told reporters on a Tuesday morning call. “It’s creating distrust in the federal government, but also the state government, and we have so many first responders that have been working to go out and help these communities,” she added. {link}
However, if you go read the article fraught with pearl-clutching and protestation, you might curiously discover there is not a single citation for any claimed “disinformation.” {SEE HERE} It is very odd to see FEMA and by extension Politico in their defense, claiming that massive disinformation is running rampant, and yet they do not cite a single example of the disinformation they claim to exist. Seriously, no joke – GO LOOK.
If you are an intellectually honest observer of government, you are left with the question: where is this disinformation you speak of?
Most of the shared examples of FEMA’s failures have been with full citation, presented with factual information – raw source attribution and audio/visuals of FEMA officials on the ground in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina to bolster the claims. In short, all the claims against FEMA are specifically cited; however, all of the deflective justifications and denials are not.
Perhaps this is simply the state of current federal government. Whereby, thousands of individual citizens are giving real-time examples of what FEMA is doing and not doing, while FEMA (from DC) claims all of the citations and examples are “disinformation.”
It is all very Orwellian, and reminds me of something:
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Put another way, the people on the ground are telling the truth about the current state of affairs. The interests of FEMA are antithetical to the truth, so they label the truth “disinformation.” And that’s that.
