"As the California wildfires raged," the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) deputy administrator, Harvey Johnson, gave a news briefing, which was carried on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets. But "reporters were only given 15 minutes' notice," and the phone number to call in "was a 'listen only' line," so "no questions." During the briefing, Johnson "responded eloquently" to such softball questions as "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" Turns out, "the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters." According to FEMA's Mike Widomski, "the staff did not make up the questions ... and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. 'We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day.' Despite the very short notice, 'we were expecting the press to come,' he said, but they didn't. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing."

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover jailed bloggers, auto industry front groups, the pharmaceutical industry's new television show, and the U.S./Disney axis of welcome. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from Disney's greeters to Blackwater's mercenaries. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

Worst EU Lobbyist Awards 2007Voting has begun for the Worst Lobbying Awards for 2007 in Europe. Sponsored by Friends of the Earth, Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl and Spinwatch, the contest invites people to select from candidates including BMW, Daimler and Porsche for their lobbying to water down automobile emissions standards; the Cabinet Stewart PR firm for running the International Council of Capital Formation, a front group for opponents of the Kyoto Protocol; ExxonMobil for giving misleading information about its greenhouse gas emissions; and the German Atomic Forum for using concern about global warming as an excuse to promote nuclear energy.