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FEMA Gets Muzzle Award

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By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON

The Associated Press

Published: April 9, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. - The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which held a pretend news conference, was among the "winners" of the 2008 Jefferson Muzzle Awards, given Tuesday by a free-speech group for egregious First Amendment violations.

FEMA made the list, compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, for staging the news conference during the California wildfires.

Center Director Bob O'Neil said the bogus event was an example of fake speech substituting for free speech.

The Federal Communications Commission got a Lifetime Muzzle for having four citations and for being in the running nearly each year of the awards' 17-year history.

A Muzzle went to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for introducing a bill to require the FCC to maintain a policy that makes broadcasting a single word or image indecent, and therefore punishable.

CBS Radio and MSNBC were cited for taking radio host Don Imus off the air for racist and sexist comments. The networks folded to public criticism, O'Neil said, despite their ability to use broadcast-delay technology to prevent the broadcast.

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