FEMAntics

As you probably know by now, FEMA officials engaged in a weird public exercise in which some FEMA staffers posed as reporters and asked softball questions of the Agency's Press Secretary. Larisa raises an interesting point I've not seen elsewhere:

This is a violation of several laws, including the Hatch Act, and domestic propaganda (National Security Act 1947, Section 503 (f)). This is also censorship and a direct assault on freedom of the press.

Is this true? Here's the relevant section of the 1947 Act (as amended):

(f) No covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.

Was FEMA's little show a covert action? Time for a definition, from section 503(e):

As used in this title, the term "covert action" means an activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly...

The key word is "abroad." Lawyers for FEMA could pick up that word and use it to scrape out some wriggle room: "Hey, what FEMA did was not a covert action as the statute defines that term..."

The Hatch Act is too long to cite here. In essence, it concentrates on partisan political activities.

Do FEMA's domestic propaganda activities violate any other laws?

I've done some brief Googling on that subject. Quite a few writers on the net have said that domestic propaganda is illegal, but they do not back the contention by citing sections of the U.S. Code -- and that's what we're looking for. The CIA and the United States Information Agency are forbidden to engage in domestic propaganda, but those statutes do not cover FEMA.

God help us, but I don't think we have a law that applies. We ought to.