Posts Tagged ‘District government’
CFSA Can’t Speak For Itself
This afternoon I called Mindy Good. She is the Child and Family Services Agency's press person. I had put in a request to interview the director of the troubled agency. When I hadn't heard back, I thought this merited a phone call to Good's cellphone.
I asked her about my request.
Good replied that all calls must go through the mayor's press office. I asked why.
Good replied: "Mafara Hobson." Like a robot, she repeated the words "Mafara Hobson" a few more times.
"They do the speaking for this agency," she said of the mayor's office.
I replied: But aren't you the agency's press person. Good is listed as the agency's Public Information Officer. Then again the agency doesn't have much in the way of press releases.
"I am the director of communications," Good said.
"Why don't you get to do that?" I asked. You know communicate for the agency.
Good then hung up. Great press strategy CFSA!
Remember the Mustard-Yellow Condoms? A Look at the District’s Tortured Response to the AIDS Crisis
A little more than a week ago, news broke that at least three percent of District residents have AIDS or HIV. This provoked Shannon L. Hader, director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration to now-famously compare D.C. to West Africa. When pressed by Loose Lips at a press conference, Hader stated that our rates of infection were twice as high as New York City and five times that of Detroit.
As LL pointed out, the bigwigs at the press conference---Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilmember David Catania, et al.---defensively argued that the part of the reason for the high infection rates is that the city is just testing more people. Case in point: testing is now routine at the D.C. Jail.
But this epidemic is not a new epidemic. In fact, it's been called an epidemic too many times to count. Perhaps the reason this story didn't provoke serious outrage and more press conferences and men in white coats discussing infection trend patterns is that this is an old story.
"This is the number one [public health] priority of this government," Fenty told the Washington Post. That quote was from an April 5, 2007, story headlined: "Fenty Renews Fight Against HIV-AIDS; Mayor Promises Strong Effort, Plans To Pick New Agency Chief." In the story's first graph, the mayor "pledged" to "put an end to this crisis."
