Pretend Newsmen for Bush to Be Scolded

WASHINGTON —  The White House said it would discipline two government employees who impersonated journalists to scout locations for a presidential Gulf Coast visit this month, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

The Post quoted a couple whose home in Gautier, Miss., was wrecked by Hurricane Katrina as saying two men identified themselves as Fox News journalists during a visit to the couple’s home.

Elaine Akins told the newspaper that the men later identified themselves as Secret Service agents. The incident was first reported Friday in the Biloxi Sun Herald in Mississippi.

Bush visited Gautier on March 8.

“They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox,” the Post quoted Akins as saying.

“They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: ‘You know, we really weren’t with Fox. We’re government, Secret Service men,’ ” she said.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius told the Post: “This incident has been brought to our attention, and this is clearly not appropriate, nor is it part of our standard operating procedures. The individuals will be verbally reprimanded.”

A Secret Service spokesman told the newspaper the people involved were not Secret Service officials.

Asked where they worked, White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said she would not go beyond Lisaius’ statement to the Post.