U.S. rolling out new “presidential emergency system.”

DATELINE ZERO – The cult of the presidency just got a little more cultish. The FCC has announced that they will be testing a new “presidential emergency system.”

Gone will be the days of the old emergency broadcast system in the United States, with the bored-sounding voice (I think he was supposed to sound soothing) uttering the words “this is only a test.” Now well hear the current president’s voice issuing assurances, or some crap.

Federal News Radio says:

Lisa Fowlkes, deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC, explained to the Federal Drive the Presidential Alert isn’t new.

“The primary goal is to provide the President with a mechanism to communicate with American public during times of national emergency,” said Fowlkes. The change, she said, is that prior to last week’s order there was no rule in place to call for or allow a test from top to bottom.

[Fowlkes continued] “There’s never been a test from top to bottom where it’s issued by FEMA and it goes straight down to all the different levels of EAS to the American public. So this is a way for us to glean, okay, if there were an actual emergency and the federal government needed to activate the Presidential EAS, making sure that it actually works the way it’s designed to.”

Now that there’s a rule in place, said Fowlkes, the next challenges are going to be working with all the stakeholders on timing of the test and to reach out to the public so they understand it’s a test and not a real emergency.

“We want to make sure that it works the way it’s designed to,” said Fowlkes. “If there are things that work well, great. If there are things that don’t work well, we can work with EAS participants and with state and local governments as well as our federal partners to correct or improve what doesn’t work.”

Continue reading, from the full Morning Report at DATELINE ZERO.