WHAT IS THIS SHIT!! What kind of press corps ACCEPTS THIS MORONIC SHIT!??!

Get out there and ASK FUCKING QUESTION, PRESS CORPS.

The news media has become entertainment, not news. They won't stand up to this because they can cast themselves as the victim in this drama instead of doing their job.

By the time the last ballot is cast November 4th, Sarah Palin will be one of the most hated figures in the nation. At this point it seems almost deliberate. I think the Republicans want a scape-goat, and Palin will take the fall. She's a creepy, unpleasant figure. It will be easy, and beneficial, to heap the blame on her. She'' slink back to alaska where she'll go down on her various ethical problems.

This is a press corps that will gladly do what they are told by the powers that be. There isn't a good old fashioned reporter in the bunch.

It's a good thing this is being reported, bloggers should pass this story on. It is just another example of the kind of government McCain and Lying Palin will have. They are doing themselves no favors and come January the secret service should be investigated; among many other investigation I predict.

Let's say a reporter leaves the designated area and approaches a voter. If one of the escorts/minders tries to stop the reporter, he or she should just keep going.

Yeah, but you're thinking about jounalists. Most of the campaign press corps seem to be little more than stenographers -- complete with lap-sitting and felatio on request.

Sadly, there seem to be very few real journalists left in the news business. I'm talking about the reporters who get paid peanuts but who do their job anyway because they see what they do as a sacred mission to create the informed electorate which is essential for a healthy democracy.

Actually, I should qualify that and say that there are few real journalists in the glamour jobs. There are still journalists out there poking around where they're not wanted. Some of them even do it in places like Afghanistan and end up being killed for it.

Unless you're Sy Hersh I'd think twice. The Secret Service says you represented an imminent threat to Palin. You go to jail. Your employer is forced to negotiate with people at the highest levels of government for your release. Their word against yours. You're promised you'll spend a good long time rotting in a cell. Several judges are shopped for various favorable motions and rulings. Unless you acquiesce to some written statement saying you "unknowingly" constituted a threat to the VP candidate and promise not to do it again it's Christmas spent at the Graybar Hotel. Everyone else sees the circus and decides to mind their manners. Democracy in action.

Reporters shouldn't need to display personal courage to do their jobs. Let's be clear about where the fault lies here: with the Palin campaign and the Secret Service.

When told not to speak to independent sources, David Halberstam famously stood up during a US Army press conference in Vietnam and said he would continue to do his job, come what may.

Any reporter who ignored the Secret Service and got themselves arrested would not only be doing the right thing, they'd have a hell of a story.

Dana Milbank, are you ready to do your job?

Welcome to the New American Fascism

Plank # 8-control the Press.
What is the Secret Service doing? It's there job to take a bullet for the candidate, not foist bullet points!

So how about Steve Benen and Hilzoy doing a story *here* on it, calling around to all the news media that had reporters there and interviewing those reporters about all of this? I, for one, would love to read something like that.

Steve Duncan, your scenario is absurd. There is no way that a famous reporter for a national newspaper is going to be locked up for being a threat to Palin if he or she gets no closer than the crowd at the rally. If anything, a reporter should welcome that kind of arrest -- that is a multi million dollar lawsuit slamdunk. The political fallout would be the least of those agents' problems.

Noted radical George Will once complained about the Secret Service's elevated sense of self-important zeal. Unless we are no longer a democracy they are not above the attention of Congress and their excesses deserve as much scrutiny as those of any other federal agency--meaning, look to see some underlings sacrificed to make higher-ups look good.

A few years ago there were stories that Scalia was using the Secret Service to prevent people from recording any of his public lectures. A journalist had her recorder and notebook seized by the SS. I was surprised there was not more of an uproar then.

Bring a camcorder next time, guys. If you're angry about this kind of treatment and want to get some attention, ten seconds of video is worth thousands of muttered words. If you're not willing to videotape how you're being treated, shut up about it.

Is this the same secret service protects candidate Obama? The one that will, I assume, be protecting President Obama? Hmmm.

snart said:
Is this the same secret service protects candidate Obama? The one that will, I assume, be protecting President Obama? Hmmm.

Yeah, the Secret Service looks a little bit more like the Praetorian Guard each year. Perhaps that's the eleventh step toward fascism?

"Steve Duncan, your scenario is absurd. There is no way that a famous reporter for a national newspaper is going to be locked up for being a threat to Palin...."

Posted by: skeptic
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Reading is fundamental. I specifically prefaced my scenario with the proviso "Unless you're Sy Hersh..."
You see skeptic, the reason for that exception was to point out to my readers I was aware the government might be a tad bit less willing to hassle a famous journalist, as opposed to a stringer for the Toledo Blade. The entire comment implicitly conceded a nationallly recognized journalist might have the stones to both challenge the ban AND not suffer for it, whereas a smaller fish might suffer. Sort of like about everything else in life. "See Dick run, see Sally fall" readings of other people's points of view have you at a disadvantage.

Considering how the press is attacking a voter who had the temerity to ask "the chosen one" a question (which he proceeded to flub badly), it begins to make sense that citizens might need protection from the "independent" (wink, wink) press.

These are the same fuckwads that would listen to Sarah Palin lie right to their face and say she was not found guilty of ethics violations and not call her out on it. They should be ashamed to call themselves journalists.

Bring a camcorder next time, guys. If you're angry about this kind of treatment and want to get some attention, ten seconds of video is worth thousands of muttered words. If you're not willing to videotape how you're being treated, shut up about it.

Posted by: Basilisc on October 17, 2008 at 8:50 AM
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Josh Wolf, 24, has spent almost six months in jail. More time than any journalist in US history for protecting his sources. He was jailed on August 1st of last year when he refused to turn over video that he had shot of an anti-G8 demonstration in San Francisco to a federal grand jury. [includes rush transcript - partial]
Wolf had sold some of the footage to the nightly news as well as posted some on his website. The news broadcast attracted the attention of local and federal law enforcement agents who were investigating clashes between the police and demonstrators at the protest. They later served Wolf a federal subpoena requiring he turn over his unpublished video footage as well as testify about the protesters seen on the tape. When Wolf refused to comply, he was charged with contempt of court and incarcerated.

Courtesy Pacifica-02/12/2007

Rich, you don't seriously mean to reference "JOE, THE PLUMBER" (not) do ya? And, if the "porceeded to flub badly" comment means he answered it straight out (unlike the dishonorable McShame would have)...they you continue to live in that world of delusion you've structured for yourself...poor guy! I'm betting there's a pinup of Palin in YOUR WORLD!!

That reporters aren't shouting from the rooftops that they're being prevented by the Secret Service from interviewing people at a public event on public property tells you all you need to know about the docility of our press corpse.

Rich, you mean the voter who claimed he was 'getting ready' to buy a business that he can't afford and doesn't have the proper licenses to run? Who is worried about the effects of Obama letting the Bush tax cuts on people making over $250,000 expire even though he makes about $50,000 and the business he was supposedly getting ready to buy makes about $100,000?

Note, he did not present his question as a hypothetical.

Do you mean 'the badly flubbed' response by Obama in which he correctly pointed out that if his tax plan had been in effect for the 15 years, the money Joe would have saved would have let him be ready to buy the business or make other investments so that in the long run Joe would be ahead even if he did have to pay a few extra percent on the money he makes between say $250,000 and $300,000? The response in which he correctly points out that all the 'Joe the Plumbers' will be doing better if the working class has more money to spend on their services?

Just because the right wing blogonuts picked one sentence out of context to falsely claim Obama was endorsing expropriation of wealth does not mean this response was badly flubbed.

Just because McCain proceeded to further elaborate on the false premise of Joe's question does not mean it was insightful or important.

Sorry, Steve Duncan, your scenario's still farfetched even it we're talking stringer for the Toledo Blade.

True, the wrong judge could makes things unpleasant for a while.

But in the end, the SS has to put up.

And with the story out there that the SS is acting as hired thugs for the Palin campaign to keep reporters away from voters, it's highly unlikely a US attorney's office is going to want to prosecute.

Stuff like this works only until it becomes a national story. Then it blows up in your face. You want to be the judge, prosecutor, SS agent having to defend why Palin should be allowed to act like Putin?

To me, the question is why the SS would play ball with Palin in the first place. Aren't they risking their careers?

To me, the question is why the SS would play ball with Palin in the first place. Aren't they risking their careers?

Posted by: Cash on October 17
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Maybe with the election nominally in the balance they feel their careers are possibly on the line if they DON'T do what Palin's handlers demand.

Don't any of these so-called reporters have cell phone cameras, or real video cameras or tape recorders so that they can show what is happening to them? Isn't this more of a story than anything happening at the traveling road show?

And if the reporter is better known and trusted than Palin, and for some reason Dana Milbank still falls into that category, why not make a stink about it and get back on the good side of evening MSNBC/CNN pundits? (although he is slipping in a little already).

Is there any independent verification that it's actually the USSS doing this? It isn't in their collective/corporate character to do this; earlier when they were blamed for keeping a protester out of some Republican's campaign event (sorry, can't remember who's, it was during the primary season) they quickly went on record as saying it was the campaign doing the blocking, not them. I wouldn't trust anything that comes out of Dana Millbank without independent verification--like from one of those reporters that was blocked going on the record.

What Michigoose says - what evidence do we have, besides Milbank's bald assertion, that these are Secret Service agents? Republican campaign operatives have been known to imply that they are secret service agents in the past, I believe.

A Reuters reporter explains why the pool reporters don't usually go out into the crowds at rallies:

"As a Reuters correspondent, I typically travel in what is called a “press pool” — a group that sticks closely to the candidate and rides in the motorcade. We go where the candidate goes.

The “pool” is searched or “swept” by the Secret Service in the morning. Once that’s done, protocol requires we generally don’t mix with the public. That means staying clear of the big throngs at rallies. Otherwise, we’ll need to be searched again by the Secret Service — a tricky task when a motorcade is about to tear out of a rally."

Mind you, this still doesn't excuse them for letting themselves be shepherded away from people, whether by the Secret Service or campaign staffers. Nor does it excuse the Secret Service actions.

Sorry -- I meant to post the link, if anyone wants to see that story. It's by a Jason Szep.
Here's the link:

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/10/07/palin-camp-limits-media-from-her-own-supporters/

Let's say a reporter leaves the designated area and approaches a voter.

I don't know if that would be such a great idea.

I don't want to believe that this story. It reminds me of an incident during the Clinton years. There was an allegation that Hillary expected the Secret Service to carry some of her bags and was (properly) rebuffed, "We don't do that." I don't want to believe that they will now do this.

Gee, what --other-- candidate has employed lockdown tactics during rallies? No wonderthe nickname is "McSame".

What Michigoose says - what evidence do we have, besides Milbank's bald assertion, that these are Secret Service agents? Republican campaign operatives have been known to imply that they are secret service agents in the past, I believe.

You remember correctly. I think there have also been Republican campaign operatives who have been caught waving phony badges around to try and intimidate press.

If the Secret Service is preventing reporters from interviewing people at campaign rallies, we have an extremely serious First Amendment issue to deal with. I hope that any reporters who are prevented from doing their job will write about, protest and, if possible, ignore illegal orders.