Recently, I felt Vice President Joe Biden was unfairly quoted in a speech that he gave at the University of Maryland on domestic violence. I am less supportive however about what followed the speech. A Biden aide proceeded to threaten a student journalist about taking pictures of Biden and Dana Rosenzweig proceeded to demand that the student delete his pictures and show her his cellphone. While the Biden office has apologized to the university, it is unclear why this staffer still has a job after such a thuggish confrontation with a journalist. It is doubtful that she would have done this with someone from USA Today or the New York Times. The Biden staff have been accused of limiting press and interviews due to the Vice President’s reputation as a perpetual gaffe-machine in public comments.
Jeremy Barr is a credentialed student journalist from the respected Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. He had been snapping pictures of Biden and suddenly found himself facing an irate Rosenzweig. She reportedly demanded “Did you take any photos during the event . . . I need to see your camera right now.” She then made him delete his photos and to show her his iPhone to confirm he did not save any of the photos. Barr complied and neither Biden’s Press Secretary Kendra Barkoff not Rosenzweig would speak on the record after the confrontation.
It was not until a formal complaint was lodged by the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism’s dean, Lucy A. Dalglish that Biden’s office responded. Dalglish rightfully called the incident “pure intimidation.”
Barkoff later insisted to Dalglish (still not making any public comment) that the incident was a “total miscommunication.” Miscommunication? A miscommunication is sending press to the wrong bus. Forcing the deletion of photos and search a journalist’s iPhone is a bit more than a miscommunication. It is an act of intimidation and abuse. So why is there no confirmation of Rosenzweig being disciplined? Even if this reporter was sitting in the non-press section, he identified himself. Moreover, I would be equally upset with citizens being treated in this fashion.
Biden’s staff has previously been criticized for their efforts to protect him from the media, like locking a reporter in a storage room.
Frankly, I am bothered by any politicians banning photos and recording of public speeches. This also includes justices like Scalia who use federal marshals against citizens and reporters.
Source: CBS
OT:
The US DOJ will appeal of course, but it’s something:
Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/nsl-found-unconstitutional/
What Gene said.
ARE
To whom is that last addressed? There are a lot of comments in this piece and unless you note who it is addressed to, the rest of us just have to guess.
Directing photographers and or/reporters to delete their record of public business is an infringement of the First Amendment. There shouldn’t even be a debate on that.
We’ve become all too comfortable with citizens at town hall meetings being removed for asking questions politicians do’t like, free-speech zones, reporters and photographers being told where to sit or stand and what to ask or photograph. It’s all an affront to the First Amendment.
ARE, he wasn’t “cheating”, he was getting the shot. To state that it was OK to censor his work because he didn’t go along with being corralled with more pliable photographers doesn’t make it less of an insult to the Constitution.
Once again you show your immaturity and I can only assume from your remarks that you cheated and lied your way through life. There was NO surpression of any press coverage in the event. ONE cheater was told to give up his ill gotten gains. Rules of course should NOT apply to lofty beings such as yourself who are entitled to do what they wish and any infringement of your desires is dictatorship.
I was outraged at the conduct of the Tea partiers who loudly disrupted town hall meetings in the SAME way as the NAZIS used against their opponents! The Nazis are your kiind. We are not talking about free speech zones, but a public meeting where people were in attendance to hear a speaker. You do NOT have the right to disrupt the speaker nor to run about taking photos while the person is speaking. I imagine that if I showed up in Prof Turleys appearances with a gaggle of 30 photographers trying to push and shove each other to get a shot while he was speaking, even HE would call the cops and go into law and order mode.
So dismissing the rights of the speaker and the rights of the other journalists is of NO concern to you. Screw their rights and decency. THAT is cheating by the way, and simply saying it isn’t does NOT make it so, nor does it excuse bad conduct. Then we have the problem that of security concerns with a VP of the US. You do NOT have the right to run around with your gun, camera, signs, etc.. when such a person is speaking or appearing especially near that person. Most Americans can understand such simple things, but partisan hacks and nuts cannot. You only look for excuses to raise a ruckus no matter the truth of the matter.
nick spinelli
1, March 15, 2013 at 11:14 am
You tell the staffer to “Go shit in your hat” and walk away.
=========================================================
that’s really close to what i was going to say.
mine would’ve been accompanied by a gesture.
TheDisco
1, March 15, 2013
Correct. divide et impera.
Let the Plebs do the work so the elites can come in and claim victory.
Pax Romana
Bron
1, March 15, 2013
“we have a criminal administration being enabled by the liberal media and many liberals in general.”
What Liberal Media?
Show us which National Liberal news outlet platformed Universal Health Care each and every minute of their news day and THEN I’ll show you THAT Liberal News.
p.s.
Democracy Now did.
However, Amy Goodman also derides the Administration for it’s WAR CRIMES and such… She’s a “bad Liberal”?
Obama is not even a Liberal. Hes a Fascist Wall St pawn
This administration is one of hypocrisy and lies
James in LA:
Definition of AUTONOMY
1: the quality or state of being self-governing; especially: the right of self-government
2: self-directing freedom and especially moral independence
3: a self-governing state
Bron claims, “Some of us are grown up enough to enjoy being autonomous.”
Bron, you have shown zero evidence you enjoy anything whatsoever.
Nor do I buy your “autonomous” argument, unless you were not born from parents, generate your own power, built your own house from trees you chopped down, pave your own roads, filter your own water, grow your own food from seeds you cultivated, or even use the internet, you cannot be considered in any way “autonomous.”
That you brandish your money around like that is supposed to make an iota of difference means Bron is concerned with Bron, End of discussion. You ought to just admit it at this point. It is very transparent, and it makes you appear quite childish. If this is your version of “freedom,” mozoltov. Expect a fight when you drag this empty argument into our shared public square.
You use this word “autonomous” because “lazy” doesn’t sound so good, even when it is crystal-clear, in every one of your selfish anti-everying-but-me posts, you mean to say “those lazy moochers.”
And what Gene said.
Bron,
If you think Bloomberg is a liberal, you simply aren’t paying attention or you still don’t understand what a liberal actually is. Bloomberg is a corporatist and an plutocrat. There is no such thing as a liberal corporatist plutocrat. Liberals are by in large humanists and humanism is in diametric opposition to corporatism (corporations are not people) and plutocracy is at odds with egalitarianism (a core liberal value) because it is inherently oligarchical. Does he want you to think he’s liberal? Oh yeah. But appearance and reality are not always the same thing.
ARE,
Lol…. That’s a good spin…. Tell that to Dan Rather when you meet up with em…..
I am ashamed that objectors to this are American so called adults since they fly off the handle so easily. First off, it is NOT censorship since LOTS of OTHER photo journalists were doing the SAME thing and had NO problems. After much waiting for a rational explanation as to the FACTS of the situation, it turns out it was the photographer who was in the WRONG! He had shoved his way to the front and against the others who had waited patiently in the press area and gained a better spot UNFAIRLY. In other words, HE WAS CHEATING! ALL teachers who catch a student cheating do not just shake their head and confiscate the crib sheet, they take the whole test and take it away and the student gets a zero. This is the same sitiuation, and those who object simply show their partisan hack nature. This is partisanship gone wild and most rational adults can see the fraud that this ginned up “scandal” is.
All who are involved in political campaigns or any mass meetings know that there have to be some rules and decorum. If you choose to defy those rules, you pay a price, TOUGH! Grow up.
I have a hard time believing that a low level staffer who isn’t used to handling the press would confront a reporter on her own. I think Barkoff is protecting the person who told Rosenzweig to do this, who may have been Barkoff herself.
I am just ashamed of myself for ever voting a partisan ticket, if this is the best they can do.
The story about the guy stuck in the closet was even more disturbing.
“Dean Lucy A. Dalglish of Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland complained about the incident in a letter to Biden’s press secretary, Kendra Barkoff. Dalglish wrote that Rosenzweig’s actions “violated fundamental tenets of press freedom.” She added:
Rockville is not a third-world country where police-state style media censorship is expected. I request an immediate apology to our reporter, Jeremy Barr, and to the editors and staff of Capital News Service. I also request that your staff be trained in basic First Amendment rights of citizens and media to ensure such tactics are not employed in the future.”
Also from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/joe-biden-apologizes-journalist-jeremy-barr-delete-photo_n_2875755.html?utm_hp_ref=college&ir=College
“Rockville is not a third-world country where police-state style media censorship is expected.” -Dean Lucy A. Dalglish of Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland
Increasingly, some of us ARE seeing “police-state style” tactics in the U.S. Seeing is believing…
“Reporter Jeremy Barr of Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s Capital News Service attended the event, but said he unknowingly sat in a non-press area. After the event, Biden staffer Dana Rosenzweig forced Barr to delete photos he had taken of the event, reportedly saying that his seat in the non-press area gave him an advantage over other journalists there.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/joe-biden-apologizes-journalist-jeremy-barr-delete-photo_n_2875755.html?utm_hp_ref=college&ir=College