The Secret Service is stomping on Freedom of the Press
October 16, 2008 by William K. Wolfrum
From The Huffington Post, because this needs repeating. A lot:
(Question): “The Secret Service has now labeled the “kill him” report as unfounded. Why isn’t The Post giving this report as much coverage as the original false report received?”
Dana Milbank:
“Glad you asked, because I saw this earlier. This is actually about the incident in Scranton, not the one in Clearwater, Fla, that I wrote about here.
I wasn’t at the Scranton event, but I have to say the Secret Service is in dangerous territory here. In cooperation with the Palin campaign, they’ve started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd. This is a serious violation of their duty — protecting the protectee — and gets into assisting with the political aspirations of the candidate. It also often makes it impossible for reporters to get into the crowd to question the people who say vulgar things. So they prevent reporters from getting near the people doing the shouting, then claim it’s unfounded because the reporters can’t get close enough to identify the person. “
I don’t have much add to this but to slightly alter Milbank’s key phrase: The nation is in dangerous territory here.
–WKW
I am very concerned with the weakening of the Press. Now the Press hasn’t been doing its job for the past 8 years, but I don’t want their freedoms infringed upon.
We need to spread this like wildfire.
In just the last week alone:
* The Democratic nominee for President of the United States has been accused of embracing terrorism (not being “soft on terror,” mind you, but actively supporting those who would kill innocent Americans).
* Attendees at high-profile political rallies have yelled “kill him!” “terrorist” and other slurs about the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in the presence of the Republican nominees for Pres & VP.
* The Democratic nominee for President of the United States has been depicted on a faux “food stamp” among images of watermelon, fried chicken, ribs, and Kool Aid.
* Representatives of the Republican party have compared the Democratic nominee for President of the United States to the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and have promoted the idea that he (the nominee, not the terrorist) be waterboarded.
* In the midst of all of this, the Secret Service has been committing personnel and resources to “protecting” Republican supporters from being ask questions by journalists.
It would be embarrassing to have to acknowledge that events like this took place 50 years ago. The fact that they occurred *this freaking week* is beyond sickening.
A nation that condones events like these deserves a president like John McCain & a VP like Sarah Palin.