Secret Service Blocking Reporters At Palin Rallies: Milbank

Via Romenesko, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank reveals in an online chat that the Secret Service is stopping people reporters from interviewing people at Palin rallies:

Arlington, Va.: 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.

Comments

[dumboldfarmer]

Well, golly and gosh darn it! What if those yelling stuff were found out to be political plants? Wouldn't that just be something? It could also explain keeping reporters away.

[realpolitic]

This short article illustrates the first instinct of the far right is its anti-democratic nature.

[JackLivigni]

This can happen because we have a President with no scruples, and some subordinates to him in the Secret Service with a greater deference for an office than respect for the Constitution and their sanctioned duties.

[grf67]

In 18 days, the country will rid itself of Palin and her fundamentalists. At that time, anyone who threatens the President or administration principals will get a quick trip to jail. Palin can then take her message of hate and anger back to Alaska to face the voters which she has dismissed.

[Sandmann]

Here is the perfect example of why the Secret Service is doing this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

Now you know why. Fight for the future.

*Note that it is AL JAZEERA reporting what our MSM won't, is the press being bullied, threatened, or are they complicit in feeding us disinformation?

[joeyfoto]

Why would anyone be surprised at further evidence of Sarah Palin's unfitness for office or at further evidence that the integrity of government agencies continues to fall like dominoes under a steam-roller of partisan political pressure.

It will be a clear measure of President Obama's character to see if he neutralizes this toxic abuse of power by the party in power, when it's his party. In order to reverse this cascade of abuse, he will have to stand up to the entire Democratic machine to abjure that partisan advantage. We will see what happens when Democrats have the levers of power. What seems most important to me for citizens to decide where we stand. Do we want Democratic power or the power of democracy? Soon we will see how badly we what we say we want....jt

[brownforall]

They need to do their jobs plain and simple!
1st time I heard the story I was thinking wheres the secret service?


The 727 figures in the current tempest over his relationship with female lobbyist Vicki Iseman, who provided and flew with McCain on the plane.

With hundreds of air charter companies and airliners to choose from, the Saudis chose a company that owns “Worship Ministries” and Christian Network, Inc., turning to Paxson Communications, a “Christian broadcaster” which owned the plane, to make its corporate jet available to spirit the Saudi princes and their entourage out of the U.S. six days after 9/11.

[whizkid]

Maybe so they don't falsely report people yelling "kill him."

[Freesia2]

Ah but this is where the press has the opportunity to do their job. Harshly, and no thinking person would blame them.

If they're not allowed to talk to the people at the rally, then they're free to write about the crowds in graphic detail. Describe the people there, the laughing and slurs. Describe the ugly smile on Sarah's face. Follow the crowd outside and catch them where they go to wallow afterward. Write what they hear in the booths, stop folks on the street and write what they say, singling out the particularly ignorant or hateful. If they're called on it by the McCain campaign "distortion!" then they say, "hey we talk to who we can talk to since you won't give us access to a cross section of attendees and we paint Palin as we see it because you won't let us have a press conference where we can ask her substantive questions. We're reduced to talking about her ugly comments and fist shaking."

When the press stops playing ball according to McCain's rules, then they'll get to be in the game. As far as the secret service goes - they should file a complaint. Against one or two specific officers. It would drag on but then the story in the papers would be about the McCampaign using government employees as their personal valets and errand boys. They've already known trouble from ethics violations and this is not a great time for another story about that.

Enough already.

[kcsmom]

hey, I heard her say it herself...

"Palin- around with terrorists!"

She should be ashamed...­which brings me to song.(adap­tation)

Hey, Sarah, Sar-ah,
Wasilla will be, for thee.
The future's not R N C.
Fade afar, Sarah!

[pmharrell]

OMG the Secret Service has been infiltrated by Republican operatives!!! Oh Noes!!!

[jurornumber13]

With all the hate coming out of Palins mouth and ralies and now her fist gesture.

If you ever had any doubts look at these pictures. Im sure you will recognise one in particular.

http://caosblog.com/5609

[luckyrico1]

I'll be so glad when she goes back home.

[DeeW]

Maybe when this is all over her and Rush will host their own radio show together.

[LemonMeringue]

With that voice! a radio show is not the answer for her.

I can see her hosting a Jerry Springer kind of show on Fox for the ignorant haters in the heartland to watch. She could put an evangelical spin on it. I am in love with my pastor, my pastor is in love with my husband, my child is really my teenage daughter's child, my pregnant teenage daughter refuses to get married... she knows about it all.

[brentdsmith]

Let's not trash all of the americans in the heartland.­..it's very easy to make sweeping generalizations about the midwest...­but there are some thoughtful people even living in small towns across america.

[2manymonkeys]

Oh my God. That is EXACTLY what is going to happen. The Obama administration wil have the Palin albatross hanging around their necks for 8 years. If we think we're nauseous now.......­.

[karela]

Look closely at the picture of Palin that accompanies this article. Notice that she's gritting her teeth and has her jaw thrust forward like a pugnacious punk as she whips that tightly wound fist up? That jaw is a big clue about who Palin is. Man, oh man, I couldn't bare to live with the ugliness that jaw would represent for four minutes, let alone four years. How does Alaska stand it? She grips those back teeth, thrusts that bully jaw out----and puts on that fake smile. I read in an Alaska newspaper blog the other day about a guy that says that jaw and that teeth grinding smile has been part of Palin since her city council days in Wasilla. And he says it is a big clue to who she really is. He's known her for years and finds her pretty scary.

[NTO08]

You have some issues to work on when dealing with women, as so many seem to do on here since the time we dealt with the vitriolic misogyny directed at Hillary...­are people on the left that phony in their political correctness?

[CTtransplant]

We the people are now vetting the VP candidate because McCain chose not to - we have a right to know who she is...and as it happens, after finding that out, many of us do not like her - and not all of us are men, so it is not misogyny here - it's disgust with McCain's choice of an underqualified, inadequate running mate. And, yes, having someone that underqualified and inadequate is indeed scary - and that has nothing to do with misogyny.

[LemonMeringue]

You haven't been reading the comments about John McCain.

Some people see sexism because they want to see it.

Sometimes criticism is just exactly what it is.