VA Owes Reporter Apology for Agency's Idiotic Harrassment

When he was in the Army, the current secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Eric Shinseki (USA ret.), no doubt had occasion to read the riot act to subordinate officers. It's time for him to get into command mode again, and the subjects this time are his incompetent public relations staff, which created an embarrassing nightmare for an Administration dedicated to transparency and openness.

Last week, David Schultz, a reporter for WAMU-FM, a public radio outlet in Washington, D.C., went to cover a public forum on care for minority veterans. For the April 7 meeting, Schultz, a new, part-time reporter, had with him a recorder, headphones and a microphone. (Even with that gear, he was accused of not identifying himself as a reporter.) After listening to vets speak to a packed room in public about the care they were being given, Schultz wanted to interview one of them, Tommie Canady, 56, who has a terminal pancreatic disease and who said he has been denied benefits and had poor care.

According to a number of reports, VA staff said Schultz would need a waiver from the patient in order to do an interview, and here's where it got ugly.

VA public relations officials demanded his microphone, headphones and recorder. They brought four armed, uniformed guards to enforce the order and wouldn't let Schultz leave. Schultz called his editor, who advised him to give up the recorder's storage card to the VA and then get out, figuring the event shouldn't escalate and that the radio station would get the card back.

Here's how Schultz initially described the confrontation.

Eventually, Schultz went around the VA PR machine and got the story, interviewing Canady on the phone.

So far, the VA had declined comment on the story and the storage card remains with the agency.

How can we put this gently: Unacceptable. Ridiculous. Insulting.

Heaven knows, the VA is under a great deal of pressure these days, with an aging veteran population on the one hand, and the demands of a six-year (and counting) war on the other. Even so, this incident is low-hanging fruit and Shinseki should deal with it forthwith.

Start with the concept that the vets in the hospital were there as a result of defending freedom of speech and of the press, and it's not the duty of the VA flacks (and I'm a flack in my day-job) to interfere with that. Calling the cops to keep a reporter from leaving the building until he turns over a storage card is beyond sanity.

This wasn't a top-secret briefing the reporter had infiltrated. It was a public meeting. Announced by a news release.

WAMU's news director, Jim Asendio said he tried to hand-deliver a letter to the VA on April 9, but they wouldn't accept it. Today (April 10), a courier is taking over a letter from station management, which may find its way to the executive suites. The letter says in part: "WAMU and its owner, American University, take this matter extremely seriously. Our reporter was subjected to an unlawful detention against his will, a search of our recording equipment without any probable cause, and the seizure of our sound recording medium. Mr. Schultz's newsgathering activities and the product of his work not only are protected by the First Amendment, but he was attending a public meeting at which the VA had encouraged public discussion on the treatment it gives to minority veterans. It is inconceivable that any interest of government, let alone the Department of Veterans Affairs' desire to plan its press strategy, would ever justify the clearly unconstitutional behavior of its staff and uniformed officers".

Asendio told us he has heard that the agency is willing to release the flash card if the station signs a release.

It doesn't matter what the release says. The station shouldn't sign it. What should happen is that Shinseki should invite Schultz and Asendio to the department, return the card and apologize. And the PR people who were idiots enough to have perpetrated this assault should be sent away to learn how their jobs should really be done.

Then Schultz can get back to doing the important work of covering vets' health care - not covering it up as the VA was trying in its clumsy way to do.

Comments

[myright]

Wow, we really have some great leaders here making comments. I'm sure there was a better way to handle this, but to the insulters and faceless response. VA regulations states in part, that no camera's, recording devices of any kind may enter VA (Federal) property, without the consent of the VA medical center director (thru the PR rep). This is for the protection of OUR VETERANS. And it must in a controled setting, where no other veteran can be folmed or recorded without thier consent.

The PR person in question involved the VA POLICE (fact: Statuary Police authority) Title 38 USC. Thus the VA Police, like any city Police force must enforce the policies and regulations are that in the books. And to say "at gunpoint" !!! Well that writer must have been tagged or arrested by the Police at one time. As I said, and NONE of us were thier and course, the reporter has to juice it up for reading. The regulations are just for theprotection of our veterans who may be taken avantage of by someone.

[magnolialiberal]

This could have been handled better, no matter what the regs say, it was like swatting a fly with a cannon.

[BalloonKnot1]

The VA has its own police department but with very limited power. You might find this intriguing.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/nyc/090217_VA_Hospital_Cops_Have_Limits_to_Power

[sviolette]

How are you protecting the patient by not allowing them to speak about their poor treatment. This policy only protects the VA by not allowing these veterans to speak.

The time to protect them was by not sending them to invade foreign countries.

These veterans need to be protected from the VA not by them. It's the VA that is taking advantage of these patients.

[FireGeithner]

I'm USN retired. I sent the VA a very strong nasty-gram. I encourage all vets to do the same. If I was the vet patient in that case, they likely would have had me fighting the security guards. Who do they think we are babies that they need to protect?

[Veetach47]

If they failed to protect your rights you'd be singing a different tune now wouldn't you. You'd be all over them for not keeping your privacy on VA property. Can't believe a retired servicemember would send the VA a "nastygram" based on the idiocy of this story. .

Just goes to show, even the very people being protected don't know when they got it good. If the VA failed to protect your privacy you would be singing like a canary to anyone who would listen about how you've been violated and you know it. Now you're riding the wave of fanatisicm and actually believe the VA is at fault. So much so you write to them and you're encouraging others to do the same. Really, they would have you fighting the gaurds? Give me a break. And if it means my right to privacy is protected, send the friggin papparazzi to jail for not going through proper channels.

[NUWAYNER]

NASTY GRAM...HIS RIGHT AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!!!­...WHY INSULT THIS VET???

[lungfish]

Not surprising given the overall crap that is now passing for the VA..... I served honorably, have no benefits. Can't get a tooth fixed, can't get an injury I recieved while serving looked at.... The last time I tried to get follow up care in a VA hospital I was treated so badly by the intake staff that I never went back.....
I say "sue the hell out of them".... false imprisonment, etc... there is a whole slew of potential here.....

[LarBear]

This ought to be a model for how to NOT handle a situation.­..
This was badly mishandled by the VA...
We had better training as Professional Transit Drivers on dealing with situations then the poor handling of this event...

Don't know what the Reporter's intent was, but the VA made it into a Power struggle and gave themselves a headache..­. And not some underling, either...
This was a Senior Official's Power Play and it escalated because of that, instead of being de-escalat­ed...

[larry278]

It is past time to remove the VAMC's Director from office & to remove all VA employees involved in this incident from office at once. Put them on leave till they are removed from office. Have them leave this VAMC at once. Pack their personal property for them; give it to them as they leave the medical center, so they will have no excuse or reason to return to this VAMC. Bar them from entering any VA facility. Gen Shinseki is the VA's new sheriff in town, aka Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Pay them, if you must, till they are removed from office. If they ask to resign, take their resignations, pay them off & have them escorted by armed VA Hospital Police till they leave the VAMC. As they say, "Give 'em the gate.".

[magic3400]

You know what is sad, it is that the Republican chickenhawks are the first ones to accuse others of being unpatriotic when they disagree with the choice to go to war in Iraq, but they started 2 wars, held power for eight years, sent thousands of young Americans to their death and left thousands of others with deep wounds (both physical and mental) and this is the state that we find the VA,

What is more unpatriotic, to protest a war you don't believe in or to start one and then not take care of those you order into battle when they are wounded...­you tell me what's more unpatriotic.

The VA has had problems for years (as a veteran, I know that all to well), I don't blame King George for all of it's problems, many existed for decades, but they had an opportunity to make changes for the better and they have only made things much worse. They knew the VA would be stretched beyond the breaking point with the war vets coming home from the 2 wars, but they failed to prepare for the onslaught. So know those issues that were there before are compounded by the influx of new patients.

We are counting on Gen. Shinseki to make the changes that are so desperately needed.

[wrencher]

This isn't Bush's VA anymore. This is Obama's. Where is Shinseki?

The woman needs to be cut from service. It needs to be determined what else she's done, who authorized it, and those officers need to be disciplined and/or cut from service.

[nomobull]

why di i have a feeling there's more to this story and that both parties are at equal fault.

[Beninn]

There is more to this story, but not at this level.

This is about managing information to keep the American people from learning what "tax cuts" and "getting the money out of Washington or else Congress will spend it" means on a practical level for ordinary people.

An educated electorate is a threat to Corporate Government. So to that end, anything that can be done to interrupt the flow of information keeps the people from knowing and organizing a government that works best for them.

[Pleneras]

You should stop hauling that line. It's getting pretty boring. You people need something better to fight about if your going to spend time whining about some reporter's rights. The whiners flip flop on this issue all the time depending on the type of information.

Reporters are not immune to being bias and injecting their opinions into a story. Give me your medical history so I can put it on the air for all to hear. Who knows? Maybe your are crazy? Maybe your lying and then my story is ruined once the proof comes back to haunt me? Do you know what I'm going to say afterwards­.. once I start writing about you? Is it really in your favor or do I have a grudge with the company because my daddy didn't have great service in the 1940s or I served 18 months and did not qualify for the GI Bill because I had to serve 24? Do you know me?

As long as you enter my facility I will protect those people, once home they can do all they want... that's what this is all about! Now go on and fight for Universal Healthcare and demand Bush and Cheney's criminal investigation and removal of the patriot act!

[shivadas]

Those words that you typed do not excuse or explain what happened at all. As long as those facilities are paid for by the public they sure ain't yours. Trying to say it is okay to harass and detain reporters because they may just have an axe to grind is the stupid.est­, most un-Amer.ic­an thing imaginable. You also do get to decide which of our rights that we have a right to expect.

[shivadas]

What do you mean "you people"????

[TheHandyman]

Just who in the hell are you to tell us what we should fight for or against? Yes, reporters are biased. He showed some of that bias by merely showing up to listen and do an interview. He could have been somewhere else. You know absolutely nothing about journalism and the ethics involved. Your whole argument it that of either someone who doesn't have a clue or you are a liar. And it isn't "your" facility, it is "our" facility. And I'll fight for whatever I want to without any direction from you, thankyou!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Don't let Pleneras, below, yank your chain.

Apparently Pleneras wants all of us to beleive that he or she served when saying:
""do I have a grudge with the company because my daddy didn't have great service in the 1940s or I served 18 months and did not qualify for the GI Bill because I had to serve 24?"

This appears to be the first time that Pleneras claims to have served 18 months. The number "18 months" is outside of my experience and I thought that even draftees in the Viet Nam era had to serve 20 months. Is there really somebody who has served 18 months and did not qualify for the GI Bill?

In addition, its worth noting that Pleneras apparently indicated an absence of service by omitting any reference to his or her service while calling special attention to the claim that "my brother was in the army."

Also, other language used by Pleneras indicates an absence of a vet status. Once a person is a vet, they are a vet forever. In contrast, Pleneras did not seem to recognize this elsewhere when referring to a vet status in the past tense and saying with respect to his or her brother, "Just because he was one does not mean ..."

Lastly, Pleneras wrote elsewhere: "When I was a little girl."

All indications are that Pleneras is giving the false impression that he or she is a vet.

[Pleneras]

Don't you know I was telling a story in 3rd person there to make a point silly person? 18 months? That was in reference to the whiner who served 18 months and was complaining to a vet of 33 years about his lack of VA welfare care.

I served 8 years! And I am a veteran and 60% disabled. How many times do I have to say this? If you don't know the requirments to be compensated and disabled to receive free VA medical care of to pay a co-pay, then you should be tawking about me.

Except for the majority of real vets in here, most of you know absolutely about this issue, rant and rave over an incident you don't completely know or understand and dare question others who do.

Too much American Idol, Britney Spears, Dancing With the Stars and not enough common sense. Stop watching trash reality tv and rent Network if you have to watch something.

[Pleneras]

What's the VA status of Mr. Canady? Is he 100% compensated? 60%, 50%, 30%, 20% or 10%? Did he get Cancer in the service? Does he have primary civilian medical coverage aka Blue Cross and is less than 30%, or is he not compensated at all? When vets who are not compensated go to VA clinics some are seen depending on their income but are charged a co-pay and their provider is billed for the service in order to use the medical funding for Vets who are between priority 1-8, retired and their families as well as dependents of active duty service members. Being a Veteran does not mean you get free medical for life and 2,000 or more per month. We would go broke if that were the case. I can now see everyone joining the military just for free medical and money. We need to force our politicians to provide UNIVERSAL Healthcare so everyone can receive the care they need. Universal Healthcae is STILL the issue.

[Pleneras]

Cont...
From the little that was obtain seems like Mr. Canady's complaint has to do with certain individuals rather that a practice across the board. Whatever the case when you are on government property and want to interview anyone you have to get a consent or request to interview at a proper location other than the facility. The public meeting was not set for, or a place, to interview medical patients. If anyone interviews a patient to obtain medical information you must obtain consent even if they don't initiate the request. Be smart when you’re dealing with extracting medical information from individuals and expect to be treated like you would at any private company when doing other than attending a meeting. It's as simple as that.

How many of you want to add your unmarried son or daughter, mother or father onto your medical plan but can't because even if they live with you there are RULES? Well there are rules for vets who can qualify for medical care, dental and vision.

[shivadas]

Check the fist amendment, mate!

[urfree2speak]

The fact is that it seems that no matte what happens at the V.A or how many times...yo­u still have a couple of "people" trying to (a) politics the right vs wrong (b) duck the issue with a lot of dribble and nonsense (c) continue to mistreat people under the color of "authority"

[Pleneras]

The fact is this happens everywhere you go. Tell me it's not true? Schools, Universities, your JOB, your neighbor, your banker, your insurance company (based on zip code), your grocery store clerk, your, you name it. It happens anywhere there is someone who is ethnocentric. Sometimes perception is wrong and people are sensitive, sometimes they are right, and sometimes it is reverse discrimination! Try being white or spanish in philly. There are stories out there. We need to stop the race box on questionaires and replace it if needed for stats with ethnicity only. The "white" box should be broken down from that fictious race category to its true ethnicity.

Holden was right, when it comes to race america is too cowardly not incline to talk about it. Have you seen the comments at the immigration blog?

[GardenerNorCal]

I'd say it's time for WAMU-FM to call in the legal department.

[urfree2speak]

Up date...to the vet that basically called me a liar,(vetac47) I guess its "hard' you being a lifer and all..to hear the truth,looking down on us 18 month vets, I think you have shown the problem, you think you are better than we are.... and your story about "serving 33 years" and then "working at the V.A. for 24 years...th­en conducting ad hominem attacks...­..proves my point! You are in MY FRIEND .....for a ruff ride. The day will come that you will be held accoutable for your "attacks" and "rants" in the name of the V.A. or are you just some kind of troll? at any rate next time you call me a "liar" have me some facts, here are some of mine Dallas V.A. Dallas Morning News : The worst hospital in America, medical students and nurses says Dallas V.A. hospital conditions "horrible" Deaths occur at Dallas V.A. investigations. (Houston V.A.) V.A. Police Chief being sued for sexual harrassmen­t...V. A. Police Chief (married) confronting other unmarried female staff. Loook.....­Dude , I could go on and on...but I dont think you are a real "V.A. employee..­...

[hippie chucker]

Isn't the VA government healthcare?

I just love the disconnect on the Left between the care veterans receive, and the care they expect us all to get, if single payer healthcare gets passed.

What will be different-will the same lifetime appointee healthcare workers somehow give a crap about you, or will the government not ration care, as in the case of the veteran in this story?

Please, enlighten me.

[ATrumanDemocrat]

Since you asked to be "enlightened" I'll give it a try. The Left (that giant monolith of single ideas) is proposing greater availability of healthcare with the principal idea being "single payer". You get you healthcare from providers who are private citizens just as you do now but the government pays the bill- just as it does now for Congress and Medicare. Veterans healthcare has been an issue since the founding of the republic. Really think it ought to be better? How about we cancel Star Wars and use the money for the VA? Trade a fantasy for reality? Naw- Too "Liberal".

[esfranklin]

Ah, yes... those crrrazy lefties, trying to ensure that everyone gets decent healthcare. What idiots! Why on earth would anyone fight to ensure that everyone has healthcare, when our current system works so well?

At various times in my life, I've been uninsured, used the VA healthcare system (on an outpatient basis), and had private insurance. The VA care I received was rough, but infinitely better than nothing. Private insurance is ridiculously expensive.

Despite the challenges with current VA care, (which the silly Left would like to see improved so veterans can be as well cared-for as possible), I didn't hear anyone, right or left, standing up and cheering about the idea that veterans might be cared for by private insurers where that option is available.

All I know is that for a sick or injured person having medical care is better than not having medical care at all, and that it is wrong for any country with our level of overall prosperity to have millions of human beings suffering in misery for lack of healthcare. I don't care who you are or what you do - that's just wrong.

[Agent420]

Clearly, you have no experience with a 'single payer' health system. I don't think many here do, but I do. I lived in Canada for 13 years and have *NOTHING* bad to say about it. Canadians are by and large healthier than Americans who pay more than twice as much for much worse care.
As far as the VA is concerned, they need to cover vision and dental if they want to keep us vets healthy.

[charon]

My ex's parents live in Canada, and they are very happy with the health care system there. They lived in the US for about 30 years and had good insurance (my ex-mother in law was an RN) and have had no complaints about the Canadian system. They mentioned that there is a waiting period for some procedures, but don't mind since the system is free.

[Beninn]

The VA system is essentially an efficient system with low administrative costs that is chronically severely underfunded. If it were properly funded, there would be no problem. There is absolutely no reason to believe that privatizing veterans' care would either save money or improve services.

[Beninn]

I'm happy to enlighten you.

Government programs are more efficient than for-profit private companies, and that's a fact. Administrative expenses for medicare are about 5% of each dollar (social security is around 3%).

With medicare, 95% of the money goes directly to the service providers. Contrast that with HMOs where administrative expenses average 25% and only 75% of each subscriber dollar goes to the providers, the people that actually perform the services.

One reason HMOs claim to be more efficient (a false claim, by the way) is that in many cases, they haven't raised their reimbursement rates to providers in years. Sometimes decades. From that perspective, the people that are subsidizing the reduced subscriber fees of HMOs are the providers themselves.

Always remember, that HMOs are in business to make money. That's their primary goal. It's not to provide a better product or a cheaper product. It's to make the most money in the shortest amount of time. There's nobody in the medicare system that makes a fraction of the bloated salary/compensation packages of the CEOs and upper management of private insurance and HMO organizations.

[Beninn]

There's an enormous pressure on for-profit companies to minimize service expenses. There are several ways to do this. One is to reimburse providers at substandard rates. Another is to limit costs by denying services. It's in the company's best interest to find ways to eliminate high utilizers of services and to deny service requests in as many ways as they can think of.

While there is something to be said about the judicious use of tests, interventions and medications, it is not ultimately efficient to deny subscribers services determined to be appropriate by their providers or to eliminate subscribers from the company's rolls because these people wind up in emergency rooms in hospitals and wind up costing the system more money.

That's one of the strongest arguments for a single payer health plan, a plan that requires everyone to be insured so that the risk is spread out over the entire population. If this is not done through government regulation, HMOs will cherry-pick the healthiest members of the population and leave the rest of us to absorb the expenses of those not enrolled in their plans.

[James McGill]

>How can we put this gently: Unacceptable. Ridiculous. Insulting.

"Criminal.­" It's called theft. If you do theft at gunpoint it's called armed robbery. People spend their entire lives in prison for that. He should have called the police. The "security guards" would have either stood down to the real police, or else the reporter could have gone to jail which would have escalated this story to Neil Sheehan levels.

Well, maybe. In the public mindspace, the reporter already missed the war.

[Veetach47]

Again, reality check, the VA has Federal Police, not security guards, the local police always defer to the Federal Police so that tells me who is more right or wrong in this situation, it is actually people like you who "elevate" this to Neil Shehan levels, no one else, please, if you don't know of what you speak, don't speak it.

[quiviran]

What do you call it when your government feels it has the right to steal your property, assault you, and detain you against your will? Was this protected government action under the state secrets privilege? Who are you going to call then? Schultz should thank his stars he is alive. Once a government starts taking illegal actions against its citizens, the slope of bad actions is very short and very slippery. These thugs are clearly used to pushing sick veterans around, and didn't know how to deal with a healthy reporter.

[NUWAYNER]

LET'S CALL VEETACH47

[James McGill]

How is it not theft? Since the "confiscation" seems to have been done at gunpoint, how is it not armed robbery? I'm serious. The person who took the property is a government employee but not a peace officer, and not executing any lawful court order. So it's simply theft. Returning the property was a nice gesture, but that won't stop you from doing 25 years to life for armed robbery, you know. Unless there's some very specific law that gives this individual immunity from criminal prosecution, her *life* is at risk (and she should be punished.)

[Veetach47]

Again, an unknowing person, every VA has an actual POLICE Force, an official "peace officer"and nowhere does it mention that it was done at gunpoint, please don't exagerate to make your statement seem more interesting.

[Ale]

Armed uniformed guards I think constitute a threat and I think do raise that action to a theft with special circumstances. The agency should face criminal charges and arrest.
W are not an armed dictatorship. If the rule of law is to mean anything it must apply to cases like this. If it does not, then the Goverment has no moral standing to enforce the law whatsoever.

[quiviran]

Just because they are police doesn't make their actions lawful. Witness the treatment of reporters at the Republican National Convention. And the fact that they work for a Government Agency doesn't make them "real police." It just makes them Government security guards, just like mall cops are private security guards.

[urfree2speak]

Dude ...do you have a job? I mean are you off your meds? you are attacking everyone on the site! who are you dude?I guess I am reminded of the old saying" where there is smoke there is fire" are you the fireman? or the man thats helping strt the fire?

[Pleneras]

Why lie about the gun? This only proves your goal is not to seek the truth but to distort it.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Wrong theory?

A prosecutor might have a problem with the intent issue. The issue that would immediately be recognized is the high probability that a defendant might be able to successfully defend on a theory of mistake of fact or mistake of law.

Your theory is not the only one that can be considered, however. An alternative theory would be that the action was a violation of Civil Rights under color of law.

[Veetach47]

The personnel were protecting the Veteran's rights, not the VAs. The reporter lied to all and the newspaper covers it up by saying he was there on their behalf and using "official equipment" that looks like anything any kid would wear daily. Privacy is heavily stressed at the VA when it comes to the veterans rights. If any source of information is being obtained from a veteran on VA property, a consent form must be signed, what's the problem with signing a consent form?

There's no mention of this reporter having an official badge identifying him as a reporter, do you think he was purposefully being deceitful?

As for those lunatics who believe there is some big conspiracy to screw the veterans at the VA, get real, get a life. If you believe "big brother" is out to get us all, hehehehehe, maybe you need to be seen at the VA for your paranoid schizophrenic tendencies, HAHAHAHAHA! Give me a break

The old stories of, "I heard from a friend of a friend whose father went to the VA 20 years ago and said it was bad" are ancient history. Name ONE organization that does more for any veteran than the VA, you can't, THERE ISN'T ANY. We all know reporters can listen to you state a paragraph of information and they take one sentence and state it out of context, so who is the problem in this situation? The "new" reporter, or the VA? I know who is wrong.

[Geoffreys]

You've chastized others for adding details not included in the storty. So where is it reported that the reporter lied or that his equipment wasn't offical looking enough or that WAMU covered up anything? Also, there may have been no mention of the reporter having and official badge but there was no mention of him NOT identifying himself properly.

Maybe this isn't some big brother conspiracy but it certainly smells of a petty bureaucrat not liking a set of questions and escalating the issue. Perhaps this is someone more comfortable with previous atmosphere of secrecy that pervaded our government ....

[Veetach47]

I read the story above and it does state that the reporter didn't properly identify himself. It states that "with that gear", I guess any kid with a headphone on could be considered a reporter on duty. It also describes the type of equipment he was using, a recorder (I have an I-pod size recorder that I can put in my pocket), headphones (my son wears headphones all day listening to his music even while watching TV), wearing this does not make me look at one as a reporter getting a story and obviously wouldn't pass as "Look at me I'm a reporter for a newspaper" as good as a press pass stating who he works for. Even the VA employees have to wear identifying badges at work so was he at work or not?

Oh, and yes, better watch out for me as I am Big Brother responding to all the naysayers, I love and miss the days of pervaded secrecy, HA! Puh-lease. I am more comfortable with reality and the truth. None of us knows the truth of what happened, you don't, I don't, so until I know the truth I'm not going to speculate on some fantasy notion that there's some pervasive secret society in the government worried about letting out all the VA s secrets simply because some rookie part time wannabe reporter screwed up. But alas, there are always those who think like this.

[Veetach47]

Actually it smells of a screw up and cover up on the reporters part by making it seem as if the heavy hand of the law came down on him. Read the story a little closer and you will notice that he eventually circumvented the "PA machine" to get the story. That is covert. Obviously the reporter knew he was doing wrong otherwise why the need to go around the "PA machine", and what reporter worth anything would do this, maybe Dan Rather I guess, but not one with integrity in reporting.

Also, yes it does mention that he failed to identify hiimself as a reporter. It also describes his "equipment" as, and I quote, "headphones and recorder", My son walks around all day with his headphones on listening to his I-Pod, DANG! He could be a reporter too, better watch my butt!.

As far as "petty bureaucrat" I would bet my bottom dollar that the Public Affairs officer was doing the same job any Public Affairs officer would do at any hospital in this nation, protecting his patients rights.

If my son does what he is expected to do around the house, nothing is mentioned because he does the right thing, when he fails to do what is expected, it becomes an issue HE created, not me because I got mad at him for not doing it. This reporter did the wrong thing and is wanting us to believe that Big Brother is shutting him down??? Get Real!

[Dynamohum]

THANK YOU

[NUWAYNER]

VEETACH SOUNDS LIKE HE WORKS FOR THE VA OR THINKS HE'S GOD...BECA­USE HE KNOWS EVERYTHING COMPARED TO US MERE MORTALS

[quiviran]

The VA is offering to trade the memory card they confiscated for a release from Schultz. If they did nothing wrong, why do they need the release? Any time a Government agency detains a citizen, they'd better have cause, supported by facts and law, or they need not to be sucking on the citizens wallet for their livelihood.

Where is your rice bowl located? You seem to be very defensive of the VAs thuggery. This is not about the VA in general, this is about the actions of some VA employees on a particular day.

[esfranklin]

Actually, most professional radio recording equipment looks pretty distinctive, and not at all like what any ordinary person would carry around. It's big and clunky and technical-looking, and not something you'd find at your local Radio Shack or Best Buy. In fact, it's so distinctive-looking that people who organize these events will usually recognize immediately that the carrier is from the press.

[Pleneras]

Well said. People are hard headed when it comes to the basics. Imagine me going to a senior residential healthcare home for a meeting with equipment and then when the meeting is over seek out sick people for an interview on the spot? Think security won't stop me and demand to seek the information according to law?

[a68deville]

My father in law is a vietnam vet . He told me "The day I am so far gone,that you have to take me to the VA ,I would rather be put out of my misery,and be buried next to the dead pets,in the backyard" I thought that was a little harsh,at the time,but considering some of the stories I have read,or heard, I can see his point.