Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an Orlando Sentinel reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Democratic fundraiser.
Reporter Scott Powers was the designated “pool reporter” for the vice president’s Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn’t arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.
Not so for Powers. A “low-level staffer” put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. “When I’d stick my head out, they’d say, ‘Not yet. We’ll let you know when you can come out.’”
Violation of the First Amendment, felony kidnapping, false imprisonment, conspiracy to deprive someone of their rights come to mind.
If the description is accurate, it constitutes unlawful imprisonment, but, not to worry, the pool reporter will not press charges because he will want to stay on the job.
If this was at a private home, as the report specifies, then the staffers could have simply told him to leave and escorted him out the door; that would have been perfectly legal. Why someone would choose this method is beyond me, unless he had a desire to become a former staffer.
Right, Dana, “If the description is accurate, ….”
Who published it? Oh, Hot Air. Then it may not be true. Some Righties are well known for their O’Keefe-like, Rove-like, Atwater-like, Swift Boat-like, SCOTUS-like, Ohio-like, Wisconsin-like dirty tricks! It’s in the genes, or so it seems.
And then too there are the propagandists who promote these dirty tricks!
On the other hand, it could be true. I doubt it, or at least, I doubt that Joe Biden would approve.
Hot Air was publishing it from Drudge, who usually, though not always, gets it right.
Isn’t it interesting, Dana, that Hot Air did not include this:
This casts a bit of a different light on the whole situation, that a “low level staffer” made an unfortunate decision. Hot Air types do this sort of editing all the time, thus making up their own message about what happened, as is common practice for ideologues/propagandists!
Riiiiiight, Perry. Meanwhile, you have MSNBC on and constantly cite their idiot talking heads as sources!
Just can’t stay away from the hypocrisy, can you?
I wonder — what “unbiased” sources did you get the “information” regarding the oil companies “sitting” on leased lands, and that Obama has faced a 400% increase in threats to his life over those against Bush? (Both which were easily refuted after just a tad bit of research.)
Hube, I very seldom cite anything from MSNBC. That said, I would point out that lately MSNBC offers a different version of liberal bias with several of their new hosts, like Mitchell, Ratigan, Uygar, O’Donnell, and Maddow. I do not care for Chris Matthews, but the morning and afternoon/evening lineup is the best they’ve ever had, in my view.
You may disagree, but I do not find MSNBC to be an equivalent counterpart to FOX, rather, I think the former to be much more fair and balanced, and more civil too!
I don’t recall, do you? I’ll check it out.
[Added: On the 400% increase in death threats, it was CNN News Anchor Rick Sanchez: See here.
On the leased oil drilling lands, it was Senator Franken: See here.
Both are credible sources/reports, I'm sure you will agree.]
When you do cite, you use MSNBC (or, rather, something from one of its shows/pundits) more than “seldom.”
This just proves you don’t even watch Fox, then. Or, if you do, you’re then beyond dogmatic into delusional. Seriously. The pundits on MSNBC compared to those on Fox aren’t even in the ballpark when it comes to fairness and civility. Not. Even. Close.
You didn’t cite a source. But I did for the refutation!
As you can see, I did cite sources for my claims. However, I do not see your cite for the refutation.
Um, where, pray tell?
Never mind, I found it. You did have a source. But my own was virtually right under it!!
Right here, just in case you deny it.
Wrong sceptic Perry says:
27 March 2011 at 09:10
Right, Dana, “If the description is accurate, ….”
Who published it? Oh, Hot Air. Then it may not be true. Some Righties are well known for their O’Keefe-like, Rove-like, Atwater-like, Swift Boat-like, SCOTUS-like, Ohio-like, Wisconsin-like dirty tricks! It’s in the genes, or so it seems.
And then too there are the propagandists who promote these dirty tricks!
On the other hand, it could be true. I doubt it, or at least, I doubt that Joe Biden would approve.
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.html
*** REPORTER CONFINED IN CLOSET DURING VEEP’S FUNDRAISER ***
Sat March 26 2011 17:04:37 EDT
Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an Orlando Sentinel reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Democratic fundraiser.
Reporter Scott Powers was the designated “pool reporter” for the vice president’s Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn’t arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.
Not so for Powers. A “low-level staffer” put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. “When I’d stick my head out, they’d say, ‘Not yet. We’ll let you know when you can come out.’”
And no crustini for Powers, either. He made do with a bottle of water to sip as he sat at a tiny makeshift desk, right next to a bag marked “consignment.” Powers was closeted at about 11:30 a.m., held for about an hour and 15 minutes, came out for 35 minutes of remarks by Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and then returned to his jail for the remainder of the event.
Powers’ phone didn’t work in the closet, but his Blackberry did, so he fired a picture of his impromptu prison to his editors, who posted a short blog item on the lack of freedom of the press under the veep’s control.
Powers didn’t mention his confinement in either of his pool reports that day, saying only that “press coverage was limited to a single pool reporter, filing on behalf of all local media, who was allowed to listen to the remarks but not given an opportunity to talk with anyone at the event.”
On Friday, Powers said, the home’s owner called him. “He said he had no idea they’d put me in a closet and was very sorry. He said he was just following their lead and was extremely embarrassed by the whole thing.”
Right, Yorkshire, this Drudge version does not appear to leave any significant information out, like Hot Air chose to do, as is typical of propagandistic rags like that!
Idiot hypocrite liar Dictator Perry, do you know what copyright infringement is?
Idiot hypocrite liar Dictator Perry, do you know someone can commit a crime in your house and that someone not be you?
Idiot hypocrite liar Dictator Perry, do you know Hot Air is a fact-filled organization and not a propaganda machine, contrary to deceitful propaganda machines Soros-funded Media Matters, Soros-funded MoveOn.org, Soros-funded Center for American Progress, Crooks and Liars, Soros-funded NPR, MSNBC, Soros-funded OfA, etc, ad infinitum?
Idiot liar hypocrite Dictator Perry, Hot Air had the article in its “headlines” section, making no comment on the article itself. It quoted a snippet of the article and did this really radical thing called placing a link to the original so you could read the whole thing if you so desired. And there’s this really radical thing we fringe freaks do that’s sometimes called link-surfing. We click through to where the information came from to find out more information. Outfits like Hot Air expect their readers to link-surf and do their own research, unlike lamestream leftist outfits, which expect their readers to be the lemmings they are.
Perry wrote:
Yeah, having the link to the Drudge original at the end embedded under “Read the Article”, that’s the way I’d pick to hide the story!
Someone did a Bing search and landed on this article. The interesting thing is… the Bing search was directed at MSNBC’s reporting of the event… and found nothing, zip, zilch, nada from MSNBC itself. Go figure. A far-left sycophantic media agency not reporting on criminal actions of Democrat operatives. Shocking. Shocking, I tell you! /snark
They count on ideologues like John H. to run wild with the excerpt, in order to spread the right wing propaganda, which is EXACTLY what John did.
Violation of the First Amendment, felony kidnapping, false imprisonment, conspiracy to deprive someone of their rights come to mind.
Uh-huh.
Since Perry just can’t quite bring himself to believe the initial story, from his own local newspaper: Reporter stuffed in closet gets Biden apology.
So exactly how is the above story and link posted by the psycho from down under germaine to this thread? Answer: it isn’t. I read the story at the time it occured (in fact I was in Columbia at the time) and the Secret Service would neither confirm nor deny there had been threats against the President. Bush did not want to cancel the event so the Secret Service decided it was smart to separate the protesters from the supporters. Is there a problem with that? IOW, the ahtorities decided to control the crowd for the safety of the President. That’s a bit different than a “low level staffer” detaining a reporter. Under what controlling legal athority does a staffer detain anyone? Will the craziness with this vulgar nut ever stop?