One of the signs of an abusive relationship is the willingness of the person on the recipient end to take it until they reach a breaking point.
For the media and the Obama administration this should be it.
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.'”
It was first reported by PJ Tattler (at least that’s where I first saw it) but they had not confirmed it at the time and put it up with a caveat. Drudge confirmed and the London Daily Mail is on it:
The White House website proudly says ‘President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.’
But try telling Vice President Joe Biden’s staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.
During the last election the press pool was so fawning of candidate Obama as to defy belief. Their promises of open access during this administration has proven empty. If the mainstream media doesn’t treat the locking up of one of their own as it is, an affront to the first amendment and freedom of the press and act accordingly then they are simply abused spouses whose obsessive hatred of all things conservative (particularly all things Palin and Bachmann) is so great that they will pay any price to keep them down.
I predict that they will use the e-mailed apology from Biden’s office to ignore or dismiss it as a “news you can’t use” segment making themselves just an unsponsored version of media matters. It would be really good for the country and the constitution if they prove me wrong.
