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Occupy Wall St, The NYPD And The Media: Reconsidering ‘Press Passes’ In A Digital Age

by Tommy Christopher | 1:53 pm, November 18th, 2011

» 58 comments

One of the most sizzling parts of the Occupy Wall Street steak, from a media perspective, has been the conduct of police in dealing with the protests. With the number of arrests at Occupy protests now past the 4,000 mark, the arrests of journalists by the NYPD has become a major subplot. Mayor Bloomberg’s office has sought refuge behind their credentialing process, a red herring that The New York Observer‘s Elizabeth Spiers has gobbled up, nonetheless. Credentialed or not, reporters shouldn’t be rounded up under weak pretexts any more than citizens should.

On Thursday, The Awl presented a list of 26 reporters who have been arrested by the NYPD in connection with Occupy Wall Street. Stu Loeser, spokesman for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, responded with a memo so dickish, it ought to be framed in the John Holmes Wing of the Smithsonian. His basic point was that, of the 26 arrested “reporters” (scare-quotes are his, not mine), only five had valid NYPD credentials. I’m not sure what kind of a defense that was, since even if all 26 had carried credentials, they apparently weren’t worth the lanyards they hung from.

NY Observer Editor In Chief Elizabeth Spiers took Loeser’s bait, using his response as a means to attack the NYPD’s credentialing process:

Aside from the question of whether credentialing by law enforcement is appropriate in the first place (inasmuch as it can potentially conflict with first amendment protections), the NYPD’s processes for acquiring credentials are, to put it nicely, Kafkaesque. To put it bluntly: they’re ridiculous.

I won’t reprint them here, but you can check them out for yourself. Spiers misreads the eligibility criteria as requiring a reporter to “(break) the law repeatedly” (by crossing police lines, etc., as an uncredentialed reporter) in order to rate a credential. In reality, a reporter can meet the eligibility requirements by covering six open press events in two years.

Spiers argues that these requirements keep out editors for legit news organizations, who don’t get into the field much. Now, hitting an open press event once every four months isn’t that onerous, but she does have a point, which I’ll get to later.

In the age of the citizen journalist, there are compelling arguments for favoring the democratization of journalism whenever possible, and as a self-made “graduate” of that school, I bristle at Loeser’s condescending attitude toward non-traditional journalists. However, there are two key points to recognize here.

First, there are very good reasons for the police not to issue credentials to anyone who asks for one. Credentials allow reporters access to otherwise restricted areas, and reporters can also apply for special parking permits. It’s in everyone’s interest, especially established reporters (new media or not), that the police not allow news events to become clogged by every looky-loo with a flipcam and a blog.

Second, this seems to promote the idea that a reporter can’t report without a police credential. That’s obviously not true, and as Loeser’s response makes clear, the credential itself isn’t all that helpful sometimes. I’ve been covering protests, rallies, and other political events for four years now without ever even trying to get a police press card.

Where Spiers has a legitimate gripe is in her inability, as an editor, to get a press pass. As a member of a legitimate news organization, she ought to rate, and there should be a venue for her to reach out and get one. This points up the fundamental problem in this whole story: the City’s default hostility to the press, as expressed by Loeser’s response, and the NYPD’s actions. There should be someone in the city’s press office who has a relationship with editors like Spiers, and whose objective it is to find ways to grant access, not look for reasons to deny it.

In much the same way, the police should be looking for reasons not to arrest reporters. Loeser tweeted to NY Observer editor Megan McCarthy:

@megan, you don’t have a press pass; that’s your option. But why should some random NYPD take your word that you’re press?

That’s a false choice between taking someone’s word for it, and arresting them. Police officers should be expected to exercise good judgment. Where OWS is concerned, though, that judgment appears to be fixed around an “arrest now, ask questions later” strategy, as evidenced by the chart buried at the end of Loeser’s memo. Three of the seven reporters listed were arrested for “disorderly conduct,” a pretextual catch-all that allows police to haul you off to the hoosegow, regardless of whether the charge sticks.

This kind of policing is especially effective with protests, as the physical presence of demonstrators is not only crucial to the process, it is the process. That goes double for reporters, whose effectiveness in covering protests, and holding them and police accountable, depends entirely on their physical presence there. The fact that the NYPD rounded up 26 reporters, without regard for their credentials, demonstrates a policing strategy that is at odds with American democracy, which depends on a free press to survive. The fact that some of these reporters had their arrests voided is immaterial; because of these arrests, they were not there. Mission accomplished.

(photo via The Awl)

Elizabeth Spiers, John Holmes, Megan McCarthy, Mike Bloomberg, Nypd, Occupy Wall Street, Stu Loeser, The New York Observer

Kid Dynamite

“Credentialed or not, reporters shouldn’t be rounded up under weak pretexts any more than citizens should.”

There’s a bold statement. Reporters should be rounded up under weak pretexts just the same as other people are. How about: People shouldn’t be rounded up under weak pretexts.
Other Hot Topics

White House Soup of the Day - Loaded Potato.

“A little chives in there, sour cream, bacon. That sounds like my kind of thing. And apparently MC Hammer likes loaded potato soup too.”
Anonymous

Hahahaha Chuck Todd.
Other Hot Topics

**** Correction*****

White House Soup of the Day Coconut Crab.

“I’ve said this before and will say it agan, it’s like having pineapple on your pizza, it’s just not natural.”
Hack it Up

So after this big day of “action”. What changed? Nothing the same whining about police and completely ignoring the crime and violence from the OWS crowd. What a joke.
Anonymous

I’m not saying OWS is run well or functions well, I’m not saying I support it. What I am saying is I’d like to see someone do the hard research and find out exactly how much airtime the teabaggers got on / in tv media, and compare it to how much OWS has gotten.

I guess they need something like the hidden backroom big bucks and driven psychopaths like Dick Armey, Roger Ailes, and the Koch brothers for them to get any validation…
Ralph

Journalists who fail to properly identify themselves, and the emphasis is on “properly,” should expect to be treated as protesters who claim to be journalists rather than journalists who are credentialled. This is an example of how the media seek unusual permissions above average citizens when there is in fact no legal basis for their different treatment.

Occasionally, if a reader complains about a news organization’s failure to publish something, then the news organization claims business status that permits it to refuse to publish anything it chooses. Then when one of its reporters is hauled into court and required to divulge a source, the publication insists that prosecutors are interfering with the public’s right to the news. Sometimes media represent the public, and sometimes they tell the public to f*ck off. I guess today they are the public’s representatives at the OWS protests, and dislike that the police are treating them like citizens.
Anonymous

“Stu Loeser, spokesman for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, responded with a memo so dickish, it ought to be framed in the John Holmes Wing of the Smithsonian.”

WOW, Tommy…..you are really coming down hard on him……
Anonymous

Conservatives want OWS to get more media coverage. The media is avoiding it because even they know that OWS is not good.

Also, rent-free.
Anonymous

Were the reporters disobeying police commands? Were they in an area that was closed? Even reporters have to obey the law. Those who don’t are subject to arrest. What’s the problem here?
CalFed

The operative quote from the Awl piece:

“They were not engaged in reporting per se, but in demonstrating. But where do reporting and demonstrating diverge?”

Soooo–apparently demonstrating and reporting somehow have merged into the same activity..at least at the Awl.

I’ll give you a hint, TC–reporters are about the only people that think that being a “reporter” is some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for doing what you want to do at a crime scene or incident location. Most mortals do not believe that and almost no cop does.

Since none of us know what the 26 reporters did to get a trip to the hoosegow, (it is possible for even a reporter to act “disorderly”), what have you really got here?

As for whether Stu Loeser’s memo was “dickish” or not…well since you linked it, I guess we can all judge for ourselves. I will state for the record that your writing pegs my “insufferable-dick-o-meter” on a regular basis.
http://twitter.com/Politi_Chick Diane

Unfortunately, many OWS people have CLAIMED to be reporters, thereby putting legitimate, objective journalists in jeopardy.
Anonymous

They should be if they commit a crime. If they don’t commit a crime.. they should be left alone. It’s quite simple really.
Anonymous

I certainly want them getting as much media as we can get them…

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/17/ows-protesters-chant-follow-those-kids-as-small-children-try-to-go-to-school-on-wall-street/
Nick O’Teen

It will only be a matter of time before Mullah Bloomburg begins shutting down all news outlets that do not back his Saddamesque regieme. Does he not realize he is the 1% those of us in the 99% despise and is behaving exactly as we expected he would. Keep it up “mayor” you’re doing more for the OWS movement than you can possibly know. Oh, and your “goon-squad,” police thugs are proving that you support the 1% and only the 1%.
Anonymous

It’s too bad that your words have fallen on Tommy’s deaf ears. Anybody else would have listened.
Get Real

Reading your crap I can see why opinion poll after opinion poll show people are sick of over the top junk like this.
Anonymous

So when talking about unions, the police are wonderful, necessary, members of the 99% and deserve the full support of every citizen. But now you and your ilk are calling them “goon-squad”, and “police thugs”. Nice. We should all remember that when the next collective bargining dispute happens.
Anonymous

Just do what ace reporters like Bob Schieffer and Dan Rather do:

Put a ticket that says PRESS in the hatband of your fedora.

That how you get the scoops.
Todd

All good question and this article address none of them. Wonder why?
Jane

The press represents the people, all of the people. Without the press, we’d be living in a totalitarian society.
Anonymous

I only had to see the byline to know the obvious “conclusion” of the story.
Anonymous

They’re rounding up journalists.. and you still have your head in the clouds..

If they were doing this at a Tea Party rally you’d be calling it communism or something else..

but you don’t because it happens to your foes, as you watch… you think this is a good thing? Rounding up journalists and people, not charging them, and throwing them in jail? Wait till they come for your side.
Anonymous

What do you mean “treated a protestors” ?

Do you have any concept of civil rights?

I swear, stupid people like you have no idea of what freedom is all about.
Anonymous

They don’t understand this.
Valkyrie101

That was actually tommy’s alternative ending. Originally he was calling for the arrest of all press, equally, credentialed or not.
http://gawker.com/5482474/the-mysterious-case-of-toure-praising-raped-slaves-for-seducing-massa Touré’s insane mf cousin Phd

OWS “protesters” = Far-left blog commenters, readers and MSNBC viewers.

If you ever wanted to know what these far left commenter loons look like and how they act…now you know.

Congratulations Tommy! This is your lot and this is who you waste your life slaving over a keyboard for.
Sheik Yerbouti

The New York “goon squad” as I’ve dubbed them have a union, the P.B.A. who’ve taken a four and a half million dollars bribe from J.P. Morgan Bank and have chosen to protect and serve only the 1%. And if you want to take away their rights, It’s fine by me. They don’t seem to care too much about the constitutional rights of average citizens in America anyway.
MIKE

Or maybe when Obama uses them as prime examples of why we need to pass his Jobs Bill.
Todd

Sounds like some of the tin foil hat has leaked into your brain.
one pissed off liberal

The question for you snowspot is Why DIDN’T they round up reporters at the Tea PArty Rallies…..

When you look at it, Police tend to be union guys…Tea PArty is absolutely anit-union…..surely the police would have more of a reason to “overstep” their bounds at a TP rally when only looking at ideology.

Why did they not in those cases but are doing it to “reporters” here? hmm………
Anonymous

Press…. like Fox News???
Anonymous

Seriously though, I visit this site everyday and read most all “articles” but Tommy’s stuff is long winded and obvious. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all that, but … fill in the usuall blanks.
MIKE

It’s hard enough for the police to do their job without some reporter sticking their camera into the action.
Like Christopher they live to be part of the story.
Anonymous

If the Tea Party committed the acts of OWS you’d be calling them terrorist or hostage takers… oh wait… a lot on the left already did that. :D
Anonymous

What is your opinion of the “freedom” and “rights” of those that are victims of OWS crowd? Should someone who lives near the park have to listen to a drum circle all night? Do they and others have rights too? Everyone’s rights stop at someone else’s nose.
MIKE

On Thursday, The Awl presented a list of 26 reporters who have been arrested by the NYPD in connection with Occupy Wall Street. Stu Loeser, spokesman for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, responded with a memo so dickish, it ought to be framed in the John Holmes Wing of the Smithsonian.

Another bad analogy. Holmes couldn’t get it up at the end of his career and died of AIDS.
one pissed off liberal

Why…is the Soros money and the support from every egg-head, money-loaded celebrity not enough to achieve validation?

Let me help you figure this out. The “TeaBaggers” are generally organized productive people who respect themselves, others, and generally the country. They alos understand the importance of the rule of law…and operate within it. People like that, tend todo well when they collaberate together in order to achieve common goal and a common message.

Then, you have the FleaBaggers….who are a mish-mash of democrats, anarchists, communists, socialists, criminals, burnouts, and spoiled impreshinable college kids who took their resident fruitcake professor too seriously.

This type of crowd generally doesn play well with others, tends to have respect for nothing, including themsleves, and is easily maninpulated under a mob mentality in any direction a puppet master would point them.
—-the end result…they dont get much validation.
one pissed off liberal

I think he does know what freedom is about….your confusion lies somewhere between where reasonable freedom within society ends where anarchy starts.

My guess is that as long as the act in question is alligned with your ideology, freedom trumps rule of law every time.

When the reverse is true, its rule of law all the way.
Anonymous

I think people do understand it. The problem is that the press is overrun with ideological activists. People have lost a lot of respect for them as a whole because of this.
MyUsernameIsNotImportant

The press should be just as much of a part of the movement as the protesters. I’d love to see a cable news journalist arrested and treated just like the protesters, maybe it would give them a clearer perspective on whats actually happening across the country.
Anonymous

You forget that is what “progressives” want. To live in a totalitarian society.
Anonymous

When you see these OWS losers, you have to realize something.

They are not against Obama because he is one of them. He is a Marxist loon like they are.

He wants more government, they want more government.

He wants more welfare and food stamps, they want more welfare and food stamps.

He wants to attack success and harm businesses, they attack success and harm businesses.

So when you hear a Nancy Pelosi, or a Maxine Waters with her 3 remaining brain cells, or Barney Frank and his drug-dealing prostitute boyfriend who caused the housing crisis, or any of the other liberal nuts who are for OWS and support them, remember this:

We are in a war. You may not realize it, but we are.

We are in a war against a sick, demented ideology that intends to destroy America as we know and love it. They want free speech, but they are against any speech that they don’t approve of. They want to nationalize the economy so that they can get jobs they are inexperienced at, or, worse yet, get paid by the government to do nothing. They want to take your homes, your cars, your bank accounts, because you have something they don’t have and want.

There is only one way of dealing with these loons – defeat them at the ballot box. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, that if they support these OWS psychos, they will come for them, and you will not defend them when it does. Remind your family members what is at stake next November. We need to send Obama and his cancerous presidency packing back to Chicago where it belongs, and elect enough Republicans to the US Senate so that we can end waste in government, cut the budget, end this destructive ObamaCare™ that will destroy America, and do it without any Democrats making noise or filibustering anything. We need to make Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank and Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid and the rest of the Loon Party cry and cry often about how they have been removed from power the way you would remove a wart.

Remember, folks – if you are with OWS, you side with the enemies of America. If you vote Democrat in next year’s election, you side with the enemies of America. If you vote for Obama this time, or again, you side with the enemies of America.
Anonymous

Yeah, they’re people too, even if they skew their reporting towards their institutional ideology.

The Daily Caller seems to understand the gravity of police beating and locking up members of the press.
Anonymous

Way to go, Dwight Schrute.
Anonymous

I’m not asking if their people… I’m asking if you include them in your defense of the “press”.

And yes.. I like the DC’s reporting. But I like Tucker.
Anonymous

Awwwww. Poor reporters. Here’s a tip. Stay the hell out of the way.
Anonymous

Oops. I mis-read the initial post.

But, to answer for myself, I consider Fox News press. Not a source for objective news, but press nonetheless.
Anonymous

I wouldn’t say that the Tea Party is anti-union. The Tea Party is anti-corruption. :)
Anonymous

Wowsa.
Anonymous

From your lips to their ears…lets pray everyone focuses on the bigger picture presented by your post. It certainly presents a clear understanding of all the isues concerning the ramafications of another term by Obummer…Bravo!!
Valkyrie101

Did you know that he is Dan’s nephew?
Anonymous

“They’re rounding up journalists” and “If they were doing this at a Tea Party rally…”

Oh please! No one at Tea Party rallys got arrested because they weren’t doing anything illegal! Tea Party rallys didn’t camp out for months in squallor, pissing and sh!ting in public. Tea Party rallys didn’t have anyone throwing rocks and bottles at police! Just slither back into your OWS tent.
Anonymous

Sheik said: “And if you want to take away their rights, it’s fine by me.”

This is kind of it in a nutshell. In YOUR society, it’s okay if only SOME citizens have rights. Only people that believe in YOUR ideology should have rights.
Anonymous

Hey not all conservatives believe this crap.
http://twitter.com/ZackyBeatz %Zackyatz%Music

Hack it Up you said
after this big day of action what changed.
I tell you what changed aside from now talking about Jobs instead of cuts
there is this report out that a Lobbying firm sent to wall street.

A lobbying firm has prepared a memo offering advice to its Wall Street clients to help them manage any political fallout from Occupy Wall Street,
warning that Republicans may turn on big banks, at least in public,
altering the political ground for years to come. It is one of the first
clear signs that the movement may be starting to trouble the moneyed
elite.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/lobbying-firm-occupy-wall-street_n_1102310.html
http://www.facebook.com/people/Danny-Ross/100002149217620 Danny Ross

What makes anyone think that NYC government has any interest in preserving Democracy there? First we had Guiliani, as authoritarian a Mayor as anyone this side of Chicago, then Bloomberg, who not only bought the office but subverted the expressed wishes of the people to allow himself to buy it a second time. These people think nothing of unleashing a bunch of police thugs on people, or sending undercover operatives into places of worship. they all need to be sent packing.
Ufdionysus

This article seems to be confusing a couple issues. On the one hand, NY had a policy of keeping reporters out in order to prevent reporting of the violence they directed against protesters. This violence included indiscriminate arrests. The statistic of 26 arrested reporters is evidence of indiscriminate arrests. One may reasonably expect that reporters on the job are not likely to engage in crimes that could jeopardize their jobs or ability to cover a particular assignment, even if they didn’t have credentials. Credentials are a different issue. Police are supposed to give credentialed press special access, because of the importance of the press to a free society. Here the police were not honoring press privileges, and thereby clearly harming the interests of society. You must have a credential to ask for police to honor your press privileges. You don’t need a credential to cover a story, only to get privileged access. Police are not supposed to give special access to people just because they claim to be reporters (I didn’t see any claims that this was happening, except in the comments, which were probably baseless). Credentials are how you prove to the police at the scene that you really are working on a story. They’re not a get-out-of-arrest-free card. Not having one doesn’t mean you’re not really a reporter, as the police PR lackie was attempting to insinuate, it just means you’re not entitled to privileged access. Police stealing press credentials is reprehensible.