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White House Press Corps Shut Out By DADT Protest; Mark Knoller Intercedes

by Tommy Christopher | 6:04 pm, April 20th, 2010

» 6 comments

Earlier today, Lt. Dan Choi and 5 fellow gay servicemembers handcuffed themselves to the fence on the north side of the White House to protest the slow pace of the “Don’t ask/Don’t tell” repeal. This is the second time that Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo have used the cuff protest, the first time for the others. The protest follows President Obama‘s engagement of LGBT rights protesters at a fundraiser last night.

In a disturbing wrinkle, the police closed off the scene to the press for a time, and Mediaite has confirmed that this included White House reporters. (h/t Kerry Eleveld)

Eventually, the police allowed reporters back on the scene. When CBS News’ Mark Knoller saw that the police had pushed the press back, he interceded. Knoller tells Mediaite:

No big deal. It seemed ridiculous to me that credentialed press was held half-way deep in Lafayette Park for a peaceful event at the WH fenceline. So I pointed out my concern to a US Park Police officer, and after a time, he phoned someone, likely his superior, and then escorted credentialed press to the fenceline for better coverage of the protest and arrests.

At first the officer refused, saying it was US Park Police procedure. I asked him to contact his superior so I might deliver my objection higher up the chain of the command. And within a few minutes, after he made a cell phone call, he escorted credential press right to the fenceline. I thanked the officer for his effort on our behalf.

I checked with Park Police Officer Terry Felt, and he said that by the time he was on the scene, a press area had been set up, and that it was not procedure to push the press back like that. He was unaware that it had happened.

The protest, organized by GetEQUAL, was intended to pressure the President into including the DADT repeal in this year’s Defense Authorization Bill. While the President promised to end DADT during this year’s State of the Union address, the effort has been stalled, as it has been since Choi’s story first shined a light on this issue last spring.
Update: Politico has posted the video with the headline “Most transparent White House ever…”

It should be noted that I called the Secret Service Uniformed Division, and they confirmed that they had nothing to do with this action, that Park Police are responsible for the area in question. This was a transparency issue, to be sure, but not with the White House.

Video Credit; AMERICAblog

Capt Jim Pietrangelo, dadt, Dan Choi, gay rights, LGBT, Lt. Dan Choi, President Obama, Tommy Christopher

felixw

This protest is more aggressive than anything at a tea party. But will the media give it the same degree of scrutiny. Of course not.
Philco

Yeah, and the White House could never influence the behavior of Park Service employees. Nothing to see here folks, move along now.
Alfred J. Lemire

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s remark about a “gangster government” likely resulted from her awareness of the expression, coined by political analyst Michael Barone, when the government stiffed secured creditors, including Indiana pension funds, in the Chrysler bankruptcy deal. A lawyer said that one of his clients, a secured creditor, backed off after the White House threatened it would sic the mass news media (reliable WH followers) on a certain company: experiencing the loss was better than the blackened reputation. As Mr. Barone darkly put it, in words I recall as, “Nice business you got here. Too bad if something were to happen to it.”

And the “credentialed” press: those the government approves for worshipful coverage of Dear Leader and his causes.

This is another instance of gangsterism. But perhaps also further corruption in the mass news media. Where are the reports on the charge of Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae, that Fannie misrepresented subprime lousing loans to banks ass prime and Alt-A? Wehre are teh national enws reprots on teh beatings of Allee Butsch and Joe Brown after they attended a Republican function in New Orleans? Where are . . . but ABC, CBS, NBC news, the AP, major newspapers, the leftist journals TIME and Newsweek, and more are dead fish rotting, giving America nothing but their stink.
Alfred J. Lemire

Oops! I sent a version with many uncorrected typos and can’t take it down. Here’s the corrected version:

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s remark about a “gangster government” likely resulted from her awareness of the expression, coined by political analyst Michael Barone, when the government stiffed secured creditors, including Indiana pension funds, in the Chrysler bankruptcy deal. A lawyer said that one of his clients, a secured creditor, backed off after the White House threatened it would sic the mass news media (reliable WH followers) on a certain company: experiencing the loss was better than the blackened reputation. As Mr. Barone darkly put it, in words I recall as, “Nice business you got here. Too bad if something were to happen to it.”

And the “credentialed” press: those the government approves for worshipful coverage of Dear Leader and his causes.

This is another instance of gangsterism. But perhaps also further corruption in the mass news media. Where are the reports on the charge of Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer of Fannie Mae, that Fannie misrepresented subprime lousing loans to banks as prime and Alt-A? Where are the national news reports on the beatings of Allee Butsch and Joe Brown after they attended a Republican function in New Orleans Friday? Where are . . . but ABC, CBS, NBC news, the AP, major newspapers, the leftist journals TIME and Newsweek, and more are dead fish rotting, giving America nothing but their stink.
michaledell

So I expressed my concern about the SU Park Police, and after a while 'called someone, probably his head, and then was able to press credited the fence line of better coverage of the protest and arrests.
memory stick
Disfuncion

Funny soldiers…