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ABC’s Brian Ross Discusses Getting Roughed Up By Bachmann Bodyguards On The View

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» 102 comments

TIME‘s Michael Crowley says “it’s not easy to get to Michele Bachmann.” Not in the sense of getting under her skin, but literally getting close enough to throw a question at her. As Crowley writes, “Her appearance at a rally on Tuesday in Aiken, S.C., attended by perhaps 150 people, featured three uniformed police officers and two plainclothes bodyguards. One of those guards spent much of the day preventing reporters from getting too close to the candidate.” Of course, ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross can’t be discouraged by mere bodyguards.

Here’s what happened Tuesday when Ross tried to ask Bachmann a few questions about the reports she suffers from debilitating migraines:

Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Afterward, I asked Ross — a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken — whether he had ever been treated so roughly. “A few times,” he told me. “Mostly by Mafia people.”

Watch Ross discuss the incident while appearing on The View:

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  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Someone tell Mad Michelle she can’t win the presidential nomination by running from reporters nor by hiding out with the Hacker “News” Network.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M5V6VTQAVLARF7XXO47Z5OCZWM TangledThorns

    This reporter appears a little too aggressive so the response by Bachmann’s bodyguards was appropriate.  Bill O’Reilly will have this on his show tonight.

  • Anonymous

    Fact: People in Houston in the space industry say that Michelle has the right stuff to be president! Failure is not an Option!

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Perhaps, but I don’t think a reasonable person would conclude this to be threatening. Ms. Bachmann simply doesn’t want to answer the question. That’s a bit odd since treatment of migraines (I was once a sufferer) has made such strides. I haven’t had one in years. This entire issue of private security guards is troubling, and some serious regulation is necessary. I don’t think we manhandle reporters simply because someone seeking press attention gets it. And, Mr. Ross doesn’t work for FOX “News” so he can’t simply hack Ms. Bachmann’s phone.

  • Anonymous

    Good to see that Joe Miller’s bodyguards have found work.

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    In point of fact, I’m considering voting for her just to see Marcus’ inaugural gown.

  • Anonymous

    This is what she meant by having *airquotes* headaches.

    Her headaches will mess you up if you get too close!

  • Anonymous

    Someone tell the media and reporters to respect the candidates, especially female conservative candidates who are consistently slandered and slammed by mainstream media.  Why would she answer a question from this character in such a manner when the WHPC have been told they can no longer yell questions to hehimself and they seem fine with that.  Same standard must apply across the board.

    Conservative female candidates are being stalked by the media….to include dumpster diving like they did with Palin.  No candidate should respond to being treated in such a stalking and disrespectful manner.

  • Anonymous

    Someone should tell the MAINSTREAM CONSERVATIVE media and reporters to respect the PRESIDENT, especially AFRICAN AMERICAN MODERATE PRESIDENTS who are consistently slandered and slammed by the mainstream CONSERVATIVE media.

    2 can play your little games, TfT.

    Happy Wednesday!

  • Anonymous

    Now you know you ain’t right…

    (lol)

  • Anonymous

    Look what could have happened to Rupert Murdock due to lack of security. You have to admit, it’s not liberals and Dems that need to worry about attack for politically motivated people. It’s mostly conservatives and Repub that are the targets. Most of the time it’s glitter and pies designed to humiliate. But as the AZ shooting by a mentally deranged psycho taught us, it only takes one lone psycho that ISN’T carrying glitter or pies.

    Should I now point out the difference between a shooting involving a mentally deranged nut job with NO connection to reality and people who attack Repubs and conservatives that have all their marbles but CHOOSE to attack for political reasons?

  • Anonymous

    P.S. Emperor? Nice promotion.

  • Anonymous

    I’m no immediate Bachmann fan. I think she does have some issues in which I’m not prepared to like her the best out of the candidates thus far. However, I thought the story would be worse than what it actually is.

    I agree. This reporter was far too aggressive and not even over a serious subject matter. That’s why I don’t think ABC is worth anything when it comes to news. Brian deserves whatever he got. I didn’t read the entire report because I found it silly that he was chasing after her in regards to a trivial subject matter.

  • Anonymous

    Happy Wednesday to you too.

    If it was a game yes rasta – but it isn’t.  There is no mainstream conservative media, they simply don’t exist.  if they did, the reputation of the media would not be in the trash can like it is.  Mainstream media is left and far left only.

  • Anonymous

    The question will go down as one of the most stupid ever asked. Simple as that. You ask a stupid question, you get an ample response. He deserved what he got.

  • Anonymous

    Obama should be slammed by media. Just think if the rest of the media actually did their job.

    Plus, when typing out a number, it should be two, not 2.

  • Anonymous

    When did Fox News hack anyones phone? You have a link for that? I haven’t heard about it, could it be you just made that little tid bit up?

  • thisexists

    Thank goodness we have you gay people always critiquing hairstyles, fashion, and makeup.  Where would the fashion industry be without you?   

  • Anonymous

    Nobody in the MSM slams The Chicago Jesus. The MSM literally fights one another to see who can toss his salad daily.

  • thisexists

    Other than the opinion show hosts on Fox, could you name some of these mainstream conservative reporters who have been slamming the president?

  • Anonymous

    Obama has gotten the softest media coverage of any president except MAYBE JFK. Any why “especially”  and AA president? Are you a racist who believes his race should dictate softer coverage than he is already getting? Is MSNBC not doing enough all on it’s own to prop him up? Did the entire media not do it’s job and give him the easiest road to the White House ever? Have the not downplayed every scandal? Just becaouse Fox News doesn’t play along with the rest of the soft coverage doesn’t make them wrong.

    PS… It says a lot that you are a fan of a comic strip with a character “Uncle Tom”. Looks good on ya.

  • Anonymous

    Bachmann’s bodyguards were much too kind & gentle with bogus “reporter” Brian Ross. Someone has to step up & stop the madness.

  • Michelle

    Gee, I wonder why ABC hasn’t posted the video.  HM

  • http://games-survival.com Justplaythegame

    Those bodyguards have a job to do..they have to think on their feet.. let’s explore that:

    The man coming aggressively towards them looked to be a physical threat..Brian Ross..naw

    The man appeared to clean cut and appealing for the candidate to be seen with in a parking lot? naw.

    Known to most as Brian Ross, he would have gotten the story wrong anyways and a waste of time.. check

    quick 3 seconds of thought and they nailed him..seems like good body guard work to me.

  • samheaken

    FDR with polio not an issue, JFK with a horrendously bad back not an issue, Bachman with migraines now that’s an issue.  Everyone on the left is pathetic.  If Oblahblah had migraines you wouldn’t even comment on it.

  • samheaken

    FDR with polio not an issue, JFK with a horrendously bad back not an issue, Bachman with migraines now that’s an issue.  Everyone on the left is pathetic.  If Oblahblah had migraines you wouldn’t even comment on it.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    Bye Bye Michele, you know you are done when Tucker Carlson sells you down the river and Keith Olbermann is ready to feel sorry for you for this story but really doesn’t when it your goons rough up a reporter. So long batshit.

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Roughed up? Yeah right.

    Just like Rand Paul’s people roughed up others.

    Yeah, the leftist media is going full tilt on the Republican candidates. Just imagine if they would put that gotcha style reporting on the current president?

    Oh well, the Republican candidate, my old and stinky gym shoe runs against Obama. It wins by 8 points.

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Let’s see, weren’t there attempts to assassinate Roosevelt and Truman? Wasn’t Kennedy assassinated? weren’t they all Democrats?

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Thank you. I sought it not.

  • Anonymous

    You mean the grown man at the Rand Paul rally who stomped on the head of a young woman???  That kind of violence???

  • Michelle

    So ABC has sent him out to discuss it, but still haven’t posted the video of the incident?  Seems a little weird.

  • Anonymous

    Ah — yes, lets walk back the attack angle, I’m the victim mentality from the liberal media hack and instead go on with the ladies of the view and claim that Michell Bachman gets incapacitated when taking her meds.

    Yup, slander, slam and diminish conservative women candidates – it is what the mainstream leftwing media does.  Brian walked it back big time, and this article has been edited and updated, and yet again, NO notice by the author that the article has changed.  Sad that mediaite simply refuses to indicate when they update an article…it can’t be that hard Mark.

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Yes, that incident was what I was referring.

    Here is a good breakdown of what happened and all those involved- http://www.aolnews.com/2010/10/27/the-rand-paul-campaign-stomp-cliff-notes-edition/

    Here is the outcome of that HEAD STOMPIN-

    Profitt will spend a year on unsupervised probation and agreed to pay $600 to cover Valle’s medical bills.

    From- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/13/tim-profitt-gets-probation_n_876364.html

    But hey, that $600 medical bill was HUGE! Covered the tylenol she was probably prescribed. Of course she did not go immediately, she was told by her MoveOn.org employer, to go to the doctor. She was GETTING PAID to be there. From the first article-

    ~Valle, 23, is a Columbia University graduate and MoveOn.org liberal
    activist. She was hired on a three-week contract by MoveOn.org to work
    on the Kentucky RepubliCorp initiative, an awareness campaign based on a
    mock business — known as RepubliCorp — that aims to demonstrate what Move On. org is a “cozy relationship between corporate America and the GOP.”

    See, in the REAL WORLD when you are PAID to be a rabble rouser that is called AGITPROP.

    I feel sorry for her as much as I feel sorry for this reporter.

    edit to add-Seems like the leftist media has become agiprop. So I could care less about how this poor reporter suffered. Did the reporter ask for an interview? Or did the reporter think that they could get a snippet or out of context quote. What do you think of say……..O’Keefe’s tactics?

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    They will post it as soon as the LA Times will post that video of Obama or the one CBS has of Obama calling everyone in the US of being slugs and children.

  • Anonymous

    Monica Crowley on FNC is making the very valid point:

    MEDIA HAS NEVER REQUIRED OBAMA TO RELEASE HIS MEDICAL RECORDS

    Again, the double standard isright there in your face mediaite; how about geting a comment from Ross as to why he has never bothered Obama about his medical history, despite his known use of cocaine, etc.

  • Anonymous

    Gee…I guess Ross forgot to bring the video of his unfortunate assault.  We will just have to take him at his word.

  • Holistic

    Did Brian get his feelings hurt Oh My! Crying to the View panel, how lady like of him.

  • Anonymous

    Why use ‘roughed’ up when Ross clearly states its hyperbole here.  It’s in the headline even when Ross said it’s not accurate.

  • ProudConservative
  • Anonymous

    Love the Avatar.. Rilley also thought Obama was an empty suit, as Uncle Ruckus and in the end both grandpa and huey…. 

  • Anonymous

    Love the Avatar.. Rilley also thought Obama was an empty suit, as Uncle Ruckus and in the end both grandpa and huey…. 

  • Anonymous

    Cmon, thats a great cartoon.. Unckle Ruckus for President

  • Bill Adkins

    Could it be the pills and pill abuse?  Hangover?

  • Michelle

    Marky Mark, why not do some follow up journOlism and find out why they haven’t released the damning video. 

  • Michelle

    Well to be fair, the liberal definition of slamming The One is questioning Der Leader at all.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

    That is why we call them ReThuglicans.

  • Michelle

    FACT, you are a moron.

  • Anonymous

    Right.  Because everyone knows that anyone from MoveOn deserves to be assaulted.  What a pig you are.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWUI6JH3KWIAFWIWHBZGHPFIN4 Cotton Picker

    Did he get knocked to the ground and stomped on like the opponent of Sen Scott Brown body guards did to a reporter?

  • Anonymous

    Pretty sure that a former producer would know what he’s talking about.

    “A former producer with Fox News claimed in a lengthy essay gaining new traction this week that the conservative television station has a ‘Brain Room’ in its New York headquarters, which enables employees to view private telephone records with ease…

    According to former Fox News executive Dan Cooper, whose gripes with his former employer run quite deep, Fox News chief Roger Ailes allegedly had him design the so-called ‘Brain Room’ to facilitate counter-intelligence efforts and other ‘black ops.’”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/former-fox-news-producer-claims-the-networks-brain-room-led-to-hacking-2011-7

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWUI6JH3KWIAFWIWHBZGHPFIN4 Cotton Picker

    Old Slick the bent one never released his medical records either.  Something about his long history of STDs he didn’t want known..

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    She was PAID to be AGITPROP. Yes, I think all good little communist AGITPROP should be stomped. Got a problem with that?

    Why does someone have to be paid to vote for and work for the communists? Do they not get enough turnips without getting paid to be useful idiots? Turnips are good. Turnips are the food of the people.

  • Anonymous

    Fact: No SEIU guys at a political rally!

  • Anonymous

    Fact: Obama photo shop department releases it you will see it.

  • Anonymous

    Fact: Accusations without any physical evidence. X – employee that had an Ax to grind…..WhaaaaaahhhhWhaaaaaaahhhh….

  • Anonymous

    Fact: Michelle move over let me. Bill Adkins you are a moron everyday and it fits you.

  • Anonymous

    Fact: Don’t forget since Obama’s leaving the party after inauguration will be in Robin Hood outfits with dirty leg punch. Dirtiest leg in the room stirs the Everclear into the punch mix.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry, friend.  Not everyone who disagrees with you is some communist agitator.  She was a protestor–her affiliation to MoveOn is utterly immaterial.  

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Oh, being paid to AGITPROP is immaterial. That must be why the judge, the prosecutor and the little communist agitprop all agreed to the deal? Whatever. They certainly did not want discovery to happen right?

    Was she paid to cause problems? Who paid her? Who pays MoveON? etc. Sorry, you are not going to get much sympathy from anyone if you pay people to go and cause problems. Sounds an awful lot like union techniques.

  • Anonymous

    He got “roughed up”????? Not according to Brian Ross who said on the View today that he didn’t not get roughed up- he said that was “far overblown” and said he wanted to ask her a question and her staff pushed him away.

    make it up Mediaite.

  • Anonymous

    You really don’t have a clue , do ya?

  • Anonymous

    Lucky for Ross I wasn’t on guard duty.  All these righteous commie psuedo journalists actually believe they, as the subhumans they are, have a right to ask snarky questions of people like Michele and Rupert and of course Sarah.They suicided the remnants of any professional standing they might have had in , tingle tinkle on my leg–he’s so smart even without a transcript or birth certificate, 2008. Next they will be demanding civil rights for losers. 

  • Anonymous

    You obviously know NOTHING about the legal process.  As a former prosecutor, I can assure you that plea deals are entirely routine–they save the government copious amounts of resources and money.  Even Casey Anthony was offered a plea deal.

    By your argument, every single Tea Partier who is a member of any organized Tea Party group is nothing but an agitator.  Although, given their behavior at town halls, this is obviously a much more accurate characterization.

  • Anonymous

    Funny, but I don’t remember Ross running around after Obama asking him if he still snorts cocaine, smokes crack or smokes pot…or if he ever was a drug dealer. All things that would impair his ability to be commander in chief and make crucial decisions…alot more then a headache would.

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Still not addressing the FACT that she was PAID to go there and cause problems.

    Oooooh, you are part of the black robe society and no one on the outside said class of prognosticators knows a damn thing about it. Glad to see your elitism shining through.

    Yes, it is soooo hard to understand the system, better let someone inform me how it works instead of understanding it myself. Thank you oh benefactor, would you inform me?

    And bringing up the Tea Party, what is that? Is that material to the subject matter? Or would that be say immaterial to the case at hand?

  • Anonymous

    You and Rush Limbaugh use the same dealer there, oxycontin?

  • Anonymous

    Well, considering that you obviously have no clue about the legal system, you are quite welcome.  And no, the fact that she is an employee of MoveOn does NOT mean she was paid to go to this event.  Moreover, that’s utterly beside the point–she wasn’t the one who got violent!  It was a Tea Partier.

    But again, it is good to know that the second anyone who works on behalf of a Tea Party or conservative “grass roots” organization opens his/her mouth, I can simply ignore him/her as a paid shill.

  • Anonymous

    Teabagging is making your comments seem like you are a 5th grader George.  Maybe you’re smart enough to challenge Bachman to a debate.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, I’m still waiting for Barry to release his 4th grade report card.

  • Anonymous

    Just like cross-dressing republicans should be turned loose for the boys of D. Block.

  • Anonymous

    So you’re telling the people of Oklahoma City that the bombing of their city wasn’t political. You’re saying that Tim McVeigh was just “misunderstood”. You sir have no connection to reality.

  • Bourekas

    Ford shot at twice.  Reagan actually shot. And, though largely a product of public education, I think the first republican president was shot, as was William McKinley.

    The bottom line is that public leaders face extraordinary threats from zealots and nuts.  It’s not owned by one ideology.  But if someone chased Obama, or Hillary Clinton, to their car, I’d expect security to intervene…as they did with Bachmann.

    Freedom of the press does not give permission to frighten, threaten, harrass.

  • Bourekas

    Same logic means you fully accept Bernard Goldberg’s accounts of bias at CBS?

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    Ummm… Gabby Gifford is a Democrat. 

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    The dumpster diving was done by college students who were attending the college Palin was raking in the bucks to lie to. It’s hardly an example of anyone, especially the media “stalking” the poor, helpless, eternally victimized Mama Grizzly who “fights like a girl” and has “thick skin.”

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    So, is Fox News left or far left?

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    And the conservative definition of slamming the Joan of Arc of the GOP is questioning… well, anything. You can’t even point out that the masturbatory “documentary” recently released is crap without it being taken as a threat against the poor dear’s life.

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    So, let’s recap… 

    Curb stomping a liberal = good. And only worthy of a tylenol. Asking a GOP presidential candidate if their medical condition might interfere with their ability to govern = bad. Not just “bad,” but stalking and abusive and dangerous and anything else that can be thrown around.

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    So, you believe that acts of violence against people who are not being violent but don’t agree with you… is appropriate and justifiable? 

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Nope curb stomping a liberal is bad. Curb stomping a PAID COMMUNIST AGITPROP=good. Both for the agitprop to get their little incident on camera and for propaganda purposes and just for the good feelings one gets afterwards for stomping said agitprop.

    Yes, stalking someone is illegal. Is stalking someone because you are paid to do it any better? But I digress, I wonder how many agitprop will be sent out in the next election? I hope one agitprops around me.

  • http://www.darklady.com/ Darklady

    There’s so much wrong with your post that there’s no point in even addressing it beyond what I’ve written.
    Seek help before someone else needs to seek a restraining order.

  • Norbit

    C’mon, this sounds like another “N”-Word LIE.

    Remember, when Pelosi & the Democratic Black Caucus LIED about getting pounded with the “n”-word crossing a tea-party rally? - Tapes categorically revealed IT NEVER HAPPENED!

    Just the Democrats doing what their kind of slime does the best – play the Race Card!

  • http://www.constitutionallibertarian.co.cc/ DavidKramer

    Darklady, do you even know what agitprop is? Probably not.

    Anyway, to get a restraining order, you need someone that causes problems for someone else. I do not cause problems for anyone that I know. Do you go out and harass people and attempt to get reactions from others? Do you attack others and attempt to climb into their cars while attempting to get propaganda pics?

    If you do, you could get a restraining order against yourself. I would put money that in the next election of Rand Paul, he would be provided a restraining order on this fruitcake if he asked. Whatever. Attempt to project the left’s actions on others. That is what the left does.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry. I was focusing more on recent history. Hence the Pie and glitter references. But historically…. yes you have a point.

  • Anonymous

    Hence my differentiation between people WITH their marbles and those WITHOUT their marbles making a political choice to attack. Reading is fundamental. ;)

  • david r

    That was on the capital mall.  Katrie Couric accepted their stories as gospel and condemned the “concerns of violence in the Tea Party” for weeks.  It never happened.  The tapes show it. 

  • david r

    Teabagging to you means putting someone else’s testicles in your mouth, right?

  • david r

    Much worse happened to Allee Bautsch at the feet of liberal protesters who followed her and her boyfriend to their car and assaulted them.  Let me guess.  You say this never happened.

  • david r

    By “we” you mean vampires, right ?

  • david r

    By “we” you mean vampires, right ?

  • david r

    I’m waiting for him to release Chris Matthews’ head.

  • david r

    Nowhere near as bad as Allee Bautsch.  Bet you deny that one really happened.  Let me see you go into spin mode.  I find it alluring.

  • david r

    The bodyguards probably just held up their hands, and he turned and ran away shrieking “Right wing violence!  Right wing violence!”

  • david r

    Looks like you “teabagged” him there.

  • david r

    “Access to phone records” does not equate to hacking.  The former means access to who called who and when, and how long they talked.  The latter is listening in.  Now say you’re sorry.

  • david r

    There was that journalist in Iraq that winged a shoe at Bush.  He’s a Republican of sorts.  That counts, doesn’t it? 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GWUMDXSUYVXFOVKEDR7OG3SD7A John Doe

    The liberal media is back at it again, before it was John McCain’s malignant tumor on his face and his “likely inability to function” as President, while completely ignoring the medical condition of a chain smoker who “frequently inhaled” cocaine according to his own words. McCain released more than 1,208 pages of his medical history and current status, while Obama released a single letter from his doctor with less than 7 sentences that simply said Obama is fine.

  • SCConservative

    Conservatives, have no fear. I have the answer as follows. To those men who,wish to marry another man, let them do so. To those women, who wish to marry another woman, let them do so. To those who wish to abort their unborn children, let them do so. Now, if we allow this to happen, there will be no liberals left in 2 to 3 generations.

  • JMcCarthy

    Kennedy was assassinated by a Communist, the same Communists who have now taken over the democrat party.

  • Seattlepoet4u

    Ross reminds me why only lawyers and the Taliban are worse than journalists, especially progressives masquerading as journalists. What a waste.

  • Seattlepoet4u

    It’s not a double standard–it’s fundamentalist liberal dogma. These progressive media propagandists quit using standards years ago. If you want to see a record of their tactics, go to: http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberal_hate_speech

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