Colby Hall Rips Ohio Police for Arresting NewsNation Reporter at News Conference: ‘Americans Should Be Outraged’

Mediaite Founding Editor Colby Hall slammed Ohio local authorities for placing NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert under arrest over his coverage of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) press conference.

Hall, a NewsNation contributor, joined NewsNation’s Mitch Carr on Thursday to talk about how Lambert was arrested as he was about to do a live report before DeWine’s presser on the toxic chemical spill from the disastrous train derailment in the state earlier this week. Local police were filmed arresting Lambert for alleged criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, which drew uproar among journalists as DeWine said the arrest was “wrong.” Lambert was released shortly after the arrest.

In his take on the incident, Hall called the arrest “crazy” as he exclaimed “Americans should be outraged by this”

“What I’m about to say seems sort of obvious,” he said, “but we live at a time, where sometimes the obvious needs to be said. People should be very, very angry that a journalist was arrested and held behind bars. This is the sort of stuff that doesn’t happen in the United States, given First Amendment rights. It happens in authoritarian regimes like Russia. This is what Vladimir Putin does.”

Hall called the incident “absurd and embarrassing” for the local authorities, explaining that even if Lambert had to end his live hit early, there was no justification in arresting him for doing his job. Hall complimented DeWine for condemning the arrest, though he noted Lambert “spoke cautiously” in his first media segment after his release, presumably on the advice of his legal counsel.

I suspect there’s some probable legal back and forth, and I’m sure Evan will probably get an apology. I would be surprised if any further actions are taken against him, and I suspect the sheriff’s or the authorities in Columbiana County will probably get chided, I don’t know if they’ll get censured but they’ll say they’ll be told clearly you can’t arrest media. That’s just not how it works in the United States.

Watch above via NewsNation.