Monday, October 18, 2010

Joe Miller's Thugs "Arrest" Reporter For Asking Questions

I had come across this very important story from Palingates - at a town hall meeting up in Alaska, tea party and Palin-backed candidate Joe Miller was leaving the meeting when a journalist, Tony Hopfinger, was reporting on the campaign and was detained by Miller's security team, with Miller's security claiming the reporter was erratic and potentially violent.  Palingates had definitely done this story justice - they detailed the arrest with numerous updates as well as supplying a companion piece discussing East Germany and the Berlin Wall (stemming from Miller's own praise of the communist immigration and emigration deterrent).

I will only supply a video clip from local news KTUU (I suggest visiting Palingates for the complete story):



I would just like to say that what makes this interesting is that Joe Miller's security team tried to enforce a private-party arrest but the real police would not honor it. It is funny that a self-proclaimed Constitutionalist candidate like Joe Miller would try to arrest journalists from asking questions - whatever happened to that freedom of the press those guys love so much?

From the Alaskan Dispatch - home of the reporter - here is what all the eyewitness accounts determine what really happened - not Miller's delusion:
  • Two or three bodyguards told Hopfinger to stop asking questions and to leave the building.
  • Hopfinger continued to ask questions while apparently videotaping the candidate.
  • Bodyguards told him that if he persisted they would arrest him for trespassing, but refused to identify themselves to Hopfinger.
  • Hopfinger asked why he was trespassing, as the event was at a public school. Seconds later, he was then put in arm-bar and later handcuffed and sequestered at one end of a hallway for at least 30 minutes. He was told, "You're under arrest."
  • Anchorage Police arrived on the scene shortly after.
The Dispatch also points out that the event was organized by Miller supporters and populated by supporter-invited guests.  This whole story sounds as if the Miller campaign was trying to suppress the media.

I find this story interesting because of the rise of the right-wing "citizen journalist," like idiot investigative reporter wannabe James O'Keefe, and the conservative approval of what amounts to guerrilla "journalism" and blatant propagandizing - again, read Palingates because they detail the mindset of Palin's supporters and their opinion of the events that took place.

I am also reminded of the numerous claims coming from the right alleging leftist thuggery and biased media.  Miller's campaign is a perfect example of the contrary - it appears most of the violence has its roots with the intolerant right-wing fringe that Miller is a part of...

1 comment:

  1. You need to go to biggovernment again. They have a post about a Democrat candidate who refused to answer questions posed by a neo-con ambush journalist. Their hypocrisy is simply amazing.

    ReplyDelete

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