Reporters covering Tsarnaev manhunt get guns drawn on them, treated like suspects by police

 

As the total lockdown in Boston is lifted and the manhunt for the remaining Tsarnaev brother continues, reporters attempting to cover the situation are being treated by police like suspects. In some cases officers are even drawing their weapons on the reporters.

James Ford, a reporter with local New York television station WPIX, got himself into hot water when filming police.

“I’ve been removed from crime scenes but never by officers with their guns drawn on me,” Ford said.

One officer told him to get back and asked, “Is it worth your life?”

“I’m tethered to this cable,” Ford said, according to the Huffington Post. “What’s more important, saving the cable or saving your life?” the officer asked.

After a few tense minutes, viewers witnessed the officers walking away with their guns at their sides.

In another incident, Kerry Sanders of NBC told “Today” that one officer pointed his gun at him when he was just talking to a woman near the scene of the shootout in Watertown.

Similarly, Megan Chuchmach, an ABC producer, said that she was swarmed and forced to the ground by officers with their guns drawn.

“I was walking with my camera trying to get a better sense of where the SWAT teams were all congregating when all of a sudden, three officers swarmed with their guns drawn, forced me to the ground, and told me that they were suspicious of my backpack and thought I might be the suspect,” Chuchmach said.

Others like Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian reported that police were yelling at journalists to stay back. Some of the officers had weapons drawn, Gabbatt said.

Time reporter Zeke Miller said that a CNN correspondent was told to move by a cop saying, “You’re in the line of fire, you’re in the line of fire.”

The Boston Police also tweeted earlier, “WARNING: Do Not Compromise Officer Safety by Broadcasting Tactical Positions of Homes Being Searched.”

 

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

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Contributed by Madison Ruppert of End the Lie.

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Reporters covering Tsarnaev manhunt get guns drawn on them, treated like suspects by police

Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas

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Reporters covering the oil spill from ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas, are reporting that they’ve been blocked from the site and threatened with arrest.

On Friday morning, Inside Climate News reported that an Exxon spokesperson told reporter Lisa Song that she could be “arrested for criminal trespass” when she went to the command center to try to find representatives from the EPA and the Department of Transportation. On Friday afternoon, I spoke to the news director from the local NPR affiliate who said he, too, had been threatened with arrest while trying to cover the spill.

Michael Hibblen, who reports for the radio station KUAR, went to the spill site on Wednesday with state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. McDaniel was in the area to inspect the site and hold a news conference, and Hibblen and a small group of reporters were following him to report on the visit. Upon arrival, representatives from the county sheriff’s office, which is running security at the site, directed the reporters to a boundary point 10 feet away that they should not pass. The reporters agreed to comply. But the tone shifted abruptly, Hibblen told Mother Jones on Friday:

It was less than 90 seconds before suddenly the sheriff’s deputies started yelling that all the media people had to leave, that ExxonMobil had decided they don’t want you here, you have to leave. They even referred to it as “Exxon Media”…Some reporters were like, “Who made this decision? Who can we talk to?” The sheriff’s deputies started saying, “You have to leave. You have 10 seconds to leave or you will be arrested.”

Hibblen says he didn’t really have time to deal with getting arrested, since he needed to file his report on the visit for both the local affiliate and national NPR. (You can hear his piece on the AG’s visit here.) KUAR has also reported on Exxon blocking reporters’ access to the spill site.

Since the spill happened a week ago, cleanup crews have collected 19,000 barrels of oil and water.

Hibblen says county officials seem to be deferring to Exxon when it comes to reporters. “This gets back to who’s really in charge, and it seems like ExxonMobil,” he said. “When you throw the media out, that’s when the media really get their tentacles up.”

Politics | Mother Jones

Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas

Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas

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Reporters covering the oil spill from ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas, are reporting that they’ve been blocked from the site and threatened with arrest.

On Friday morning, Inside Climate News reported that an Exxon spokesperson told reporter Lisa Song that she could be “arrested for criminal trespass” when she went to the command center to try to find representatives from the EPA and the Department of Transportation. On Friday afternoon, I spoke to the news director from the local NPR affiliate who said he, too, had been threatened with arrest while trying to cover the spill.

Michael Hibblen, who reports for the radio station KUAR, went to the spill site on Wednesday with state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. McDaniel was in the area to inspect the site and hold a news conference, and Hibblen and a small group of reporters were following him to report on the visit. Upon arrival, representatives from the county sheriff’s office, which is running security at the site, directed the reporters to a boundary point 10 feet away that they should not pass. The reporters agreed to comply. But the tone shifted abruptly, Hibblen told Mother Jones on Friday:

It was less than 90 seconds before suddenly the sheriff’s deputies started yelling that all the media people had to leave, that ExxonMobil had decided they don’t want you here, you have to leave. They even referred to it as “Exxon Media”…Some reporters were like, “Who made this decision? Who can we talk to?” The sheriff’s deputies started saying, “You have to leave. You have 10 seconds to leave or you will be arrested.”

Hibblen says he didn’t really have time to deal with getting arrested, since he needed to file his report on the visit for both the local affiliate and national NPR. (You can hear his piece on the AG’s visit here.) KUAR has also reported on Exxon blocking reporters’ access to the spill site.

Since the spill happened a week ago, cleanup crews have collected 19,000 barrels of oil and water.

Hibblen says county officials seem to be deferring to Exxon when it comes to reporters. “This gets back to who’s really in charge, and it seems like ExxonMobil,” he said. “When you throw the media out, that’s when the media really get their tentacles up.”

Politics | Mother Jones

Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas