First They Came for the Militantly Bush-Hating Media, And I Did Not Speak Up, For I Was Not Militantly Bush-Hating Media. Then They Came for the Militantly Clinton-Hating Media…
Press credentials don't always work the way they're supposed to. Monday my pal Sarah Ferguson recounted this tale in The Village Voice:
On Broadway, I plowed my bike directly into a skirmish between members of QueerFist, who had just finished a kiss-in, and some other militantly autonomous group marching behind a banner that read: "RIGHT WING SCUM, YOUR TIME HAS COME."…The police shoved us onto the sidewalk and cordoned off the area with orange netting, corraling me and several other members of the press with the demonstrators. One by one, the cops weeded out who was credentialed enough to escape arrest. (Warning to Indymedia folk: Your press card won't keep you out of jail.)
Apparently, The American Spectator isn't police-approved either. This was posted on the Spectator site about 50 minutes ago:
When last we heard from our convention reporter Shawn Macomber, he was about to be handcuffed and hauled off to the hoosegow along with a great many demonstrators (and some other hapless reporters) whom New York police had decided to arrest yesterday during mid-afternoon. Those arresting him refused to honor his official convention press credentials. (Hope this will be of interest to more than just the ACLU.) Shawn informed me that if I didn't hear from him within a few hours, it would probably be Wednesday morning at the earliest that he'd be able to file copy for today. We'll keep you posted.