bump
FYI, the reporter in question, Scott Powers, has responded to the story in the comments at the link provided above:
“Wow, is my time in the closet getting legs on the blogosphere. I had no idea.
Let me clarify a few points.
1. It was frustrating and annoying that I was not given a chance to do my job fully and properly. I was allowed to come out long enough to listen to the remarks, but not to talk with anyone, a point reported a couple times later on this blog.
2. I wasn’t kidnapped. I was confined, but the situation was: If I wanted to hear the remarks, I was to wait there. If I wanted to leave, I’m sure I could have left the house. I just wasn’t free to join the party to talk with anyone. (See point 1.)
3. While this was an extreme, and extremely inappropriate way of handling the press, it’s unfortunately not unusual for event organizers to put reporters in a spot where they cannot wander freely and talk with people at the event. Politicians of all stripes adopt this policy. More typically, when this happens, we’re roped off in a corner of the event area. Besides the practical problem of this preventing me from doing my job (see point 1,) it was essentially a rude and uncomfortable way to treat a reporter. But that’s it.
4. I have since spoken with the home owner Alan Ginsburg. He called and very graciously apologized, and assured me that he had no idea that the Veep’s team had put me in his closet, and he was upset that it had happened. I’m sure that’s true and I accepted his apology.
5. One of the Veep’s staffers e-mailed an apology, though I found it far less satisfying than Ginsburg’s.
6. We (the Sentinel) didn’t make a big deal out of it because we figured – and I personally believe – that the way politicians treat reporters may be amusing to ghe general public, yet rude and uncomfortable treatment of a reporter is hardly unusual or shocking.”