Last Tuesday, David Singleton, a reporter for the Scranton Times Tribune, heard a shout of "Kill Him!" in the crowd at the Scranton rally and reported it. He says he was contacted by a Secret Service spokesman and told he shouldn't have published the story.
Scary.
Agency spokesperson Donovan disputed that Singleton was told he shouldn’t have published word of the alleged threat: "The reporter was merely asked if there was any further information."
Today, Dana Millbank's credibility is being questioned by the Secret Service. Thursday, in an on-line session at the Washington Post, he said,
I wasn't at the Scranton event, but I have to say the Secret Service is in dangerous territory here. In cooperation with the Palin campaign, they've started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd. This is a serious violation of their duty -- protecting the protectee -- and gets into assisting with the political aspirations of the candidate. It also often makes it impossible for reporters to get into the crowd to question the people who say vulgar things. So they prevent reporters from getting near the people doing the shouting, then claim it's unfounded because the reporters can't get close enough to identify the person.
I've been trying to follow anything I find on this topic.
Today, I ran across this at propublica.org
"It’s not a function of the Secret Service to prevent or limit reporters from interviewing the people at events," said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. "We’ve never been asked by any campaign to do that."
Donovan said that at rallies for all the candidates, the Secret Service sometimes separates the press corps that is credentialed to cover the event—known as the pool—from the general public. That is for logistical and security reasons, he said.
You know, I'd like to believe that. But not only do I not know either of the journalists, I'm hesitant about trusting much that comes out of this administration...with good reason, I think. If Justice and the freaking FORESTRY service (to name just two agencies) can be over-run by neo-con political appointees whose callings seem to be to undermine every good thing about the agencies, I think I can be allowed a certain lee-way for doubting.
I'll keep watching these events. I'd be interested in anything you've heard or seen, if you'd care to share it in the comments.