Remember this event in Ohio during the presidential campaign?
This week's gate crashing at the White House is troubling, but a state dinner guest list is not the biggest hole in presidential security. The media gate is the biggest hole in presidential security, and it's there every single day, just waiting to be walked through.
I wrote this at the time, after entering this event in Berea through the media gate, the same gate this heckler in the press pen came through.
There were no metal detectors at the press entrance to the Baldwin Wallace Recreation Center except for one agent holding a handheld metal detector which he waved over the bodies of the entrants. In addition, bags did not go through a thorough search. My bag was opened and looked through, my laptop was opened, but if something in my bag were a weapon designed as a camera or a lens, no one would have found it.
I think every press person wonders about this at every presidential event. John Quinn had a bag of lenses and cameras. If he was subject to the same search everyone else was going into the press area, well....it’s no surprise this guy created some nervousness in press pen.
This is the standard procedure for media at presidential events. I've been around for presidential events in Ohio since 1988, I've attended dozens, both as staff and media, and as long as you're on the media list for an event, you walk through that media entrance, subject to this level of security.
If a credentialed member of the media wanted to gut out their camera equipment, or a power strip, or a mixing board, or a laptop, and put a weapon inside, no one would find it. All a crazy has to do to get on that media list is sign up, claim to be media, and cross their fingers they win a spot.
And if someone wants to tell me that media can be trusted entirely with this kind of gaping hole, under this environment, with this president, all they have to do is watch that video.