Newsmax-Inside Cover
Friday June 9, 2000; 6:50 AM EDT
Hillary's Secret Service Blocking Tough Questions: Bureau Chief
The New York press corps hasn't been able to agressively question
Senate candidate Hillary Clinton because she's using her Secret
Service security detail to physically block reporters.
That was the charge made Thursday night by New York Post Albany
bureau chief Fred Dicker, who says the first lady is "using the
resources of the federal government to prevent us from just
having the kind of access you would take for granted with any
other politician."
Appearing on CNBC's Hardball, Dicker was asked by host Chris
Matthews why the first lady refuses to appear on the Sunday TV
talk shows:
MATTHEWS: Why is Hillary dodging the big interview programs?
DICKER: Because she's afraid of making a mistake. Let me note
that I have my own radio show, Chris, and she won't come on with
me. So she's dodging me too.
MATTHEWS: Who are her chosen children? Who will Hillary give
interviews to? Anybody?
DICKER: Well, she hasn't recently in the last several weeks.
Very, very brief. They'll bring in a TV reporter for four minutes
and say, "You have one or two questions, then get out," and then
bring in another one.....
MATTHEWS: Why don't you folks in the local press corps grill her
on who she is and where she came from?
DICKER: I'll give you the answer to that, Chris. We try and the
Secret Service stops us. I mean, she'll show up at a local event
and you'll go up to her like you would any candidate, and say,
"Mrs. Clinton, can I ask you...." and she runs off and the Secret
Service blocks us. She's done that time after time after time.
You can't get to her. She's using the resources of the federal
government to prevent us from just having the kind of access you
would take for granted with any other politician.
In fact, Dicker's charges that Mrs. Clinton has been using her
security detail as a kind of praetorian guard-media shield are
not new.
During a 1996 fund-raising swing through Arizona, local
reporters complained that Secret Service was interfering with
press coverage that posed no physical risk to the first lady
whatsoever.
"Reporters at the Monday afternoon speech were kept at arm's
length from the first lady by Secret Service agents, who warned
the press not to yell out questions," reported The Arizona
Republic at the time.
Hours earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected a White House bid
to keep some of Mrs. Clinton's Whitewater records sealed.
Incensed by the abuse of both the presidential security detail
and the First Amendment, Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon complained to
The Washington Times, "It appears (the president) has targeted
the Secret Service to silence his critics. The Secret Service is
paid to protect the president and his family from physical harm,
not to protect them from tough questions."
Last March, at least one reporter accused Mrs. Clinton's
bodyguards of physically attacking journalists as they tried to
cover her march in New York's St. Patrick's Day parade, where she
was roundly booed.
"Secret Service agents literally are pushing press to the
ground," Metro Network newsman Glenn Schuck told a WABC-NY radio
audience. "They just lost their minds, in my opinion. I mean they
just started pushing and shoving; female camera people five feet
tall were getting thrown to the ground, cameras flying. Myself, I
was grabbed by the shoulder, I was thrown back over. I think
somebody from Channel 11 landed on my back. >From that point it
really didn't get any better." (See: Hillary's Secret Service
Agents Rough Up Reporters as St. Pat's Crowd Boos)
The bizarre episode was dismissed by Schuck's media colleagues,
including one Washington based columnist who told NewsMax.com she
didn't believe it happened even after hearing Schuck's report on
tape.
The night of the parade a local CBS news broadcast showed footage
of a Clinton bodyguard blocking a CBS crew's camera lens with his
hand. CBS was trying to film spectators as they booed and jeered
the first lady.
Though New York reporters are just beginning to complain about
Mrs. Clinton's inaccessability, Dicker is the first journalist of
any prominence to publicly object to Hillary's heavy handed use
of the Secret Service.
Five weeks after the St. Patrick's Day assaults, an NBC camera
crew was beaten by federal agents as they attempted to film the
Clinton administration's gunpoint abduction of Elian Gonzalez.
The network's soundman was slammed in the head with a rifle butt.
An NBC cameraman was slugged twice and held down by an agent who
kept a boot on his back for the duration of the raid. He was
later hospitalized. Both were told they'd be shot if they moved.
(See: NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating)
The assaults were corroborated by a third member of the NBC crew
and at least one Gonzalez family friend who witnessed the attack.
In fact, as reports of harassment and violence against
journalists multiply, it begins to look like the White House has
devised a deliberate strategy to use physical force to obstruct
coverage of problematic stories.
Worse still, it appears it can do so with impugnity, since most
mainstream reporters refuse to acknowledge that these incidents
have even taken place.
In late March, NewsMax.com was told that an investigation into
the St. Patrick's Day assaults would be undertaken behind the
scenes and without public comment. Since then, it appears the
matter has been quietly dropped.
In their INS debriefing after the Elian Gonzalez raid, six Border
Patrol agents denied assaulting the NBC camera crew in any way.
Though network executives personally requested a probe into the
beatings, the INS's denials have been met by complete silence
from NBC.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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