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Reporter Arrested For Asking Questions At Press Conference
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by babblingdweeb | June 6, 2007 at 08:18 pm
737 views | 10 Recommendations | 5 comments
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Matt Lepacek, the reporter who was kicked out of the CNN press room and arrested after asking Rudy Giuliani's staff a question, has now been released on bail. Criminal indictments are now being pursued against the police involved as well as Giuliani's staffers for their flagrant abuse of the First Amendment, assault and wrongful arrest.
I am so stunned right now I want to scream...or start a riot. Maybe both. Someone in a press room with press credentials asking questions gets arrested? What's next?
The question(s) being asked are hard to hear as Matt is getting yelled at by a different reporter. Essentially Matt is asking who told Giuliani that the towers were going to collapse and why he did not warn the firefighters, rescue workers and police to evacuate the area. The question stems from an interview with Rudy Giuliani and Peter Jennings where Rudy says "we were told the buildings were going to collapse." Since a steel frame building has never collapsed due ot fire damage in the history of the U.S. the notion that there was warning of a collapse seems illogical. These comments along with building controller Larry Silverstein remarks about "pulling" WTC 7 during a PBS interview have fueled conspiracy theory debates.
The question of "Who told you the buildings were going to collapse?" (you can just hear Matt Lepacek saying it is regarding the Peter Jennings interview) is a legit and newsworthy question. I don't care if the freelance reporter was asking if Giuliani liked ice
cream or asked if he was from Mars. How does something legal, and
sanctioned by CNN turn into Criminal Trespass?
Lepacek was later released on $400 bail but faces charges of criminal trespassing even though he had obtained a CNN press pass well in advance and the debate was a public event. State police have refused to hand back electronic equipment that they seized from the group.
CNN staff attempted to dissuade police from arresting Lepacek as he was led out into the parking lot but were ignored.
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babblingdweeb
Royal Oak, Michigan, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 21:43 on June 6th, 2007
Apologies, this story was double posted after I clicked hilight twice -previous comments were not deleted...I just deleted the other story.
at 03:44 on June 7th, 2007
babblingdweeb, Some people think freedom of the press is the freedom to hear only what they want, and the freedom not to be criticized. Frightening stuff -> Good stuff.
at 06:24 on June 7th, 2007
Agreed! I do have to say that while in some situations I agree with "pushing" for answers, but I think if Matt would have been a little less aggressive (yelling, tossing some propaganda comments) this would be harder for the other side to spin.
I had to filter out the rest of the information from the site on harassment, broken equipment and espionage claims -as I felt they were related to PrisonPlanet spin. That fact alone makes this a hard story to swallow, but the video of him being removed is right there and wrong. I'm still a little unsure as to who the woman was that can be heard yelling at Matt -a few accounts say she is press, others don't say she is part of the Giuliani camp -but it's weird to think she was causing about as much of a scene (to the point you can't hear everything being heard) and was not asked to leave herself.
Much of the commentary online about this story/situation focuses around Matt not being an "actual journalist", which is accurate, however, he did have press credentials so I have to say that it was inappropriate for him to be removed from the venue. The validity of the press credentials is also in questions and many are awaiting for it to be verified from an independent source before passing judgment...I chose to assume PrisonPlanet would not be as naive to destroy all of their credibility by lying about the one thing they focus on: Matt had press credentials cleared by CNN.
at 06:22 on June 8th, 2007
babblingdweeb, Terrorism is just another excuse for limiting freedom of expression. Good stuff.
at 08:08 on June 12th, 2007
Isn't that a sad & scary truth?