USA: Free Press, Except in Election Years

An ABC News producer is arrested on a Denver sidewalk while waiting to photograph a meeting of Democratic senators and VIP donors at a posh hotel.



While ABC has run an online story about this, it's not on the ABCnews.com homepage, despite all the markers of a made-for-the-medium hit: righteous journalists, cynical politics, and of course, engaging video footage.

What did they highlight instead? These:

Clinton in Elevator Mishap
Will "Obama Girl" Meet Obama?
Chihuahua Takes Bite Out Of Crime

Great. The reader comments on the ABC News story are overwhelmingly in favor of a free press, but a few are creepy: "This reporter was simply trying to be provocative." "Kudos to the Denver police." "Not doing what the police tell you to do is always a sure way to get arrested."

ABC News is getting treatment here that independent journalists are more used to. See minute 5 in this video, as an officer bellows "You're interfering with the police!" to a producer at the independent American News Project. Actually, he's standing in a public plaza talking into a camera.

Further Reading:

Here's the ABC News story on money-in-politics that this was part of.

-- Jonathan Werve