Now They've Gone And Done It... They've Pissed Off The NY Press !!!

[WillyT]

13 News Organizations File Complaints with NYPD Over Treatment of Journalists
By Chris O'Shea - MediaBistro
November 22, 2011 10:59 AM

<snip>

A large group of New York based news organizations — 13 in all — have filed complaints with the NYPD about the way journalists covering the Occupy protests have been treated. According to the New York Times, a letter written by George Freeman, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for The New York Times Company, was sent to the NYPD yesterday.

The letter stated that officers had violated laws and that there have been “numerous inappropriate, if not unconstitutional, actions and abuses,” by the police. It also asked for an immediate meeting with NYPD chief Ray Kelly, and said that things were getting worse as the protests go on:

‘Over the past few months we have tried to work with DCPI to improve police-press relations,’ the letter stated, using shorthand for the department commissioner of public information. ‘However, if anything, the police actions of last week have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory.’

<snip>

Link: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/13-news-organizations-file-complaints-with-nypd-over-treatment-of-journalists_b47331

**********************************************************************************

And...

NY Press Club Calls For Investigation Into NYPD’s Treatment of Journalists During Zuccotti Park Raid
By Andrew Gauthier - MediaBistro
November 15, 2011 6:14 PM

<snip>

The New York Press Club Foundation is calling for an investigation into the reported police aggression against journalists covering the NYPD’s early morning raid of Zuccotti Park.

“As police officers acted to remove Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, several reporters protested that they were the victims of harassment and that their rights under the First Amendment were violated,” wrote Gabe Pressman, longtime WNBC reporter and president of the New York Press Club Foundation, in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Here’s the full letter…

Dear Mr. Mayor and Police Commissioner Kelly:

On Tuesday morning, November 15th, as police officers acted to remove Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, several reporters protested that they were the victims of harassment and that their rights under the First Amendment were violated.

A few were arrested or detained.

The actions of some police officers were not consistent with the long-established relationship between the NYPD and the press.

The brash manner in which officers ordered reporters off the streets and then made them back off until the actions of the police were almost invisible is outrageous.

We want the department to investigate the incidents involved this crackdown on Zuccotti Park and we want assurances it won’t happen again.

Sincerely,

Gabe Pressman
President, New York Press Club Foundation
Chairman, Freedom of the Press Committee

Link: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/ny-press-club-calls-for-investigation-into-nypds-treatment-of-journalists-during-zuccotti-park-raid_b29308

:kick:

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Go Gabe!

Who is Gabe Pressman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabe_Pressman

[Kaleko]

2. Tick, tick, tick... building pressure

on our worldwide time bomb.

[meow2u3]

3. Bill Clinton said it best

"Never pick a fight with people who buy their ink by the barrel."

Whoever pisses off a journalist will have hell to pay. Apparently, this is a lesson Bloomberg and the NYPD never learned.

(edited to correct wording of quote)

[tblue37]

7. JFK said it:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Suppressing the press as they try to report on the treatment of peaceful dissidents is part of TPTB's attempt to make peaceful revolution impossible.

[Enthusiast]

13. Wow!

I've never heard that quote before.

[bvar22]

10. That quote preceeded Bill Clinton by quite a few years.

If Bill used it, he "borrowed" it.
I have heard it attributed to Mark Twain, H.L Mencken and a few others from the old days.

[MsPithy]

17. No snark,

but, can you post a link? I've just looked at some quote sites, who attribute it to Clinton. If you have a more scholarly site, I would like to know it. Again, no snark.

[meow2u3]

23. If I'm not mistaken, Mark Twain was the one who said it first

I googled "Never pick a fight with someone who buys his ink by the barrel" and it turned out to be Mark Twain was the one who said it first. There's even a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ink-by-the-Barrel/373785700188

Here's another source: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/never_argue_with_a_man_who_buys_ink_by_the_barrel/

[Paka]

48. Sure sounds like classic Mark Twain. n/t

[ooglymoogly]

36. Sorry, that was 1st said by Mark Twain, then by both V.P. potatoE head

and Bill Clinton. But Clinton does seem to get all the credit for it.

[meow2u3]

37. Allow me to adapt this quote for Internet purposes

Never pick a fight with people who buy their bandwidth by the terabyte. :web:

[ooglymoogly]

42. good one. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Well I'd like to see a few editorials

In all media.

This will remain pretty much inside baseball

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Abusing the Press... only happens in despotic states, no?

It can't happen here.

A lot of things can't happen here.

[Aaria]

22. You were right the first time.

[tblue]

31. How many (Bill of)Rights have been thrown by the wayside?

All in service to the PTB. Our democracy is a lie.

[90-percent]

44. It Can't Happen Here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKITpVovTAE

Makes for a nice rock tune.

-90% Jimmy

[mmonk]

6. Welcome to our world o stenographers of the bubble.

[Uncle Joe]

25. + Infinity with whipped topping on top. n/t

[sarcasmo]

8. Kick!

[woo me with science]

9. K&R nt

[WillyT]

11. Morning Kick...

:kick:

[Enthusiast]

12. This is the kind of shit that happens

in "other" countries.

[ejpoeta]

16. i believe we are now 'other countries'

[EFerrari]

29. When the 2000 election was stolen, Mike Moore said

If they are willing to do this, to steal our election, to steal our White House, what else are they willing to do? Ever since, we have been finding out.

[Enthusiast]

41. On the day of that SCOTUS decision

this nation went to shit.

[xchrom]

14. Recommend

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[femrap]

18. K and R

Get 'em Gabe :yourock: :woohoo: :applause:

[gratuitous]

19. Welcome to the party, O somnambulent bulldogs of the Fourth Estate

See? The dirty fucking hippies were right all along: Sooner or later, it won't just be our heads getting busted, and now your silence in the face of past repression has come back on your pointy little heads. You can't say you weren't warned. But now that you're all revolutionary and stuff, keep these incidents in mind, even when cocktail season starts again, could you?

[Uncle Joe]

26. + Infinity with a cherry on top. n/t

[hulka38]

27. Well done.

Please post more often.

[awoke_in_2003]

28. +1000. nt

[Blacksheep214]

32. Exactly!

Where the fuck were they when the batons were breaking bones and chemical weapons used on innocent resistors.

Now they are getting hurt and THEY don't like it.

Imagine George Carlin. Gee, That's too fucking bad!

Karma!

[defendandprotect]

20. Open war on journalists for decades now -- but that's democracy, right ... !!! ROFL

Was amazed to find that they had put NYC journalists covering OWS into a

PRESS PEN !!!!

And then they even blocked that with buses so that their attack on protesters

wouldn't be visible!!


YIKES!

[aquart]

33. Which means they knew the attack was going to be mean and bad

[defendandprotect]

38. YES .... !! Great point -- which everyone should understand ... preplanned brutality -- !!

:hi:

[The Wizard]

21. They hate us for our freedoms (NT)

[DeSwiss]

24. Maybe.....

...they should have asked to be embedded with the troops?

- K&R

[tcaudilllg]

30. What's the procedure for impeaching city officials?

[sabrina 1]

34. So, the complicit press has finally realized that they cannot

cooperate enough to satisfy the Ruling Class.

‘Over the past few months we have tried to work with DCPI to improve police-press relations,’

They are not supposed to be working on 'improving police-press relations'. They are supposed to be reporting the news. If some of that news exposes corruption, then they are doing their jobs.

Throughout these attacks on OWS the press has 'cooperated' by shutting of their cameras, upon request, just before the attacks began. That was reprehensible.

But the stupidity of the NYPD knows no bounds and they could never have continued their abusive practices for as long as they have without the complicity of the press. For them to attack the press is a perfect example of not only their stupidity, but of how arrogant they have become, like spoiled children who, no matter how much they are given always want more.

This will only be effective if the press now returns to covering the news, rather than trying to 'improve police-press' relations.

But, I don't see that happening. They will kiss and make up and return to business as usual. They are just hurt that now THEY are getting the same treatment which they thought their complicity would make them immune from.

[Hutzpa]

35. This don't mean sh*t

NY Times are doing their job and rightly so, if they have been doing their
job from the onset an attack by the police on unarmed protesters could have
been prevented. The Fourth Estate is another failure to society.

I don't see why people here are excited, if they go by the playbook I wont
be surprise to see them doing 360 to stab OWS in the back, so be very
careful what you wish for, I sure hope they're not trying to be the mouth
piece for OWS because everything people have worked hard for will disintegrate
overnight.

[ThomWV]

39. Oh myGod! The trembling giant has been awakened, now we'll see justice ..... right?

When the Chef of Police and the Mayor are hauled into court with multi-millon dollar lawsuits staring them in the face then there will be change.

[appleannie1]

40. I wondered how long it would take before the press got mad. They don't like being penned 2 blocks

from the action plus a couple reporters have been beaten.

[bros]

43. If the NYPD ignores this call and defends its treatment of the press

It will only be another example of their chipping away at New Yorker's constitutional rights. NYPD is a broken system, needs total, inside-out reform. :banghead:

[orbitalman]

45. Poor babies.... When it hits home..... n/t

[julian09]

46. The freedom of the press was violated

and all they want,is please promise, not to do it again. Their rights, the peoples right to protest peacefully are being denied.
There is no rationing or curfew on the constitutional rights. This a lame response, war correspondents face enemy fire to have truth told , these guys aren't taking on police
brutality, by making them accountable legally for crimes against peaceful citizens protesting, censoring press coverage, cops hiding their identities etc.

[Crowman1979]

47. Kiss your pathetic political career goodbye Bloomberg!

[poverlay]

49. The ruling elite are scared of one thing and one thing only: a mob..

:popcorn:

[lonestarnot]

50. K & R

[Blacksheep214]

51. Protecting the media?

Keep them safe? WTF!?

Let me tell Richard Engel, who is in Tahrir Square, that New York is more dangerous than Cairo!

[ooglymoogly]

52. yes...they have cut off their nose. kr nt