Miller Avoids Responsibility over Handcuffing
Via the Weekly Standard’s The Blog (Joe Miller on the Blogger Handcuffing Incident):
“We hired the security team, the security team assessed the situation themselves," he says. "They made a decision based upon their training and experience. So I wasn’t there when that particular event occurred. So I’m not in a position where I can interpose my personal opinion.
Perhaps I am expecting too much from someone how aspires to one of the highest offices in the land, but I would have thought that Miller would have a bit more of an opinion than that. It was his campaign event and his campaign was paying the guards. As such, he has some responsibility.
The whole post is worth reading given the author’s (John McCormack) own experiences as a reporter:
Given my experience with political campaigns calling the police on me and shoving me to keep me from asking questions, a few people have asked me for my personal opinion on the matter. So, let me stipulate: following a politician and asking the politician questions as he leaves an event is perfectly normal. On Capitol Hill, it’s what happens at the end of every Nancy Pelosi press conference and every Tuesday Senate policy luncheon.
Common manners dictate that there are at least a couple things reporters shouldn’t do, such as blocking a candidate’s movement or following the candidate into the bathroom–Joe Miller accused Hopfinger of doing both those things. Still, you can’t justify handcuffing a reporter for this out-of-line behavior
And again: this is a reporter for the Weekly Standard—a publication more likely than not to be sympathetic to Miller, not Hopfinger.
