COMM 150: All in a day's work? Reporter cuffed at political rally

Tony Hopfinger, editor of an online journal called The Alaska Dispatch, was trying to interview Joe Miller, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, after a campaign event at a public school in Anchorage. He followed Miller out of the campaign event - a "town hall" meeting - into a hallway, asking Miller about he was disciplined for using city property for political campaigning in Fairbanks (which is a violation of law). Miller didn't answer, and Hopfinger kept asking for comment. Which is pretty standard. If they don't want to talk to you, you ask them why, and you keep asking ... and anything they say you can report. Anyway, the security guys shoved Hopfinger into a locker and then "arrested" him and put him in handcuffs. They said they'd call Anchorage PD, and Hopfinger said go ahead, good idea. A video shows a reporter for The Anchorage Daily News interviewing Hopfinger before more of the goons came back. There were a couple of other media there, too, including another reporter for the Alaska Dispatch. You'll hear the reporter, Jill Burke, asking a guard to take hands off her. Her report is report linked here. And the video by ADN reporter Richard Mauer is here:



Here's what the ADN's political blog says about the video:

Here's video shot yesterday (Sunday) by ADN reporter Richard Mauer after Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed and detained by security guards working for Senate candidate Joe Miller at a campaign event yesterday. The video starts after Hopfinger was placed in handcuffs and before Anchorage police arrived (Mauer interviewed him for several minutes before starting the video). The voice in the video is Mauer.

Read more: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/153751#ixzz12rfCavH3