On Friday, Stephen Price, a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper was kicked out of a media area at a rally for McCain. Price is black. All of the other reporters in the area were white. He was the only reporter asked to leave. All of his security and media credentials were in order. When another reporter asked why Price was removed, she was also removed.
Jonathan Block, a McCain campaign worker, said “I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that race had nothing to do with it.”
So why was Price kicked out? Well, when you don’t have a good excuse, I guess you make something up. Block said “At the end of the day, your reporter was in the wrong place.” Price works for a state newspaper, and he was in an area restricted to members of the traveling national press corps that accompanies McCain on his campaign travels.
The only problem with that excuse is that it is a lie. There were several other reporters from the local press in the same area, and none of them were asked to leave. Only Price, the black reporter, and then another reporter who asked why Price was removed. When asked about this, Block could only say “I do not know why the other reporters were not moved. The rest of the local press should have been moved as well.”
I have a better excuse for the McCain campaign. Price was removed because he works for the Tallahassee Democrat. This would not be the first time McCain kicked a Democrat out of one of his campaign rallies.
