You can’t see the actual push, but you can see the thug, Michael Meehan, continue to attempt to impede the reporter. The AP confirms that the person who did the initial pushing was Meehan.
Assuming thing are as they appear, what should happen to Meehan? Should nothing happen, like nothing happened to this other democrat thug?
I think he should immediately be arrested and prosecuted as severely as the law permits.
You?
Just came across this. He tripped, of course.
I’m all for journalistic freedom and that, but just what did these “reporters” expect to get from these encounters? Perhaps if they behaved more like civilised human beings, and not star-crazed groupies or the human equivalent of rabid hyenas, they might get treated with a bit more respect?
ps. link worked for me.
Well, that tears it. Due to the actions of this obscure campaign worker for some local candidate I never heard of, I shall never again vote for a Democrat. From now on I shall only support Republicans, no matter how inane, ill-conceived or downright evil their policies are.
Thank you, kind sir, for bringing this earth-shattering story to my attention.
For those who haven’t heard of Coakley - she’s the Democratic candidate for Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat in MA. She expected to coast easily into office, but the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, is really giving her a run for her money. And if he wins, the Dems lose that precious 60 vote filibuster proof majority they’ve got. It’s a huge deal right now in MA, and there’s a slim, but real chance that the Senate becomes a very different place next Wednesday.
It wasn’t, though. Look, whatever the motivation of the OP, it’s appropriate to debate Meehan’s actions and talk about manipulation of the press independent of whether the Democrats or the Republicans are the better party.
I concur. That said, I’m not sure there’s much to debate or discuss here beyond my response. A campaign worker did something stupid. Well, whoops - fire him and charge him. This does not reflect on the campaign itself.
The OP specifically linked the thuggery to the political affiliation of the so-called thug. Any response that recognizes that is certainly appropriate.
There’s no logical reason to blame this on Coakley, but that goes without saying, I think.
Oh, I know this is gonna be good…
If the reporter was bothering Coakley at her home, you would probably still be wrong but you’d at least have a point. Coakley’s a candidate for the U.S. Senate and she’s out in public, taking questions from the media. The guy did nothing unusual or wrong. He asked her a question she didn’t want to answer and one of her people decided to go Tammany Hall on the guy. Taking a few steps in someone’s direction when they walk away is not being a rabid hyena.
Well, you can debate whether or not he did anything wrong in getting in the reporter’s way. You can turn it into a debate on how a campaign should deal with media that’s hostile to them. You could debate whether or not this sort of minor violence in political campaigns is treated less harshly. You could discuss whether or not the fact that Boston is dominated by Democrats biases official response. I don’t know. The debate could go all sorts of different ways.