Shock Report: Reporter Kept Confined in Closet During Biden Fund-Raiser In Florida UPDATE: Biden Team Apologizes

Nuh no no no no no no no…. NO! This can not possibly be true. Can it?

According to Drudge, this happened:

Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an ORLANDO SENTINEL reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Dem fundraiser.

Reporter Scott Powers was the designated "pool reporter" for the vice president's Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn't arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.

Not so for Powers. A "low-level staffer" put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. "When I'd stick my head out, they'd say, 'Not yet. We'll let you know when you can come out.'"

And no crustini for Powers, either. He made do with a bottle of water to sip as he sat at a tiny makeshift desk, right next to a bag marked "consignment." Powers was closeted at about 11:30 a.m., held for about an hour and 15 minutes, came out for 35 minutes of remarks by Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and then returned to his jail for the remainder of the event.

Powers' phone didn't work in the closet, but his Blackberry did, so he fired a picture of his impromptu prison to his editors, who posted a short blog item on the lack of freedom of the press under the veep's control.

That would be this pic:

The original Sentinel report, here.

So the sole reporter allowed to cover the event was relegated to a  closet guarded by an administration flunky for most of the event.

Hey, how is that hope and change working out for you MSM?

UPDATE:

ABC’s Jake Tapper has more: Biden Team Apologizes to Reporter for Sticking Him In Closet

“Scott – You have our sincere apologies for the lack of a better hold room today,” wrote Vice President Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander last Wednesday to Orlando Sentinel reporter Scott Powers.

“Lack of a better hold room” is an interesting way of putting it. In order to keep Powers from mingling with guests at a Democratic fundraiser last Wednesday, Powers was escorted into a storage closet by a Biden staffer.

Powers was the designated pool reporter, there to record the proceedings for the press corps in general.

He told ABC News that he showed up at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday to cover Vice President Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., attending a $500-a-head fundraiser at the Winter Park manse of developer Alan Ginsburg.

A young female staffer met him at the door and brought him to the storage closet.

“You’re going to have to wait in here until the VP gets here,” he says she told him.

“You’re kidding me,” he recalls responding.

Forcing reporters into closets is generally not the tradition of politicians in the US. Powers is a respected politics and business reporter who recently wrote about the Space shuttle Discovery coming home to Kennedy Space Center for the 39th and final time.

Making matters worse, Biden didn’t arrive until more than an hour later.

***

Biden’s office added that in this particular occasion, “half of the hold room was used for storage by the home’s owner and the other half was open space. A table and chair were set up for the reporter to allow him to file his story afterwards and work while he waited for the speaking program to begin. It was designated as the hold space because of its close proximity to the event room. The speaking program began approximately one hour after the reporter arrived, which he covered as the pool reporter, and he departed the home as soon as the motorcade left (about 15 mins after the speaking program ended).”

Alexander’s note to Powers ended: “Thank you for your patience and flexibility.”

If the other half of the room was open space, why was the table and chair situated practically on top of garage sale stuff? It doesn’t look like the guy even had elbow room.

Simon Neville (does that sound like a British name, or what) of The Daily Mail dryly notes:

Just ten days ago, President Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney told reporters: ‘journalists should be protected and allowed to do their work.’

More:

Weasel Zippers: Flashback: Biden’s History of Stifling Orlando Reporters — “This cancellation is non-negotiable”

Biden has a history of trouble with the media in Orlando. Trouble meaning – a reporter once asked him some tough questions during the 2008 campaign, and Biden, used to softballs,  was forced to lie and obfuscate his way through the entire interview. You may remember this – I sure as hell do.

What a breath of fresh air this woman was:

One day later, Team Obama announced a “non-negotiable” blackout of WFTV.

Two and a half years later, it’s painfully obvious that all of her questions were entirely valid, and Biden’s answers, just the typical dishonest bull we get from this bunch.

Linked by Fausta, thanks!

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