(White House) Agents posed as (Fox News) journalists before visit

[Newsjock]

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/14119840.htm

There was a whirlwind of activity in the days prior to President Bush's arrival at a home on the beach in Gautier last week, with government officials and Secret Service scouting a location and checking the neighborhood where Bush would stop.

... But one part of the preparation for the President's arrival involved two government agents posing as journalists.

Recounting the pre-visit days for WLOX and the Sun Herald, Jerry Akins, who received Bush, mentioned that on the Friday before Bush arrived, two men approached him identifying themselves as members of the media.

He said the men told him they were with Fox News out of Houston, Texas, and were on a "scouting mission" for a story on new construction. They took pictures inside Akins' house, which is under construction and looked up and down the road in the neighborhood.
Akins said he didn't think anything more about them partly because visits from strangers increased exponentially as government agents and Secret Service arrived that Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before the March 8 visit.

But after the president left Akins' home, the two men again approached Akins and let him know they were not media after all, but were with the governmental entourage.

more

[TiredTexan]

1. Don't you wonder how much money

they waste doing stuff like this?

[peacebird]

2. is it fascism yet?

[NewWaveChick1981]

8. Yep, it's fascism...

See?

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm

[Gman]

3. They weren't SS

They had to be WH advance people. Some young punks drunk on what they think is some kind of power. That's SOP for the scum the Bush WH attracts.

[Newsjock]

5. Good point

Subject line edited accordingly... thanks.

[brooklynite]

4. Why is this remotely surprising?

After all, the Administration and Fox News have been intertwined for years.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

6. Related news: Fox News agents pose as journalists. eom

[MADem]

7. And, stunningly: Fox News had no comment.

...But Aly Colon, who deals with issues of ethics for the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., said such a scenario undermines the public's trust of the media.
"I think when individuals who are not journalists pose as journalists, it creates, at the least, some confusion in the public's minds," Colon said. "The key to journalism is credibility. So what the public wants to be able to do is trust people and organizations who represent themselves as part of the journalistic community."
He said such misrepresentations might feed any perception among the public that some news organizations lie about their political ideologies or associations with businesses.
"When they see someone blurring the lines, it sets up a doubt," Colon said. "It's like someone misrepresenting themselves as a police officer or public official to seek out information. It begins to sow doubt in the minds of the people. They ask, 'Who am I dealing with here?'....

Who are you dealing with? Why, a government out of control, that's all!! Nothing to worry yer little head over!!!!

[0rganism]

9. Fox News journalists pose as WH agents all the time -- is that any better?

Really, I don't know which is more dangerous to democracy. I think it's only natural that if you can have it one way, you can easily have it the other way around, too.

[Drum]

10. Terrific point! nt