Rep. Peter King's Office Suggests NPR Producer Lied About Being Detained At Border By DHS
from the gotcha-moment dept
We've written a few times now about how a producer for On the Media, Sarah Abdurrahman and many of her friends and family (all of whom are American citizens), were detained by US customs and border patrol (CBP) officials at the US Canadian border for many hours with no explanation. Their treatment was horrific, and worse, no one at DHS seems to have any interest in explaining what happened or why. On the Media then created a cool crowdsourcing tool asking people to call their Congressional representatives to try to get answers.The latest report involves some of the people who have called and what sort of response they got back. Not surprisingly, so far, not much has come of the effort, as no one in Congress seems particularly interested. However, I did want to call out one particular interaction, involving Rep. Pete King's "new media guy" who a caller reached. The caller, Philip Elmer-Dewitt, explained Sarah's story, and King's staff apparently got confrontational. According to the caller:
And he said:Of course, it's worth remembering that Rep. Pete King famously was very supportive of IRA terrorists, but now argues that Ed Snowden and Glenn Greenwald are "traitors" and even that Greenwald should be prosecuted (based on completely false claims that King appears to have made up himself). He's also claimed that calling the NSA's activities "snooping" or "spying" amounts to slander. Now, apparently, his staff are getting confrontational with constituents asking rather basic questions about how DHS is treating American citizens at the border. Makes you wonder whom Rep. Peter King actually thinks he's representing.
"Why should I believe this just because someone reported it?"
And I kinda got my back up and said:
"So, are you calling the NPR producer a liar?"
And he said:
"Oh! So you got your 'gotcha moment' now!"
And he was a little hostile, so I backed off a bit and said:
"No, it's a journalistic experiment. We're trying to elicit information. We're trying to learn what the policy is."
But, basically his answer was that Sarah should call her representative and that's all there was to it.
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Filed Under: cbp, customs and border patrol, detention, dhs, journalism, oversight, peter king, sarah abdurrahman
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What I specifically said was that characterizing Democrats or moderates as liberal socialists ("OMG the enemy!"), etc., pits us against them as enemies, and therefore enemies of the state, to some minds.
When they come for the anti-capitalists and Greens, no one gives a damn. What'll happen when liberals, libertarians and moderates get hammered for not being part of the program?
We've got to stop letting them divide us. We'll always disagree on some things, but there is a lot we have in common. Let's focus on that and unite to get them voted out.
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Classic
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What about Judge Alsup's courtroom?
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Edward Snowden on Peter King
I think Peter King is afraid that the truth about that might come out in the next batch of information released by Edward Snowden.
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Democracy is dead
The Constitution
ps the boys down the street say Peter King has a hot mouth
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"gotcha moment"
This phrase bothers me, especially the follow up "I backed off" part. To me, trying to portray a called out BS response as a "gotcha moment" with the facts of the situation is a crappy attempt at deflecting the BS response you just threw out. If that was your legitimate answer, it's not "gotcha", it's your stupid answer. If that wasn't your legitimate answer, why did you answer it in the first place?
To me, the caller should have called out the staffer for their comment, though their response is understandable since most people don't like confrontations.
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Re: "gotcha moment"
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We have not seen such a hateful Party in many Years and do not forget it was those GOP who pushed them on us.All so they could get a few more Votes.
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The main backers of the tea party are major corporations and the extremely wealthy. The tea party is one of the more overtly fascist intrusions into the political landscape.
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There is nothing hateful about the Tea Party itself. Less government, more freedom. Is that so bad?
Some members may be hate-driven, such as some members of your party are card carrying socialists.
Stop carrying their water and think for yourself.
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Or in defunding programs for the very poorest people in the US. Which are heavily from deprived families. And then they blame the families for 'Not having enough faith.'
And that's an actual quote from a high-up Tea Partier. So I would argue that, whilst I agree in principle with reducing governmental intervention, I realise that it is absolutely fundamental for certain things to have money spent on by government. There is so much victim-blaming in the US political discourse that it is actively about as toxic to a person's outlook as nuclear fallout.
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More freedom? Where? We've got mass surveillance, curtailment of women's rights and lower wages in real terms since the Tea Party got their people in.
Who, pray tell, is that freedom for? It ain't us.
Stop carrying their water and think for yourself.
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The Tea Party has less sway than the Black Caucus. "We've got mass surveillance, curtailment of women's rights and lower wages in real terms since the Black Caucus got their people in. " See what I did there?
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You can always speak your mind.
If the Tea Baggers were true to their name, they would be all clamouring for the dismantlement of the entire NSA right now and calling Snowden a PATRIOT.
They don't even seem to understand the event they want to associate themselves with.
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Re: You can always speak your mind.
Where do you get your idea of the Tea Party? You are wrong, and you are intentionally offensive.
To get back to reply that you completely misread, @Pragmatic blamed the tea party for not stopping mass surveillance. It's true, they have not. Have you? The Tea Party does not get their message out because they are rarely allowed to do so without Chris Matthews having a say. The Tea Party consists of regular citizens, it's an idea without a real political arm. We don't have any actual delegates or official structure, but you lay blame on the a group that is the least to blame on any of your problems? If a rep wants to attach themself to the Tea Party because they share some of the same ideals, they may. That does not mean the Rep is a 100% accurate portrayal of the Party's beliefs and purpose.
A lot of DNC operatives are successfully distracting you, causing this divide, calling us racists. That's unfair and unsubstantiated.
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Re: Re: You can always speak your mind.
I largely agree with his characterization, even if it is a touch hyperbolic. I got that idea from three things: talking to tea party party, watching what they do as a group, and listening to what tea party politicians in office are saying.
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"Which is hilarious..."
You're right - the contention that NPR is honestly neutral IS hilarious.
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Re: "Which is hilarious..."
The biggest problem in journalism is not "bias" but leaving out (important) information.
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Re: "Which is hilarious..."
Somehow, I'm not finding it hilarious at all...
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Re: "Which is hilarious..."
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We get the Government we deserve, so obviously the people he represents are idiots... if they disagree with this assessment perhaps they should flex their muscle and remind their chosen leadership who he works for.
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surname
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They're both idiots.
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Yes, and the holocaust didn't happen either...
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