Reporter Confined in Closet During Biden Fundraiser Event

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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 Democratic 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.'"

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.

Powers didn't mention his confinement in either of his pool reports that day, saying only that "press coverage was limited to a single pool reporter, filing on behalf of all local media, who was allowed to listen to the remarks but not given an opportunity to talk with anyone at the event."

On Friday, Powers said, the home's owner called him. "He said he had no idea they'd put me in a closet and was very sorry. He said he was just following their lead and was extremely embarrassed by the whole thing."

All I can do is shake my head and say I'm not surprised. In the movies this usually happens when the reporter has confronted the president about the incoming extinction level event and they are taken aside and given the "think of the panic you would create" speech.

The other alternative is that Biden did not want the reporter to hear the information that was being given to the people that had paid for it. Whatever the reason - keeping the only individual allowed to cover the event isolated from all of the attendees is a grotesque.

Yup, my head is shaking as well. Can't say I'm very surprised. I can say however that I really want bacon wrapped deviled eggs. Yum.

After 90 minutes he was allowed out to hear Biden and Nelson speak for 35 minutes, before being taken back to the closet for the remainder of the event.

He attempted to play down his treatment calling it ‘hardly unusual or shocking’ and confirmed that he received an apology from Ginsburg.

I don't know which is worse, the executive branch or the reporter. He was imprisoned by the executive branch and controlled in a style that would make mid-east dictators blush and the reporter says its hardly unusual? If thats the case then WHY THE HELL is the public not told about it more often???

Weird (or is that just a typically Joe Biden thing?) but funny to visualize happening. Someone should send this to Politico or The Hill. (God, I miss the capitalist!! It would have been priceless)

Originally posted by DogsDogsDogs
Weird (or is that just a typically Joe Biden thing?) but funny to visualize happening. Someone should send this to Politico or The Hill. (God, I miss the capitalist!! It would have been priceless)

Biden does and says a lot of dumb things but I wouldn't write this off as quirky - if the reporter is right and this is hardly unusual or shocking then it seems like he is saying that this is how reporters are handled on a regular basis - the most transparent administration? Whatever...their political careers are over.

UPDATE: The Sentinel did put up a blog post on Wednesday --

Waiting for Joe and Bill
Not looking for sympathy here, but the life of a political reporter isn’t all champagne and canapes. Consider our man Scott Powers, who was sent over to the Winter Park home of Alan Ginsburg this morning as the designated “pool reporter” — aka scribe — for the fundraiser where Vice President Joe Biden is appearing on behalf of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Turns out the veep hadn’t arrived, but about 150 guests (minimum donation $500) were already in the house. So to prevent Scott from mingling with the crowd, a member of Biden’s advance team consigned him to a storage closet — and then stood outside the door to make sure he didn’t walk out without permission.

Scott e-mailed us this photo from his temporary prison. “Sounds like a nice party,” he wrote. They're clearly not taking their reporter being prevented from doing his job seriously.

What exactly is the difference between how we are handling journalists and how the Libyans are?