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US Customs Officer Harasses Defense One Journalist at Dulles Airport
A passport screening official held a Defense One journalist's passport until he received an affirmative answer to this repeated question: "You write propaganda, right?"
The incident took place about 4 p.m. on Thursday at Dulles International Airport. News Editor Ben Watson was returning from an assignment in Denmark when he entered permanent resident reentry aisle No. 17 at Dulles. After the Customs and Border Protection official asked the usual question about undeclared fruit or meat, the interaction took an unusual and unsettling turn.
CBP officer, holding Watson's passport: "What do you do?"
Watson: "Journalism."
CBP officer: "So you write propaganda, right?"
Watson: "No."
CBP officer: "You're a journalist?"
Watson: "Yes."
CBP officer: "You write propaganda, right?"
Watson: "No. I am in journalism. Covering national security. And homeland security. And with many of the same skills I used in the U.S. Army as a public affairs officer. Some would argue that's propaganda."
[...] The CBP official's behavior appeared to violate the spirit, and possibly the letter, of DHS's internal Directive 0480.1, "Ethics/Standards of Conduct"; DHS Code of Conduct ยง 102-74.445; and possibly U.S. Customs and Border Protection Directive 51735-013A, "Standards of Conduct."
Also at The Hill, Newsweek, and The Washington Post.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:59AM (8 children)
When the POTUS himself keeps asserting publicly that journalists write fake news and are on the coutry's ennemies' payroll to undermine democracy, and does so for many years, it's not exactly surprising that a border control monkey can end up spewing out the same shit. I suspect DHS and customs officers don't come mainly from educated, critical-thinking circles...
If anything, that particular journalist was victim of Trump's anti-journalism propaganda.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday October 05 2019, @12:23PM
> I suspect DHS and customs officers don't come mainly from educated, critical-thinking circles.
Your suspicions are correct. The low level minions are often the worst bigots. They are all too ready to overstep their authority in their zeal to impose their hate. They will shoot themselves in the foot if that means they get to put twice as many bullets in members of "enemy" groups.
Being attacked by them is like being dragged into a fight in prison. The object is not to win. it's to end the fight, survive, take as little hurt as possible, and strongly discourage future attacks. Document their actions, and report their sorry behinds to superiors. If anyone is equipped to do that, a journalist is.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday October 05 2019, @01:52PM
> I suspect DHS and customs officers don't come mainly from educated, critical-thinking circles...
In fact, it's often mandated that they are NOT overly intelligent: https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-court-ruled-you-can-be-too-smart-to-be-a-cop/5420630 [globalresearch.ca]
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday October 05 2019, @02:05PM (3 children)
When the media themselves keep making things up and get caught doing it over and over again, the charge of "fake news" sticks. Remember the Covington Kids? Yeah, the media totally got that one right (not). Remember Jussie Smollett? Yeah, the media totally got that one right (not). How about the girl who was held down by three white classmates who shaved off her dreadlocks? Media got that one right, too (not). And, oh yes, the Russia! Russia! Russia! hoax.
No, you're quite right. The label is totally not self-inflicted at all. Journalists and the media are such paragons.
Hate to break it to you, but the public trust in the media has sunk below that of Congress, which is a feat.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:30PM (2 children)
What are you talking about? They covered the known facts of the Smollett case and continued covering it when the police kept digging. The press is often wrong because getting accurate information is often hard. But when it comes to important things, they're usually right. Situations like the rolling Stone gang rape story make headlines because they're unusual.
Those are a small number of cases and in all those cases they were working with the information they had. You make it sound like they were ignoring facts and fabricated evidence. All of those stories did eventually get corrected by journalists. They didn't just ignore the new facts that became available.
The people who claim fake news, rarely accuse Fox of doing it, even though they're really the worst offenders and aren't even news. It's mostly small-brain low-iq people that think otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @06:54PM (1 child)
anyone who defends the main stream media is a special kind of stupid.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @07:17PM
Anyone who says "main stream media" to imply they are too smart and special for something so common is a special kind of hipster snowflake.
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Saturday October 05 2019, @02:28PM
The guy's probably waiting for Trump to start his own [politico.com] news network because, you know, no world leader ever thought of doing that before.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 05 2019, @05:10PM
There are Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charter schools.
The border patrol folks come from the DHS middle/high schools in poor/working class neighborhoods-- these schools act as vocational training centers.
The DHS middle/high schools in middle class neighborhoods steer their students into careers like translators and such which require, at least, some higher education.
I read an academic's report on these, but cannot find a copy online. The following gives an idea, though.
https://psmag.com/news/welcome-to-terror-high [psmag.com]