Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Defense One Journalist Claims Harassment by U.S. Customs Officer at Dulles Airport

posted by takyon on Saturday October 05 2019, @04:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the papers-please dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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 § 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.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Defense One Journalist Claims Harassment by U.S. Customs Officer at Dulles Airport | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 73 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday October 05 2019, @01:58PM (9 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday October 05 2019, @01:58PM (#903070) Journal

    When I was a kid the slur was "commie." Cops and others of that bent would call journalists that. It's a thing low-level people with some authority do, and have always done.

    So for a "journalist" to get his panties in a bunch over it only points up what pantywaists they have all become. For him to blame it on Trump only exemplifies the hysteria that has consumed that profession.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Troll=2, Insightful=2, Interesting=1, Underrated=1, Total=6
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday October 05 2019, @02:36PM (8 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday October 05 2019, @02:36PM (#903083) Journal

    The Post also noted that in April, the United States’ ranking in the annual World Freedom Press Index dropped for a third year in a row. It classified the treatment of journalists in the United States as “problematic,” a first in the 17 years the report has been issued. The report’s authors attributed the decline “to President Trump’s anti-press rhetoric and continuing threats to journalists,” the Post reported at the time. Watson, who writes the D Brief newsletter and produces the Defense One Radio podcast, said that he’d never before encountered a CBP officer who’d tried to extract a statement in this way. And he noted that the incident was particularly striking in the wake of his reporting trip, during which Danish officials had voiced concerns about a global decline in respect for and adherence to a rules-based order, beginning in the United States.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_people#United_States [wikipedia.org]

    On August 2, 2018, after Trump tweeted "FAKE NEWS media... is the enemy of the American People", multiple international institutions such as the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticized Trump for his attacks on the free press. On August 16, 2018, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming that the media is not "the enemy of the people." This came several days after more than 350 media organizations editorialized in opposition to Trump's frequent attacks on the press. The resolution, which "Reaffirm[ed] the vital and indispensable role the free press serves," was seen as a symbolic rebuke to Trump. It passed by unanimous consent, in which the votes of individual Senators are not recorded.

    It's not what I would call a stretch to say that a CBP employee was influenced by President Trump to bully a journalist. We can't know for sure without learning more about that individual employee, but it is plausible. Don't sell Trump short!

    I also don't think that this incident is a huge deal, just a fleeting inconvenience, but I don't see any reason to downplay the journalist's experience. There are much worse/dumber things for them to write about than this, and we've seen plenty of examples in the past year.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by catholocism on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:06PM (7 children)

      by catholocism (8422) on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:06PM (#903090)

      The reason why it's a big deal is that it doesn't take much imagination to see a near future where the rights of the press have been eroded so far that anyone putting out "propaganda" is jailed. Trumps war is a war on language itself. This war has consequences. The rate at which journalist's have been murdered in the line of duty has been going up, not down.

      • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Username on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:46PM (1 child)

        by Username (4557) on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:46PM (#903102)

        To be fair, everyone is now a journalist. I think it has to do more with people not wanting to be caught being criminals. Like antifa assaulting and trying to murder anyone with a camera. Trump and Republicans usually dont have to resort to those methods, since they are less likely to commit crime since the liberal media would be all over it like white on rice. It's gone so far that liberals have to invent crimes, like that one schiff guy that just invented the whole ukraine thing.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @04:06AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06 2019, @04:06AM (#903285)

          Trump and Republicans usually dont have to resort to those methods, since they are less likely to commit crime since the liberal media would be all over it like white on rice.

          Oh, really? [businessinsider.com] Or were you perhaps aiming for the +1, Funny upmod?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:47PM (4 children)

        by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday October 05 2019, @03:47PM (#903105) Journal

        The press is doing this to itself. We had the Washington Post's 16 negative Bernie stories in 16 hours as a presage to the unrelenting negativity thrown at Trump. Compare to the way Obama got treated despite expanding GWB's wars, spying on Americans, executing Americans without due process -- whatever, nobody cares. Nobody cares now or then, because the press and the politicians aren't about policies. They are about teams, and oligarchical control, and some political theater every so often to keep us plebs occupied. So yeah -- the press DOES suck. It's gotten so bad, if I was standing in the rain and the media said to expect rain, I'd be skeptical.