Trump’s America. An AP reporter was grabbed by security and shoved out of the EPA building as she tried to cover a meeting on water contaminants. The AP and CNN were both blocked from the summit on contaminants led by embattled by scandal head Scott Pruitt, according to the AP.
The Environmental Protection Agency barred “The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants,” they reported. The meeting centered around contaminants “perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl,” which have infiltrated our water nationwide and can be found in things like food, stain-resistant fabrics, a nonstick pan and OH YEAH, your water.
They can’t be broken down by the human body and can have adverse health effects. It also impacts many living on military bases as it’s also found in fire-fighting foams, which the EPA site tells us is “a major source of groundwater contamination at airports and military bases where firefighting training occurs.”
Security grabbed an AP reporter and shoved her “forcibly” out of the EPA building.
Wow. "Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building" https://t.co/S1A64ZnIQk
— Katie Glueck (@katieglueck) May 22, 2018
Security had quite a good time laughing about blocking reporters:
As I was walked into the chemicals summit at EPA today, a security guard joked about how she warned @KnickmeyerEllen that she couldn't film as she was being told to leave the agency and barred from entering the event https://t.co/zCol0I7bCV
— Emily Holden (@emilyhholden) May 22, 2018
The agencies were not given a reason as to why they were blocked. The AP reported that they were simply told they were not “invited,” as if the press is needs to be “invited” to meetings on water contaminants held by the man who is accused of giving lobbyists most of his time even though his job is supposed to be protecting citizens from being poisoned to death by those lobbyists’ companies.
No. The government is supposed to be open and accountable. That’s how this is supposed to be working. But what should be even more alarming is the way some of the security guards are buying into this notion and enjoying the abuse of their limited power by attacking the press.
For those who keep defending this administration, the Trump attacks on the press, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ attacks on the press, have consequences. This is what they look like. So while DC access journalists obsess over whether “smokey eye of lies” was mean to Sanders, reporters are being tossed out of the EPA building by security guards.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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