By Carlos Miller
In an obvious attempt to silence our nation’s veterans, VA officials seized audio equipment from an NPR journalist attempting to interview a veteran about dismal medical care within the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington DC.
David Schultz said he approached veteran Tommie Canady for an interview after the 56-year-old veteran had spoken at a town hall meeting Tuesday night, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
But a VA employee, Gloria Hairston, interrupted the interview, demanding that Schultz hand over his equipment, including a microphone, headphones and digital recorder. The VA employee then summoned uniform officers to help intimidate the reporter into handing over his equipment.
According to WTOP.com:
She was aided by at least two other employees of the V.A. and four armed security guards.
One of those veterans, an amputee in a wheelchair, approached Schultz and asked him for his phone number.
“I started to give it to him and then the woman {Hairston} became irate, she said you can’t give him your phone number. You have to give me all of your equipment or I’m going to get ugly. She used the phrase ‘get ugly,’” Schultz says,
Schultz contacted the WAMU news director, described by WTOP as “longtime newsman Jim Asendio,” who advised him to hand over the sound card. For me, this is the most infuriating part of the story.
“I told him to give them the flash card and get out of there,” Asendio says. “I didn’t want this to get out of hand.”
Schultz reluctantly handed over the memory card from his recorder.
Asendio, if you really had any news sense, you would have asked to speak to the commanding officer on the scene and asked if your reporter was being detained. If not, then tell your reporter to walk on out of there without handing over anything. If so, then tell your reporter to eat it up and you’ll have him bailed out as soon as possible.
Under no circumstances should you have given in to the intimidation. Even Schultz, a 26-year-old reporter who is at the start of his career, has lost respect for you.
“I’ve been a reporter for two and a half, three years, I’m sort of at the beginning of my career,” Schultz says. “I wish I had handled it differently, I think they preyed on my inexperience and I really feel bad about that.”
There is no excuse. You should be fired, Asendio.
The VA officials claimed they intervened because Schultz had “took advantage” of Canady in attempting to interview him without a consent form. They also said that Schultz never identified himself as a reporter – as if all his audio equipment didn’t provide a clue.
However, Canady consented to an interview the following day in a segment that ran on WAMU in Washington DC, an affiliate of National Public Radio. In the interview, which can only be heard if you have a PC (unless someone can tell me how to hear it on a Mac), Canady stated the following:
“It makes me mad, because I’m grown, and I’ll talk to whoever I want to. You know what I mean? And it makes me feel like you have something to hide. That you’re worried that something might get out that you don’t want to get out. I think it’s un-American. I really do.”
Canady also accused the VA Hospital of serious negligence, especially against black veterans. He also accused a nurse of overdosing him on two separate occasions with 600 mg. of morphine (I heard it on my PC laptop).
Meanwhile, WAMU is trying to get the sound card back.
Unfortunately, WAMU has been unsuccessful in retrieving the memory card which remains in the hands of the federal government.
“Our lawyers are working on that,” Asendio says.
On Thursday afternoon, Asendio hand-delivered a letter from WAMU’s general manager to the V.A Hospital demanding the return of the memory card. When he tried to deliver a copy of the letter to V.A. headquarters, he was turned away.
Of course he was turned away. They already know he has no balls.
The RCFP states that the federal law Privacy Protection Act of 1980 makes it illegal for a government officer or employee to search for or seize a journalist’s “work product materials.”
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19 responses so far ↓
1 Duane Kerzic // Apr 10, 2009 at 2:33 AM
If you want to listen on a MAC go here http://wamu.org/news/ and scroll down till you find the real audio version. I thnkn Mac’s can play real audio. But if you really want to listen do the smart thing and get a PC.
The HIPAA law has made dealing with any kind of hospitals a nightmare. I think there are some things that need to be kept totally confidential but if you have a friend that gets sick wait till you see what happens as you try to take care of them.
The problem I see with this situation is that if the VA was going to require releases they should have been signed as the patients were admitted to the meeting. It sounds like it was a very public meeting after all andt he VA took advantage of these patients by exposing them to the press without having them sign releases.
2 John // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:10 AM
If it is any consolation, the coming newspaper adjustment from paper to electronic media will force that spineless editor who advised turning over the camera to be let go. He adds no value.
In the new media format there is no need for him. Each reporter is their own editor. If someone makes a mistake you fess up to it and make a correction, just like the big boys. I can’t think of a single Microsoft product in the last 15 years that was put out to market ready for the consumer. News is no different.
As long as their is no malace (which is hard to prove) who can successfully sue you for being human and not omniscient?
3 Maz // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:19 AM
I heard this on the radio coming into work today. I was going to send it to you.
WTOP attempted to contact the woman who approached him (with police/guards/what have you) and she declined comment. From her tone on the radio, she sounded like she didn’t realize what she’d bit off and was “forwarding” their inquiry.
4 Maz // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Ah, here we are:
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1646694&nid=695
What makes this story truly unbelievable – and very scary – is the fact that the mastermind of this attack is a federal employee, Gloria Hairston, an internal communications specialist with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. She was aided by at least two other employees of the V.A. and four armed security guards.
…
Schultz convinced Hairston that all she really needed to confiscate was the memory card to his recorder, rather than all of his equipment. While this was going on, many of the veterans from the meeting had come out to watch the confrontation.
One of those veterans, an amputee in a wheelchair, approached Schultz and asked him for his phone number.
“I started to give it to him and then the woman {Hairston} became irate, she said you can’t give him your phone number. You have to give me all of your equipment or I’m going to get ugly. She used the phrase ‘get ugly,’” Schultz says.
…
Hairston refused to answer any questions about the incident when reached by phone Thursday afternoon.
“I’m going to take your query and move it up the ladder,” she said. “I’m going to send it over to the central office.”
The central office is the V.A. headquarters. Calls and e-mails to Phil Budahn, director of media relations for the Department of Veterans Affairs, also went unreturned.
“I’m guessing nobody’s called you back,” was Budahn’s only comment when reached late Thursday.
Sarah Cox, a public affairs specialist at the hospital, was reluctant to answer any basic questions about Hairston including the correct spelling of her name or the length of her employment.
5 Maz // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM
And more comment spam… Have you considered turning some of your side-bars into pages? They eat up a lot of real-estate. Even on my massive work monitor.
6 Carlos Miller // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Thanks Maz,
I just updated the story with the new information your provided, including some harsh words for the editor.
What browser are you using?
7 Vidiot // Apr 10, 2009 at 11:27 AM
By the by, it’s WTOP, not WOTP.
8 Maz // Apr 10, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Firefox. Everything renders fine, but there’s a lot of information.
I was merely suggesting doing some trimming. Maybe remove the Calender, turn your Testimonials and the Judge/Prosecutor sections into pages. Perhaps do something to merge your banner picture with the title, as it (even at 1280 x 1024) takes up almost half the screen.
9 Carlos Miller // Apr 10, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Thanks Vidiot. Just corrected it.
Maz,
I see what you’re saying but if I remove that information, the sidebars will still be there, only with more white space.
I like to have it like it so when people scroll down to read a long story or to read previous posts, there is relevant information on the side.
As far as the banner goes, I am pretty much restricted to what the template allows me to do.
Perhaps if I was a CSS expert then maybe, but in all honesty, I rather spend my extra time updating the blog with relevant posts.
10 Gary Baumgarten // Apr 10, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Throw this into the mix as well.
The young reporter was there because the VA had sent him a press release.
You don’t invite reporters to an event if you don’t expect them to report on it.
By the way, unless the reporter was holding the patient at gunpoint, obviously, he consented to the interview.
One wonders if the patient has been laudatory in his comments about the medical treatment whether the interview would have been interrupted.
Someone should tell this lady that the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, has promised and has directed openness in government.
11 Karl Leuba // Apr 10, 2009 at 12:52 PM
There has not been enough reporting done on this incident, probably because some of the VA hospitals in this country are CORRUPT. To protect the privacy rights of patients the VA system does not allow the use of recording equipment and cameras. Problems arise when the rule is used to protect the VA itself.
Government agencies have no right to privacy. We the people own them. The conflict between the rights of people to criticize government agencies, and the need to protect the privacy of people getting government services, creates an opportunity for government agencies to protect themselves from scrutiny. It may be necessary to change the rules, to allow recording and photography in public areas of those facilities.
And the administrator who confiscated the flash card should be prosecuted for strong armed robbery. Confronted with Armed Men demanding compliance with the demands of a demented Administrator, I would surrender cash, credit cards, shoes and shirt to that administrator, and file charges later.
12 Duane Kerzic // Apr 10, 2009 at 1:43 PM
I just sent an email to the White House about this matter,
After reading this article , http://carlosmiller.com/2009/04/10/va-officials-seize-reporters-equipment-during-interview-with-veteran/ and several others about this matter I decided I should contact the VA about what happened. I then looked for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs phone number which cannot be found. I called the White House switchboard where I was given a number that has nothing to do with reaching the administrators of the VA.
I then asked for the White House Chief of Staffs office. I was told that I can not be connected to anyone in that office about the VA.
I have to say that I’m shocked by the thuggery of the VA in this case. The reporter needs to have his equipment back. The Secretary of the VA has to be reachable when things like this happen. We were promised open government and it seems we are not getting open government at all. It seems we are getting more closed doors and refusal to take phone calls then ever in the history of this country.
I have contacted both the House and Senate VA Affairs Committees regarding this issue. They were very easy to reach and took phone calls.
The last times I have written or contacted the White House I have not received anything back. President Bush always sent a reply.
There is a contact form at the VA but it doesn’t have any thing on it for this type of stuff.
Here is some contact info:
House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
335 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
or fax your letter to: (202) 225-2034
or call: (202) 225-9756
US Senate Committee on Verterans’ Affairs
412 Russell Senate Bldg.
Washington D.C. 20510
Democratic Staff
Phone Number:(202) 224-9126
825A Hart Senate Bldg.
Washington D.C. 20510
Republican Staff
Phone Number:(202) 224-2074
White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
It’s kind of a holiday in Washington, DC.
13 Supernintendo Chalmers // Apr 10, 2009 at 1:59 PM
the VA’s trampling the same Constitutional freedoms that those vets lost limbs and sanity defending.
14 genewitch // Apr 10, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Wow, everyone except the reporter and the vet being interviewed dropped the ball on this one, huh?
Shame. they should all feel shame. including those $20 an hour security guards. Bastards.
15 Duane Kerzic // Apr 10, 2009 at 6:16 PM
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has sent a letter on this;
http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/docs/20090410_170802_va_letter.pdf
Press Release is here, http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=10702
It’s a bit late to call the committees but it couldn’t hurt. They are interested in hearing about stuff like this.
16 Macro photography // Apr 12, 2009 at 1:45 AM
I can’t believe that things like this are happening in a country that is suppose to have freedom of speech.
17 skibrianski // May 31, 2009 at 2:58 PM
I think it’s wrong to focus your rage against Asendio. He had to make a difficult call, and he got it wrong, but he was not negligent. The people who were in the wrong were the VA employees and the security guards. Police officers and security professionals need to be hammered over the head with the fact that reporting is almost always legal. It’s time to make this an issue again, now that 9-11 paranoia has settled down a bit.
18 adrian // Aug 23, 2009 at 9:50 PM
This “journalist” is not a pro. Read the lead. “In an obvious attempt to silence” and “NPR journalist attempting to interview a veteran about dismal medical care “.
This is biased reporting. This is why we need pros, as our newspapers — traditionally the pillars of journalism — teeter on collapse.
19 Kylie // Aug 24, 2009 at 8:16 AM
Adrian – Have you read a newspaper or watched TV any time in the last 20 years? There’s pretty much no such thing as unbiased reporting these days, even by the so-called pros at newspapers. Most news outlets these days are owned by large corporations, and most of them at least influence (if not outright mandate) the slant of the news their papers print. Yes, there are a few hold-outs that will stand up to the big boys, but not too many.
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