Those responsible say that race absolutely had nothing to do with it.

Why was a Black reporter assigned to cover a McCain campaign rally in Panama City, Fla., singled out by security and told to leave? That’s what The Tallahassee Democrat, the newspaper that employs that reporter, wants to know. Executive Editor Bob Gabordi said, “I’m upset because my reporter was singled out for whatever reason. That bothers me. We’re just trying to figure out what that reason was.” Stephen Price was one of four Florida Capital Press Corps reporters on hand to cover the rally last week when a Secret Service agent approached and told him he had to leave. Price, the only Black journalist on hand, says he pointed out there were other reporters on his same beat in the area, but he was the one who got the boot. “The fact that I’m Black was the only obvious reason,” Price said. Jonathan Block, a McCain campaign worker, told Gabordi that “access to the senator is tightly controlled … I would first express regret that your reporter was moved, and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that race had nothing to do with it…. At the end of the day, your reporter was in the wrong place. I do not know why the other reporters were not moved. The rest of the local press should have been moved as well.”

TAGS: black, McCain, rally, reporter

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