Stu Loeser

Stu Loeser, Mayor Bloomberg's spokesperson, just sent out a note regarding an Awl report listing the names of reporters arrested during the Occupy Wall Street protests. In the email, reprinted below, he goes on the attack, noting that only 5 of the 26 reporters arrested are credentialed by the city, almost as if to distinguish between the rights of credentialed and non-credentialed reporters.

And who were the actual, real, card-carrying, government certified reporters arrested? AP reporter Julie Walker and Patrick Hedlund from DNA Info were both issued Desk Appearance Tickets for Disorderly Conduct, while Paul Lomax of DNA Info and Karen Matthews and Seth Wenig, both of the AP, had their arrests for trespassing voided.

Full memo after the jump. Do enjoy, and, don't forget: Bloomberg's spokesperson reads The Awl. Be less stupid:

 

To:       Interested Parties
From:   Stu Loeser
Re:       Just 5 of the “26 arrested reporters” are actually credentialed reporters
Date:    Thursday, November 17, 2011

Like all of you, I’ve heard and read many reports of reporters who supposedly were wearing valid NYPD press credentials, yet allegedly encountered problems on the streets of New York. Like some of you, I had those stories in mind when I read The Awls’ rundown of “The 25 26 Arrested Reporters and What They Do.”  (In case you missed it, that piece, that piece is linked here.)

Not being familiar with many of the media outlets for which The Awl says these reporters work, I had the list of “26 arrested reporters” checked against the roster of reporters who hold valid NYPD press passes.

You can imagine my surprise when we found that only five of the 26 arrested reporters actually have valid NYPD-issued press credentials. Note that we didn’t check – and don’t really care for the sake of this exercise – if the reporter’s credential lists the media outlet for which he or she currently works.

One more thing. Of the five reporters with valid press credentials who were arrested, three were arrested for trespassing and had their arrest voided. As the Associated Press and others reported, there’s no doubt that these personnel – and others – were in fact trespassing.  There’s no question that protesters sliced open a chain link fence and tried to take over private property.

This report was published by the AP:

“Reporter Karen Matthews and photographer Seth Wenig of The Associated Press in New York were taken into custody along with about eight other people after they followed protesters through an opening in a chain-link fence into a park, according to an AP reporter and other witnesses. Matthew Lysiak of the Daily News of New York was also arrested at the park, according to witnesses and the Daily News.”

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Stu

Update 9:59 p.m. Stu Loeser responded to our post from his @stuloeser Twitter account (and also made some very helpful copy editing suggestions!).

Also, @Megan, it's not "AS IF" I'm distinguishing btw "credentials and non-credentialed reporters" (sic), that's exactly what I am doing

& @megan, you don't have a press pass; that's your option. But why should some random NYPD take your word that you're press?

As a point of reference, the eligibility guidelines for NYC Press Credentials include:

Applicants must be a member of the media who covers, in person, emergency, spot or breaking news events and/or public events of a non-emergency nature, where police, fire lines or other restrictions, limitations, or barriers established by the City of New York have been set up for security or crowd control purposes, within the City of New York; or covers, in person, events sponsored by the City of New York which are open to members of the press.

Applicants also must submit one or more articles, commentaries, books, photographs, videos, films or audios published or broadcast within the twenty–four (24) months immediately preceding the Press Card application, sufficient to show that the applicant covered in person six (6) or more events occurring on separate days .

Instead, it comes from a student with a six-month-old blog. Blog del Narco began as a hobby for the highly secretive blogger, but in time he found that his facelessness allowed him get away with stories that would endanger known journalists — many of whom have been kidnapped or killed for divulging such information. Now, his site has become indispensable for its no-holds-barred coverage of the endless carnage caused by the drug trade. The AP reports that for the first time, a blog on the conflict can count its most dangerous participants among its most obsessive readers, as the kingpins and cops rely on the information just as much as the public does.

"People now demand information and if you don't publish it, they complain," the blogger told the AP. Little is known about the person behind Blog del Narco, apart from the fact that he is a male student living in Northern Mexico. And, given that he is sharing content that would threaten the life of a public reporter — a gory video of a decapitation, the execution of a double-crossing police officer, ravaged corpses—the anonymous blogger has chosen the correct major to pursue in school: computer security. He has maintained total anonymity, and when reached by the AP, he spoke from a disguised telephone number.

"For the scanty details that they (mass media) put on television, they get grenades thrown at them and their reporters kidnapped," the blogger said. "We publish everything. Imagine what they could do to us."

This cloak he has built for himself allows him to withstand the government’s efforts to quell negative coverage. He encourages submissions from his formidable readership (his site receives 3 million hits per month) and maintains an active Twitter account that boasts over 8,000 followers. (Sample tweet: “Estado podrá ganar hasta 10 mil millones de dólares en impuestos. Legalizando la droga.” Translated, it’s a plea to the government to legalize drugs.)

The Mexican media often attacks the site, saying it is free publicity for the cartels. In negative articles — nevertheless linked to by Blog del Narco on its press page—the site is attacked for its violent videos and referred to by an unsavory nickname: “Narcotube,” a play on "YouTube." Last April, an article in the Spanish paper La Voz de Galicia said Blog del Narco is “horrifying the world” and that its videos are “terrorizing Mexican society.” The article then mentioned a video in which a member of the Zeta cartel was asked how many members of the rival Gulf Cartel they had killed. “Many, many,” the Zeta member responded. “Burned and killed.” (The video appears to have been taken down.)

In its own defense, the “About Us” on Blog del Narco insists that it is “not for or against any criminal group,” and that its sole mission is that of a “journalist.” Along with its coverage of police seizures and government actions, it devotes much of its space to the various cartels and their leaders, including underworld titan Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villareal, the Beltran Leyva cartel, the Sinaloa cartel and the battling Zeta and Gulf cartels. With the flow of information from traditional media sites stifled by drug lords and bribe-happy officials, underground publications may be the best way to get certain information, regardless of how uncensored or bloody these sites may be. But these sites can only provide so much. A story in today’s Los Angeles Times mentions Blog del Narco as part of the social media wave that is filling the void, but emphasizes that mainstream coverage of Mexico's drug war will suffer from suppression for the time being.

"You love journalism, you love the pursuit of truth, you love to perform a civic service and inform your community. But you love your life more," said an editor here in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, who, like most journalists interviewed, did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing the cartels. "We don't like the silence. But it's survival," he said.