Post Columnist Says Secret Service is Obstructing Reporters at Palin Rallies

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, in an online chat Thursday, said Secret Service agents at Gov. Sarah Palin's rallies are barring reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd.

Milbank's assertion comes amid reports that someone at a Palin rally this week in Scranton, Pa., shouted "kill him" when Sen. Barack Obama's name came up. The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton has called those allegations unfounded, though the AP reports that shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have been heard at Republican rallies.

Here's what Milbank said:

"I wasn't at the Scranton event, but I have to say the Secret Service is in dangerous territory here. In cooperation with the Palin campaign, they've started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd. This is a serious violation of their duty -- protecting the protectee -- and gets into assisting with the political aspirations of the candidate. It also often makes it impossible for reporters to get into the crowd to question the people who say vulgar things. So they prevent reporters from getting near the people doing the shouting, then claim it's unfounded because the reporters can't get close enough to identify the person."

Dangerous territory indeed. It's the job of the Secret Service to protect the candidate, not to prevent reporters from doing their jobs. And by blocking reporters from interviewing crowd members, the Secret Service is - inadvertently or otherwise - aiding the Palin campaign, which is most certainly not their job.

There's absolutely no reason reporters should be blocked from interviewing people in the crowds at political rallies. In fact, such interviews are standard practice for any good reporter.

And the best way to determine whether inappropriate things are being shouted at rallies is to let reporters get into the crowds and find out for themselves.

UPDATE: The Secret Service is now denying that it blocked reporters from interviewing crowd members at Palin rallies. But the St. Petersburg Times reports that unidentified "escorts" were doing just that at a Palin event in Clearwater, Fla. "When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn't allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written," the paper reports.

The obvious solution for reporters is to forget the press pool. Just head to the rally as an average citizen. Then, if someone shouts something ugly, push through the crowd to be the first to interview them.

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