RedRockSedona

Bush-Cheney campaign racially profiles Photo journalist

This was in this morning's paper (Tucson/Arizona Daily Star) Not that really anything regarding Bush or Cheney's known bigotry is *that* revealing none the less I was stunned. I would like hope this to get picked up by AP so this does not get buried, everybody should know the character of those in the white house.

_____________________ARTICLE

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/vote/32301.php



President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Star refused to provide the information.

Cheney is scheduled to appear at a rally this afternoon at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president.

"It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted," Hayt said later.

Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the president's re-election campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.

"All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States," he said.

Diaz repeated that answer when asked if it is the practice of the White House to ask for racial information or if the photographer, Mamta Popat, was singled out because of her name. He referred those questions to the U.S. Secret Service, which did not respond to a call from the Star Friday afternoon.

Hayt declined to speculate on whether Popat was racially profiled, but said she is deeply concerned.

"One has to wonder what they were going to do with that information," Hayt said. "Because she has Indian ancestry, were they going to deny her access? I don't know."

Journalists covering the president or vice president must undergo a background check and are required to provide their name, date of birth and Social Security number. The Star provided that information Thursday for Popat and this reporter.

"That's all anybody has been asked to provide," said Hayt, adding that this is the first time in her 26-year career that a journalist's race was made an issue.

Organizer Christine Walton asked for Popat's race in telephone conversations with two other Star editors before she spoke to Hayt. They also refused to provide the information. Walton told Hayt that Popat's race was necessary to allow the Secret Service to distinguish her from someone else who might have the same name.

"It was a very lame excuse," Hayt said.

Popat, a photographer with six years' experience, was on assignment Friday and unaware of the controversy. But she said she was glad the Star refused. "My race shouldn't have anything to do with my job," she said.

Tickets are required for the public to attend the rally, which begins at 12:50 p.m. All tickets were distributed by Friday. ~By C.J. Karamargin

_____________________END

I wonder if they asked for the race of those who bought these tickects

n e r b l e

i have a hard time believe this is anything out of the ordinary. rice and powell are black and bush nominated linda chavez and miguel estrada both hispanic. i guess the only race left would be arabic?

ceilirose

Two people with the same name of Mamta Popat at a Cheney rally? Both working in a media position? Of course..happens everyday.

I'd like to see the national media pick this up as well but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Enigma, I.C.

If it's not in the Bush/Cheney press release they won't pick it up.

ceilirose

Heehee...the so-called liberal media my eye, huh?

What would CNN & MSNBC reporters do if the RNC and B/C 04 stopped sending out press releases and urgent e-mails to the media? Why they might have to think for themselves I guess.

migamoo

I guess they might just be paranoid about anyone who remotely resmembles someone from the mid-east.

n e r b l e

well considereing all the people who highjacked the planes and all the people taking hostages are arab how could you not be? i don't at all think that more than .01% of arabs are like that but it's dumb not to be cautious.

*Lauren

If you went to the middle of Asia, and started a war, the people who would be fighting against the invaders, and would be Asians. The same principal applies here. You go to a region where the vast, vast majority of people are Arabs, then the people who commit the offences will be Arabs. Its a statistical certanity.

Its like claiming that you have to lock up all Americans, because after all, all the people who commit crime in America are Americans.

n e r b l e

let's try this again. all the people that attacked us on 9/11 were arab. the people who attacked the USS cole, the african embassys and pretty much all of alqueada are, wait for it, arab.

again, it's not an "arab" thing. that's stupid. they're some of the hardest working people in america. but when a 6 foot white man goes around robbing people you don't go investigating short hispanic men.

RedRockSedona

If as our newspaper stated: Journalists covering the president or vice president must undergo a background check and are required to provide their name, date of birth and Social Security number...and The Star provided that information

What else would they need? Any Background check would have produced all what they needed and then I am positively certain that The Secret Service directly searched everybody that came anywhere near VP Cheney. So why should any problem exist?

Clearly this request was the delusion of a paranoid-xenophobic, if not overtly zealous administration which includes as it credentials inciting terror and fear artificially to justify their proactive stance. Is anybody not surprised that the terror level is being risen for the GOP Convention? Like they would be a target? No, thinking like a terrorist, not that I am one, I am not, one would see that target as only inciting supreme hatred and not fear, which is a more lucrative outcome.

Anyway I am adding that New York's Editor & Publisher has now picked up the Story so it is at least being seen by more than South Arizonians and those here.

n e r b l e

hmmm. so then why were there snipers in boston and the city basically shut down. perhaps b/c they thought that a terrorist might strike? did you see any of the pictures of all the military that was out there? so i guess the democrats are the same as the way you describe the republicans huh?

ceilirose

For people who didn't read the linked article..the woman is of Indian ancestry and is not an Arab.

Bush & Cheney have some explaining to do but like I said before..don't hold your breath.

RedRockSedona

There is a huge difference in providing the utmost security and the very real psychological effects there is in raising The National Threat level up. For it is tied into our very subconscious and it also carries terrifying visions of all in out global war and escalation toward nuclear war.

n e r b l e

what? huh? the demcrats got snipers but that didn't raise the awareness of the american people of the threat we're under?

*Lauren

Actully, they are mostly Saudia Arabian.

Using the crime example again, if you were to say most people who commit crimes in Australia were white, you would technically be correct, but white is a very large "ethnic" group. Same with Arab. Why should a person of Arab decent be discrminated against because of some *******?

If you want, I can also start listing some of the acts of terrorisim that have been convicted by people who are not Arabs.

What crime has been committed here? Are we at the point that we investigate people for crimes they might have comitted?

That is security. What the Republicans have done, is used a tool, that is not security, to make a threat clear. Its a way to get people to think that America is under attack, and we should still vote for them.