January 29, 2009 NOTE: PLEASE say if you DON'T want your name and/or email address published when sending VDARE email. 01/28/09 - A Georgia Reader Offers His Place In Diverse Atlanta To Oregonian Reporter Betsy Hammond Glenn Spencer Confirms Our Worst Fears: The Media Blacks Out American Border Patrol’s Patriotic EffortsFrom:
Glenn Spencer (e-mail
him)
I spent the three months preparing for a news conference
at the
National Press Club scheduled for January 14, 2009.
On December 10 and January 6, I flew aerial surveillance
missions along the border. I then used the mission data,
together with data from other missions flown over the
past two years, to form the story I would tell in
Washington, D.C.
I’ve never given a better presentation. I told the
compelling and true story, with all its national
significance, of our
open border with Mexico.
To make sure
the media and others would be there, American Border
Patrol paid PR Newswire extra to use its special
Homeland Security microlist for our press release. I
called and e-mailed reporters I knew, including
Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, just to
make sure they would attend.
Thursday morning I arose about 3 A.M. to do the
finishing touches on my presentation.
We left the hotel about 7:30 for the 9 A.M. conference.
Traffic, made worse by vendor trucks rushing to get
their junk into D.C. before roads were closed for the
inauguration, was horrible. As we drove past hundreds
and hundreds of porta-potties and lines of tents set up
for the January 20th shindig, I worried that we wouldn't
arrive on time. We did, with ten minutes to spare.
The
Holeman Lounge at the Press Club is very impressive
(and expensive), and we had arranged for a 60" plasma TV
for the presentation. We had four large posters (cost -
$600) with incredible graphics. Everything was perfect
as I put a stack of professionally prepared press
packages on a table near the entrance
We were ready.
But no one came. Not one member of the press or media
showed up. There were friends in the audience, but no
reporters to get the story.
I gave the presentation anyway and our friends agreed
that the story was probably
too important to be told to the public.
That is why we were blacked out.
I was disappointed at the lack of a turnout, and a
little depressed – what a waste of American Border
Patrol's money. Even Seper, who I was sure would attend,
didn’t come. (Contact information for Seper
here)
But after thinking about it, I have decided it was a
good investment after all. ABP had paid for airtight
proof that it is being blacked out by the media.
Looking back over the past year I now realize that the
press blackout of ABP has been going on for some time.
In January of last year
I traveled to Washington, D.C. to present ABP's year-end
report on the border.
At one point I spent an hour with Seper in his
Washington Times office. Seper told me that the
paper would no doubt run a big story on American Border
Patrol's work. It never happened. In fact, it never even
mentions us. In the past year, Radio France, a crew from Finnish Television (YLE TV), Tages Anzeiger, the German language Swiss national daily newspaper, ARD (German Radio), BFM TV from France, TV 4 from Sweden and Five News from London visited us.
I took most of these people on an aerial tour of the
border and I have been told their stories have been
running all across Europe. In the past ABP has also been
visited by TV crews from all over Asia. ABP is well
known, it seems, everywhere but in the U.S.
On September 14
the Sierra Vista Herald ran a big story about how ABP
challenged Department of Homeland Security’s border
fence construction figures.
The reporter, Jonathan Shacat, said he thought bigger
papers would pick up the story. They didn't. (Kudos to
Shacat
here and his editor
here.)
The Herald ran
a follow-up story on October 5, but no one
picked that one up either.
Both stories included interviews with DHS/CBP officials.
Reporter Shacat told me that he had a long conversation
with
Angela de Rocha, public affairs officer for
Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border
Protection, during which she said American Border Patrol
is doing a valuable service for the American people.
On October 10, ABP held a press conference in
Tucson to discuss our differences with the DHS
regarding the border fence. We used PR Newswire and our
Arizona list to notify the media.
No one came then either. A reporter with a Tucson TV
station e-mailed me and said he asked the station to
cover the news conference, but it didn't. He couldn't
explain why.
After that failed press conference Sean Holsteage of the
Arizona Republic e-mailed me and made
arrangements to fly with ABP on its next border mission.
It was all set for November 10th. At the last minute, he
notified me that his boss (contact information
here) cancelled the trip, citing insurance issues.
This was complete nonsense. Had they asked we would have
told them ABP has insurance through the
AOPA.
And, reporters are in the business of getting into the
"real world." In fact, last November reporters
were injured in
a hot-air balloon accident near Yuma.
If reporters are assigned to fly in a hot-air balloon, a
very dangerous activity, it makes no sense that one
would be prohibited from flying in a fixed-wing airplane
flown by an instrument-rated pilot with more than 6,000
accident-free flying hours.
The evidence is very clear. The
media bosses in the United States are doing
everything they can to keep
the truth about the border away from the American
People. The absence of reporters at the National Press
Club was final proof that they are very afraid of what
American Border Patrol has to say.
When it comes to the border, the media bosses are
treating the American people like mushrooms – keeping
them in the dark and feeding them manure
I was let down about what happened in D.C., but not
discouraged.
In fact, I am energized by knowing that, beyond the
shadow of a doubt, the media fears American Border
Patrol so much that it’s willing to sacrifice any sense
of fairness and balance to censor us.
We will find other ways to reach the American people,
not only with the truth about the border, but with the
truth about how they are being manipulated by the
power-elite.
We may be
blacked out but we won't be silenced.
Spencer is every immigration reform patriot’s hero
because of his tireless efforts on America’s behalf.
He founded
American Border Patrol, an invaluable website that
documents illegal alien activities and crossings.
Glenn’s previous letter about border security is
here. |
Here’s the anatomy of a media black out.