Protesters' proximity upsets national media

Rocky Mountain News

Published June 26, 2008 at 8:26 p.m.
Updated June 27, 2008 at 1:13 a.m.

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Denver's selection of a spot for protesters to congregate during the Democratic National Convention has angered another group - the national media.

Some of the media tents to be erected on the Pepsi Center parking lot will be within a stone's throw of the area the city has designated for protesters.

Members of the media are concerned that loud demonstrations could disrupt broadcasts or that reporters and photographers could be doused with tear gas or pepper spray if there are confrontations between police and protesters.

Andrew Taylor, chair of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, said he is sending a letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper requesting that another site be designated for the demonstrators to congregate, away from the reporters.

The one-acre protest site on the southeast corner of the parking lot, near Seventh Street and Auraria Parkway, will only be about 40 feet south of one of the media tents, Taylor said. A second media tent will sit west of the protest site.

"The media is more sympathetic than virtually any other group for the need to have protesters, to give them a place to speak out," said Taylor, an Associated Press reporter. But then he added:

"We're just basically raising what are really the obvious issues; you're going to have thousands of protesters covering an acre, and it's going to be right next door to two tents, where the print and broadcast media are going to try to do their jobs," Taylor added.

Sue Cobb, the mayor's spokeswoman, acknowledged she spoke with Taylor but said she needed to do more research on the issue before she could comment.

• June 27, 2008

  7:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  bugmenot writes:

  Gone are the days of reporters in the trenches, braving life and limb to get the "real story". Welcome to the days of reporters gathering press releases and rehashing the status quo, bravely reading blog after blog to deliver a poorly written, misspelled, barely legible story.

  I liked the old way better.

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