Journalism out of control?

    There's a growing number of reports that Patrick Howley, a journalist from the conservative magazine, the American Spectator became involved in the events that occurred at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Exactly how is unclear.

The basic story is this. According to various accounts, the Washington DC version of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest tried to enter the museum on Sunday, where they were met by security guards, told to leave, refused, hit with pepper spray, etc...There was one arrest reported and no injuries. This all took place mid afternoon and the facility closed early for the day as a result.

Yesterday, on the American Spectator website, Mr. Howley, an assistant editor at the publication, wrote of the incident in unusual terms. “In the absence of ideological uniformity, these protesters have no political power. Their only chance, as I saw it, was to push the envelope and go bold. But, if today’s demonstration was any indicator, they don’t have what it takes to even do that.”


Also from the original story: 

But as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause -- a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator -- and I wasn't giving up before I had my story. Under a cloud of pepper spray I forced myself into the doors and sprinted blindly across the floor of the Air and Space Museum, drawing the attention of hundreds of stunned khaki-clad tourists (some of whom began snapping off disposable-camera portraits of me). I strained to glance behind me at the dozens of protesters I was sure were backing me up, and then I got hit again, this time with a cold realization: I was the only one who had made it through the doors. As two guards pointed at me and started running, I dodged a circle of gawking old housewives and bolted upstairs.

It didn't take long for the story to spread...

Then the story changed. The online version of Howley's article was changed from the original version to this version. Despite requests of both the American Spectator and Mr. Howley, no explanation has been given why the story was changed.

This reminds me of the ACORN videos that were put out a few years ago by James O'Keefe or the poor job Dan Rather did on former President George Bush in the Texas Air National Guard. 

I think events should be judged on their own merit. Journalism is supposed to report the news, not shape the news by direct involvement or deceptive editing techniques. If Mr. Howley feels the Occupy protests are poorly organised, lacking direction or anti-American, he's free to say just that. American Spectator wouldn't discourage writing of that opinion would it? Of course not. Nor should they.

Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/10/washington-protest-american-spectator-patrick-howley?newsfeed=true

http://spectator.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/conservative-journalist-says-he-infiltrated-escalated-dc-museum-protest/2011/10/09/gIQAIKxCYL_blog.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/09/us-usa-smithsonian-protests-idUSTRE79800C20111009

http://news.yahoo.com/us-protesters-clash-guards-washington-museum-225350979.html

http://news.google.com/news/story?q=american+spectator&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=dDcAYSBtA30jRgMzrfWQ5xb6rtuFM&hl=en&ei=DCeUTrj6GuvD0AHNsOinBw&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=10&ved=0CGkQqgIwCQ

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pzvJbtN4UfNaRnpjO08sjfJkTZGMZHtgP2kKDs-Ry_8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/08/standoff-in-dc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O'Keefe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35531-2004Sep20.html