Congressman Lou Barletta has banned “non-media recording” of his town halls. John W. forwarded an article from the Times-Tribune by Borys Krawczeniuk from May 25 that detailed how anyone who is not a “news media member” will be forbidden to use video or audio recording devices at a Barletta town hall.
I have four comments to this; one snarky, one ironic, one legal, and one practical.
Snarky: Hey Barletta, what part of the First Amendment don’t you understand?
Ironic: Barletta used a recording of a Kanjorski town hall in one of his campaign ads attacking Congressman Kanjorski.
Legal: Actually, in Pennsylvania we have a right to record public meetings. A town hall that is advertised is a public meeting.
Practical: I post a blog almost every evening. People read these postings. Am I not part of the news media? Today news spreads by email, cell phone texts, tweets, on Facebook, and on other media I’m not even aware of. Is Barletta suggesting that the only media that matter are television stations and newspapers? Who made him the judge of the press?
Final comment: This guy will be our congressman until 2012. We have got to vote his butt out of there. He is an embarrassment.
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