To the Times-Standard journalists who made it into Bill Clinton’s pit stop at Redwood Acres with homemade press badges. Sources say the badges were thrown together in the hours before the former president arrived in Eureka.
Lucky for the T-S, the local Democratic Central Committee failed to receive training in the last minute rush before the event to spot the counterfeit badges. If they had, the T-S would have missed out on video footage they used to generate headlines for three solid days.
Somehow the details of the press pass swindle failed to make it into today’s T-S Roasts and Toasts column.
January 20, 2008 at 11:17 am
Manufacturing false identification is nothing to congratulate Heraldo.
January 20, 2008 at 11:22 am
It may, just possibly, be a tongue in cheek congratulation Anonymous at 11:17. Not that his tongue is literally in his cheek…
January 20, 2008 at 11:25 am
At least some people attended through their own ingenuity instead of by taking advantage of the organizers’ incompetence and pushing past honest townsfolk. Hats off to those devious souls.
January 20, 2008 at 11:49 am
Were they, in fact, T-S journalists, who just had homemade badges, or were they just people who manufactured fake ones to get in?
January 20, 2008 at 11:51 am
The T-S had illegitimate press badges. Somerville should have toasted them for pulling it off on such short notice.
January 20, 2008 at 11:54 am
I heard that some people – not T-S journalists – were boasting abut the fact that they had made fake press passes. There could be some confusion here. Why would a real reporter need a fake press pass, anyway?
January 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm
How do you know they were illegitimate passes, Heraldo?
January 20, 2008 at 12:11 pm
11:54, good point. If people could arrive 5 minutes before the event and push their way inside, it stands to reason reporters wouldn’t need anything special to gain entrance either. Maybe badges got them better seats.
January 20, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Don’t tell me, someone is spreading rumors about Bill Clinton’s visit! What’s this I hear about Arkley buying the Times-Standard?
January 20, 2008 at 1:13 pm
A bit of clarification. I saw one person, a photographer who is not a paid T-S staffer, who wore a pass he’d made for himself. His excuse was that he’s a freelancer who sells photos to the T-S on occasion.
The folks who checked in the media reps did not actually ask for credentials of any sort. The ones in charge of registering press people came here from the Sacramento Hillary for Prez campaign, so they did not know the local media. All you had to do was say you were with the press and sign in on a list and you got one of the makeshift media passes they were handing out. My assumption is they took people at their word if they said they were with the media so as to ensure full coverage for the event.
That said, a fair number of people who had no connection to any media organization whatsoever got in as media. Again, they were not asked to show credential of any sort. However, for the most part they were not given seats — they either stood at the back of the hall or on the media platform in the back corner — so they did not greatly impact the number of people who were allowed in.
As to “official” press passes, there is no such thing. The closest you come is an official press laminate issued by the Sheriff’s office, although at this point that program has expired and the Sheriff has decided against issuing them any further.
Some media organizations made their own, the Lumberjack had several people there wearing ridiculously large press passes with the Lumberjack logo on them. Same with the T-S.
The Journal sent all of our editorial staff. None of us had any sort of laminate that shows we work for the paper. I wore my old Sheriff’s lami, although no one looked at it. If they did, they’d have seen that it expired two years ago.
- Bob Doran – North Coast Journal.
p.s. if you want to see a bunch of photos of the event unfolding and of Clinton speaking and pressing the flesh, go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/humblog/
January 20, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Thanks, Bob, for the clarification. That sounds more like what I observed. Also thanks for the pics. As one of the people who “did not get in,” I enjoyed seeing what I missed.
January 20, 2008 at 4:08 pm
As somebody who couldn’t be bothered with The Bill Show, I wonder if the whole thing wasn’t overdone as a real “news event”. Why would ALL the NCS staff need to go, if it was on the radio anyway? Granted, I’m still sore at him for NFTA’ing Yakima out of Humboldt, but the fact is he’s NOT “President” Clinton, he’s “former-President” Clinton. Would as many people have showed up for, say, Jimmy Carter, who HAS done more newsworthy things since leaving office?
No, Bill’s a one-trick pony: he’s a damn good public speaker, and that’s why Hillary keeps him around. The bottom line is he’s a celebrity. . .nothing more. He’s Paris Hilton without the cleavage.
January 20, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Sorry Walt, but President Clinton is his title, so that’s what we call him, and he’s a lot more than a celebrity.
Additionally, I would say that there’s a lot more than NAFTA to dislike him for: brutal sanctions on Iraq, refusing to support the worldwide ban on landmines, inaction in Rwanda etc, etc.
I do thank him and his detractors, though, for lifting blowjob up from the unacceptably vulgar and ushering this colorful word into the common vernacular.
January 20, 2008 at 4:51 pm
So Bob, you’re essentially saying Mr. H blew it. He could have said he was the publisher of the Herald and gained admittance. At least one person could have live-blogged the event.
January 20, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I’m wondering if Heraldo, of Humboldt Herald fame, is actually Salvador, of the thread on the Clinton visit on Myrtletown.net?
Probably not, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
http://www.myrtletown.net/viewthread.php?Clinton_s_Eureka_Visit_A_Complete_Bust
January 20, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Not sure why you would think that, Fred, but it wasn’t me.
January 20, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Ok. I’ll take your word for it.
January 20, 2008 at 5:57 pm
4:51….Thats “Ms”.H
January 20, 2008 at 6:08 pm
A media culture of impersonations…………..yikes!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
January 20, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Heraldistas! Ole~
January 20, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Heraldistas?
Will this group wage like a guerrilla war on blogs throughout the Blogshpere? Sounds like fun, sort of.
-boy
January 21, 2008 at 10:24 am
The CHP issues press passes to the working media, being the state’s police force and in charge of security at the State Capitol. I’ve received press passes from the local CHP office in just about every California county I worked in during my J-career, Humboldt being the exception.
January 21, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Law enforcement press passes and how to get them, or in the case of Humboldt, how they are not available to local media.
January 22, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I don’t understand?
didn’t exactly print false badges….huh? Reporters and journalist’s either did send applications for press passes to the state CHP HEAD MAN, or you did not. Or, maybe it was not “legally” necessary. Maybe this is why the supes are finally getting screening areas in the courthouse building. I reminded them two years ago at public comment about employee safety. Money was allocated in the late 1990’s for the screening areas. Somehow, Supervisors forgot all about it that money, or maybe it was shifted somewhere quietly. Remember the judge that got threatened and the guy got caught in Ukiah with arms and weapons? If something bad happened…..who to blame? Exactly!
And why did you have to imply that you illegally used your press pass just to visit a family member in the state capitol.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District