Disturbing and unfortunate. But this doesn't even fall into the realm of responsible journalism.

This one-sided article begins with a press release issued by Democracy Now, which claims that their employees were arrested while fulfilling their journalistic duties. It then includes video evidence that apparently supports that claim, then presents an update by Allison Kilenny that provides more evidence. While I support this citizen journalist's desire to report on this event, there is no attempt to present the other side of the story, or to consult independent sources, other than the phone operator at the county jail. I'm afraid this is poor journalism, and strikes me more as an advocacy piece for supporters of Democracy Now. In the meantime, I will reserve judgment on this issue until I hear from more authoritative sources, ... More »

I'm not sure how this counts as good journalism. It consists mostly of press releases from Democracy Now, the program that Goodman, etc work for. There's no statement from the city police or other city officials, and no third party eye-witness account.

I found this story infuriating. There's plenty of evidence and sourcing here, via the video embedded in the text, but the evidence contradicts the headline. Unless something happened off camera, Ms. Goodman's arrest was not violent, as the headline states. The most frustrating thing here is that by billing the arrest of a celebrity/activist journalist as something it's not, it weakens the most important aspect of this story: the suppression of the freedom of the press.

I find it irrepressible to state that the journalistic value of this entire piece is confined to the video tape. In the tape - Goodman's Press credentials are visible. She is asking to speak to a supervisor. The police arrested the free press on camera while the free press was doing what the free press is expected to do. If one finds this difficult to accept as a brief yet valid example of journalism - then we have reached an extremely dangerous apathy. While the press release of the event from Democracy Now must be considered at face value a rebuke of the charges - the brief video told the story. We watched, unencumbered by opinion while a public safety professional was only interested in where she was standing and not ... More »

Regardless of how you feel about this situation itself, this particular piece is not journalism, it is the posting of a press release on a blog.

This report along with updates shows the police tactics of manhandling and injuring the press that dares to report on protests at the Republican convention. It is a gripping story of a police state out of control in St. Paul and grossly violating freedom of the press. This story should be viewed in conjunction with the other stories of "preemptive arrests" of citizen journalists who are trying to film police actions to document any police criminal actions. This is a critical issue for freedom of the press.

The article is accompanied by a link to video of the entire event.

Welcome to the police state. We've always been proud in this country of our free press. But those days appear to be over. When they go abroad to cover war zones, they know they put their safety at risk. Some have gone to jail to protect a source. But few would expect such dangers for covering a political protest in America's heartland. Still, I've seen what can happen when police are afraid. They started beating bystanders during a Vietnam War protest when I was in college. I was there to pick up my husband from class. Both of us got manhandled by the LAPD. Sounds like the same sort of fear-based rage to me. Still, they are supposed to be trained and supervised to avoid this because, otherwise, with weapons at hand, they can be ... More »

I've seen the video. It looks to me like she was disobeying the police and would not move to where they asked her to move. It also didn't look to me like her arrest was "violent", or at least any more than was necessary to arrest someone who didn't want to be arrested.