Journalist Arrested After Yelling Questions at HHS Secretary Tom Price

>Heyman repeatedly asked the secretary whether domestic violence would be considered a preexisting condition under the Republican bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system, he said.

>“Do you think that’s right or not, secretary?” Heyman asked, according to a recording an audio recording Heyman provided to The Washington Post. “You refuse to answer? Tell me no comment.”

>A male voice is heard telling Heyman, “Do not get close to her. Back up.”

>Moments later, an officer in the capitol pulled Heyman aside, handcuffed him and arrested him. Heyman was jailed on the charge of willful disruption of state government processes and was released later on $5,000 bail.

>Authorities said while Secret Service agents were providing security in the capitol for Price and Conway, Heyman was “aggressively breaching” the agents to the point where they were “forced to remove him a couple of times from the area,” according to a criminal complaint.

>Heyman “was causing a disturbance by yelling questions at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price,” the complaint stated.

>But Heyman said he was simply fulfilling his role as a journalist and feels that his arrest sets a “terrible example” for members of the press seeking answers to questions.

>“This is my job, this is what I’m supposed to do,” Heyman said in a news conference Tuesday after being released from jail. “I think it’s a question that deserves to be answered. I think it’s my job to ask questions and I think it’s my job to try to get answers.”
...

>Price and Conway were visiting Charleston, W.Va. Tuesday, to hear about efforts to fight opioid addiction in a state that has the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate. They met privately with state and local policymakers and members of several groups, including officials of an addiction treatment center and an addiction hotline, according to the Associated Press.

>Before Heyman’s arrest, no police officer told him he was in the wrong place, Heyman said. He was wearing a press pass as well as a shirt with a Public News Service logo on the front, and identified himself to police as a reporter, he said.

>Heyman is heard on the recording saying, “you want to beat me up and end up on the news tonight?” A male officer tells him, “calm down, relax.”

>“You know those people are there for a reason,” the officer says on the recording.

>“Yeah, well what do you think I’m there for?” Heyman responds. “So the Capitol of the state of West Virginia is no longer a public space?” he says later.

>At the news conference, Heyman’s lawyer called the arrest a “highly unusual case” and said he has never had a client arrested for “talking too loud.” The lawyer, Tim DiPiero, described Heyman as a mild-mannered, reputable journalist and called the arrest “bizarre” and “way over the top.”

>Heyman has worked as a reporter for about 30 years, and his stories have appeared in the New York Times, NPR and other national news outlets, he said. Since 2009, he has worked as a West Virginia-based producer and reporter for Public News Service, which provides content to media outlets while also publishing its own stories.
...

>Lark Corbeil, chief executive and founder of Public News Service, said Heyman’s arrest took the organization “very much by surprise.”

>“From what we can understand, he did nothing out of the ordinary,” Corbeil said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He was doing what any journalist would normally do, calling out a question and trying to get an answer.”

>The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia said in a statement that Heyman’s arrest constituted “a blatant attempt to chill an independent, free press.” It called the charges against Heyman “outrageous” and demanded they be dropped immediately.

>“This is a dangerous time in our country,” the statement read. “Freedom of the press is being eroded every day.”

>“Today was a dark day for democracy,” the ACLU of West Virginia added. “But the rule of law will prevail. The First Amendment will prevail.”

>Heyman said he has been reporting on health care issues for many years, calling it “well-trodden ground” in his coverage. As a veteran journalist, he is used to criticism, he said, but he has never heard of a reporter being arrested for asking a question. Heyman said he thinks the public relies on journalists aggressively “pursuing the truth.”

>“If they don’t like the stories I write, that’s fine,” Heyman said. “They can criticize me all they want.”

>“But just saying that I shouldn’t be able to do my job is a bit ridiculous,” he added.

>harass people to the point secret service makes you leave the area multiple times before arrest
>"I was just asking questions!!!"
>"they have to cater to me or it's silencing free speech!"

Everyone knows the truth: this man harassed them over and over again to antagonize a situation he could be morally outraged about and exploit for 15 seconds of internet fame.

It's just like that lady that went around kicking people's dogs, trying to get them to bite her so she could sue.

>>138820
Frankly it reminds me of Alex Jones's early days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsRHTb37ln4

>>138821
The clip you posted is an act of civil disobedience.
He was trying to get arrested, to shed light on what he thought was an injustice.

This is the opposite.
Heyman wasn't trying to get arrested.
Instead, he was arrested against his will to keep him from shedding light on what he thought was an injustice.

>>138821
Oh, and thanks for showing how tinfoil Jones was/is.

>being fingerprinted is the mark of the beast
>Bill Clinton is going to want blood and urine samples from everyone
>constitutional right to travel

>>138831
> an act of civil disobedience.
He did it under the guise of being an investigative journalist though. It aired on access cable TV in Austin and he reran the footage extensively back then, and on his old radio show. I think iirc it formed the basis for one of his first documentary movies.

>>138835
that footage played a role in his early "america; destroyed by design" video if i am recalling the right one.

>>138837
I think you're right. I was a fan of his old show "Exposing Corruption" on channel 16 when I was a student at UT back then.

It's that 'journalist' meddler guise which I was trying to compare to what the guy in the OP post did. He clearly was being more than a journalist but he gets to tell everyone "A JOURNALIST WAS SILENCED TODAY!!" just like Alex did back then. (sorry if it wasn't that apparent in the particular footage I posted)

>>138838
>He clearly was being more than a journalist
???
>asking a tough question makes you a subversive enemy of the state

It was a perfectly valid question for the Sec of HHS, one Price refused to answer or comment on.

>>138838
>just like Alex did back then.
Again: Jones got arrested because he wanted to do so.
He manufactured the situation knowing it would result in his arrest.
That's why the cameras were thee in advance.

Unless Heyman was psychic, there's no reasonable way he could have known he was going to be arrested.
If he had, there would be video.

>>138875
You have personal issues with alex jones or what?

He's a patriot.

>>138877
>You have personal issues with alex jones or what?
That's a strawman.
I haven't said one bad thing about Jones.
But comparing an act of civil disobedience with the Heyman case is absurd.

>>138881
Sounds like they both want to get arrested

Liberals did that shit the entire campaign.
>repeatedly do something that warrants police intervention
>I'M THE VICTIM NOW HELP HELP

>>138883
This.
>break the law
>help police!
>you shouldn't be able to arrest me!
>you should arrest them for having me arrested!

If this is what journalism has boiled down to now a days its pretty pathetic.

>>139152
That's leftism for ya.

>>139152
It's not journalism, it's "activist journalism"

These boners think they're on the frontlines of a politcal battlefield when in reality they're just self righteous boners writing opinion peices and gutter articles

>>139155
No it isn't, attention whores aren't partisan in their attention seeking.