Fear the Tube: GOP bans video at Bachmann event to avoid unflattering net vids

Endorsing conventions are an important time for political parties to showcase political candidates to both the party base and the community at large, which makes the ban on audio and video recording during Minnesota’s 6th District Republican Convention unusual. Yet when the St. Cloud Times’ political reporter Larry Schumacher attempted to videotape the April 7 convention for the newspaper’s Web site, he was shut down. Schumacher wrote, “6th Congressional District GOP Chairman Mark Swanson informed me after I arrived that there will be no video or audio recording allowed in the convention hall during the convention.”

The reason for the media audio/visual blackout? District party leaders don’t want more unflattering videos of Bachmann — like her appearance at Living Word Christian Center, which got viewed 30,000 times — to wind up on YouTube.  Apparently for the GOP, exposure to Bachmann is not a positive thing.  “We’ve just had too many issues with videotape of Congresswoman Bachmann on the Internet with funny music playing, and chopped up to make her look foolish,” Swanson told Schumacher.

Continued: Click “Read more”But among GOP leaders, the story shifted. Benton County Republican Party Chairman David Wilson told Schumacher that “Television crews were exempt because their footage is unlikely to end up on YouTube. Also, television crews are easy to identify. Other media representatives? Not so much.”

The St. Cloud Times was not exempt. Neither was Minnesota Public Radio: “Michele Bachmann’s campaign did not allow MPR (or other broadcast outlets) to record the event because they ‘don’t like how audio and video has been edited and and posted on sites like YouTube in the past so we now prohibit media taping.’”

Apparently, only some types of media were allowed, but how much protection would she be afforded even if only television crews were allowed?

Many of the video clips that Wilson claims plague the congresswoman are actually ripped from television crew footage and Web-based streaming video. The clips of Bachmann’s interaction with President Bush at the State of the Union in 2006 came directly from live video feeds from network television. Bachmann’s appearance at Mac Hammond’s Living Word Christian Church describing herself as a “fool for Christ” were readily available through the church’s live video feed and through video archives at the church’s Web site.

The efforts to protect Bachmann from her own words and actions may be futile at this point. Cell phones now specialize in capturing audio and video. With a large attendance and hectic schedule, would a cell phone ban ever go over at a district convention?

The convention was held at a public venue, the National Sports Center in Blaine. Can a political party ban recordings at a public facility?

“Yes they can,” says First Amendment lawyer Mark Anfinson. “The law has evolved so that organizations that rent or lease government venues are entitled to set their own rules.”

Political parties, contrary to public perception, are essentially private nonprofit groups, he said.

While political parties are private organizations, they depend on public support to thrive, especially public support at the ballot box. It’s not common for a political convention to block out the media, said Anfinson.

“It’s sort of bizarre,” he said. “One would think a political party would want broad exposure to the message and the candidates.”