Campaign video: The UpTake captures camera-shy Republicans… and it’s not pretty

The UpTake has produced a remarkable video on the Minnesota Republican Party’s growing intolerance of videobloggers, who are repeatedly getting tossed out of party events or told not to film. Beginning with citizen journalist Gavin Sullivan getting indelicately removed from the District 42B convention, the piece reports that GOP events in the Sixth Congressional District ban audio and videorecording — to, as Minnesota Monitor’s Andy Birkey has reported, prevent embarrassing footage of Rep. Michele Bachmann from ending up online — and that their own volunteer videographers have been barred from reporting at the state convention in Blaine, a debate between Republican First Congressional candidates in Jackson, and the Republican First Congressional convention in Albert Lea. 

Near the end, the piece includes footage from an earlier interview with Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Michael Brodkorb stating that party conventions should be open to both the opposition and to bloggers. The DFL, states The UpTake’s Michael McIntee, has a policy of allowing bloggers, including ones with video cameras, into their events. Brodkorb says that’s an idea “the Republicans should look at mirroring.”

Indeed, the alternative — policies that result in footage of angry Republicans kicking videobloggers out of purportedly democratic events — doesn’t seem likely to yield PR gold.

YouTube version