[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 18 (Friday, February 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       EXPERIENCES WITH THE PRESS

  Mr. PACKWOOD. Madam President, I thank the Senator. I wonder if the 
Senator from West Virginia recalls the old radio show ``Can You Top 
This?'' where they would tell jokes and someone else would tell another 
joke and see if they can top it. I had a similar experience from yours.
  I actually know where the Senator from West Virginia lives. I have a 
good friend who lives around the block. I drive by your house with some 
regularity, so I can picture exactly where you were and what happened. 
It was probably barely light. It was early in the morning.
  I have had similar situations happen to me over the past 3 or 4 
months, only getting at me is much more difficult than getting at 
Senator Byrd because his house is a normal suburban house with a public 
sidewalk, I judge, about 15 to 20 feet from your front door. I live in 
a townhouse in a complex that has a gate with security, and my 
townhouse is about 300 yards from the edge of the sidewalk. To get 
there, you have to traverse 300 yards of private property that you are 
not supposed to be on unless you have permission.
  On Halloween, at about 8:30 or 9 o'clock at night, I was going home, 
got out of my car, and literally from behind a bush jumps a television 
crew and a television commentator like goblins, turning on the light 
and shouting at me. It did not frighten me, but it surprised me, 
stunned me. I was not expecting somebody to be jumping out from behind 
the bushes. And I paid them roughly the same heed that the Senator paid 
Mr. Wallace this morning.

  A few weeks later, I was taking--I go to work quite early, about 6 
o'clock in the morning--I was taking out my garbage. It was garbage 
day. And as I walked out the door, there are two television crews, 
again 300 yards on private property, photographing me, asking 
questions. I answered none. But I did see myself on television carrying 
out my garbage for disposal before I went to work.
  That is bad enough. To get on this property, as I say, you have to 
have permission, and it used to be relatively easy to get. As you go by 
the gate, there is a little division. On one side, it says 
``residents,'' and if you have a sticker you can drive by. On the other 
side, you are closer to the guard, and if you are not a resident you 
are supposed to stop and get permission to go on.
  Because of the efforts of the press to get on, they have had to close 
off the right-hand side of the entry for the residents and force 
everybody to go by and stop at the guard shack in order to keep out the 
press who attempt to get on by a variety of devious devices, some of 
which I will mention.
  On one occasion, a press truck came--very clearly a press truck--and 
tried to get on, and a very efficient guard said, ``No, you are not 
here to visit anybody; I am sorry.'' The truck went away. They were not 
very smart. They came back in about a half an hour claiming to be a 
plumber coming to fix one of the tenant's plumbing, and the guard 
recognized it as the same truck and again turned them away.
  Worst of all perhaps, there is a tenant who lives in the same complex 
who works for the local CBS affiliate, and that reporter has been 
giving permission to her fellow reporters to claim that they are coming 
to visit her, when they are not; they are coming to photograph me. And 
they are using that artifice to get onto the property.
  Now, this is exactly the kind of conduct that the Senator from West 
Virginia is talking about. It is the kind that all of us at one time or 
another have to put up with but perhaps never to the degree the Senator 
and I have experienced in this situation.
  It is demeaning. It is demeaning to them. I suppose not so much to 
you and me, but it is demeaning to them. And the Senator and I can 
recall a different era when the press was quite polite, and if they 
wanted to interview you, they would call, and the Senator, like I, 
would meet with them, talk with them. But this kind of conduct is 
perhaps what causes journalism to rank not much above or, on occasion, 
below us in terms of public esteem. They are not up there with the 
clergy and up there with pharmicists. They are down with us.
  I just wanted to sympathize with what the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee said today and say that I have gone through it 
also. I understand the irritation, and I appreciate what he has said 
today. I fully understand it.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. Most of the press is 
still polite today.
  Mr. PACKWOOD. I agree.
  Mr. BYRD. It is a few bad actors that cast a cloud upon all the 
others.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mr. PACKWOOD. I thank the Chair. If I did not use up my 10 minutes, I 
will yield it back.

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