News Photographers Barred From Covering GOP Debate

Texas Republican Ron Paul

AP and Reuters photographers can be found anywhere major (and minor) news is happening. But they weren’t at this week’s GOP presidential debate — The news agencies boycotted the event after the debate’s sponsors placed unusual restrictions regarding when they were allowed to shoot.

Both agencies skipped Thursday night’s opening Republican debate for the 2012 presidential race in South Carolina, citing restrictions put in place by sponsor Fox News that would have allowed just a single photographer to take photos BEFORE the event, but then would have barred them from covering the actual Greenville, SC debate. AP and Reuters also reportedly declined to send print journalists as well.

“The opening stages of an event as important as the presidential selection process should be as accessible as possible to all forms of journalism. These candidates want to lead the country. The country has a right to see them from various angles, not only where the TV cameras are positioned,” said Michael Oreskes, the AP’s senior managing editor.

The move by the debate’s organizers is especially strange in that coverage of the event was already minimal. Big name, big draw Republican candidates like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney declined to attend, so you would think the debate would be scrambling for all the attention it could get. Apparently not.

Of course, the state’s Democrats were quick to capitalize on the snafu.

“The state Republican Party must have hired whoever was doing the North Korean press events,” sniped Dick Harpootlian, chair of the South Carolina Democratic. “This kind of thing works well in most totalitarian regimes.”