CNN's Howard Kurtz is calling for New York City and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to apologize for the way the media was censored, roughed up and arrested during the recent eviction of Occupy Wall Street activists in Zuccotti Park.
"New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a post-midnight raid to clear the protesters from a lower Manhattan park," Kurtz explained Sunday. "Some reporters were pushed away and barred from covering the confrontation. About two dozen journalists from outlets such as the AP and The New York Daily News were arrested. Bloomberg says the city was trying to -- quote -- 'prevent a situation from getting worse and protect members of the press.' Except police later shoved and roughed up a number of reporters and photographers."
"This is quite simply an outrage, that police haul off journalists trying to do their jobs and push the press corps away from a legitimate news event," Kurtz declared. "That is nothing less than censorship and the city owes these journalist and the rest of us an apology."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed that several journalists were arrested in the Tuesday morning crackdown in Zuccotti Park last week. Not only did police prevent reporters on the ground from doing their jobs, authorities also closed the airspace in lower Manhattan so that news helicopters could not film the raid.
