“Sorry!”

In a classic scene from the “Animal House” toga party, the chaotic Bluto, played by John Belushi, encounters a pompous student strumming his guitar and singing a sappy folk song as co-eds swoon. Bluto suddenly seizes the guitar and smashes it to smithereens. “Sorry,” he shrugs.

This is about the level of effectiveness and sincerity achieved by Vice President Joe Biden’s office, as it apologized after taking a student photographer’s photographs of the Veep and destroying them.

From Poynter:

“Jeremy Barr, a reporter with the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service, was seated in a non-press section for the event, at which the vice president announced an anti-domestic violence initiative. Biden staffer Dana Rosenzweig approached Barr after the event and ordered him to delete photos.

“She said, ‘I need to see your camera right now.’” Barr said. The staffer called Barr’s presence in the non-press area an “unfair advantage” over the other members of the media at the event. The staffer then requested to watch as Barr deleted the photos from his camera to ensure his compliance, Barr said. After deleting the photos from the camera, the staffer asked Barr to show her his iPhone to make sure no photos were saved. Barr complied.”

The after-the fact apology–-‘We’re so sorry. (Mission accomplished!‘)— arrived only after the Dean of the University of Maryland’s Journalism School wrote a blistering letter of protest to Biden’s press secretary, concluding with “Rockville is not a third-world country where police-state style media censorship is expected.” But media censorship through intimidation has been periodically practiced with disturbing frequency at high levels of the Obama administration, from the perceived threat to Bob Woodward to the conduct of the outgoing Secretary of The Interior, who threatened to punch out a reporter. This is because, as this incident illustrates, officials high and low are inclined by the Administration’s prevailing culture (ahh, “transparency!”)  to squelch independent reporting by the media for the political benefit of the President and his crew, and are not trained or encouraged to respect the Constitutional rights of a free press: if they were, what happened to Barr would not have occurred. The standard approach is “let’s do what we can get away with, and apologize after.” Poynter makes the point:

“This isn’t the first time Biden’s office has taken a heavy hand to the press. After the vice president made a remark during the presidential campaign that Republicans would put [black] voters ‘back in chains,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported the veep’s staff ‘tried to edit media pool reports for any potential landmines that could be seized on by Republicans and even hovered at close range to eavesdrop on journalists’ conversations with attendees at Biden rallies.'”

Trying to edit media reports isn’t a “heavy hand”—isn’t it astounding how the Obama-besotted media will try to minimize the administration’s assault on the Constitution even when their own reporters are the victims?—but rather government censorship.

But that’s OK! Biden’s press secretary apologized!

And I’m sure she’ll apologize the next time a guitar gets smashed, too.

I must also say, in closing, that Dean Dalglish needs to tighten up the education of her students as well. There is no excuse for the Vice President’s minions seizing photographs, but her school ought to be teaching students that they have a professional duty as journalists to strenuously oppose censorship efforts by those who would restrict freedom of the press. Saying“yes, sir!” and giving up photos is not appropriate conduct, and is itself an ethical breach.

Now here’s John!

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Pointer: Instapundit

Facts: Poynter