Guard Shoves Reporter as EPA Bars
Multiple News Outlets From Water Pollution Event
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blocked reporters from CNN, E&E
News, and the Associated Press from attending a summit about water
pollution on Tuesday, and a security guard reportedly grabbed a journalist by
the shoulders and "forcibly" shoved her out of the building.
"Guards
barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint
inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs
person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved
her forcibly out of the EPA building," the AP said Tuesday.
EPA
spokesman Jahan Wilcox told the journalists they had not been invited to the
summit and there was not space for them. Wilcox told NBC News the agency provided
them with a livestream.
He claimed the AP reporter threatened "negative coverage" if she was not allowed to attend the event, but also that he was "unaware of the individual situation that has been reported."
He claimed the AP reporter threatened "negative coverage" if she was not allowed to attend the event, but also that he was "unaware of the individual situation that has been reported."
A
climate reporter for Politico tweeted Tuesday that a security guard
joked about how he told an AP reporter she could not film as she was
being kicked out of the agency building.
A
journalist from E&E confirmed that his outlet as well as CNN and
the AP had been barred from attending the event.
EPA
Administrator Scott Pruitt convened the meeting about water contaminants
perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl after facing fierce criticism last week for preventing
the release of a major study examining their impacts on waterways throughout
the country.
Published
emails revealed the agency and the Trump White House feared a "public
relations nightmare" in response to widespread contamination from the
chemicals, which are commonly used in Teflon, firefighting foam, and by the
Department of Defense for exercises at U.S. bases, and have been tied to
thyroid and pregnancy issues as well as some cancers.
After
news broke that the agency and the White House were blocking the release of the
study, Friends of the Earth had tweeted, "Scott Pruitt is more worried
about journalists than poisoning millions of Americans."
"The
White House reportedly worried about a 'PR nightmare' if this federal study
were to be released. There is no better way to ensure a PR nightmare than to
shove a journalist that showed up to report on how our government is handling
water contamination," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food &
Water Watch, declared in a statement on Tuesday.
While
slamming Pruitt's cronyism and corruption scandals, she said these
developments—the incident with the reporter coupled with the agency's efforts
to block the water study, which could be "the administration's biggest
attack on public health and safety to date"—indicate that "clearly,
the administration has something to hide."
"No
situation has so clearly illustrated why Pruitt must leave the EPA as this
morning's tyrannical treatment of press at the hands of his agency—and that's
saying a lot," Hauter concluded. "Now, it's a matter of sustaining
our freedom of the press and protecting lives where communities are faced with
toxic water contamination."