USA Today reporter Paul Singer reveals House Democrats looked up at the press gallery during their gun control sit-in and literally cheered them on, publicly thanking the press for covering the stunt in what Singer called “one of the more embarrassing” moments of his career.
“My colleagues and I were mortified,” Singer writes in USA Today, referring to the moment the Democrats joined a cheering gallery to acknowledge their help in spreading the narrative. (VIDEO: Gohmert Shouts Down House Dems: ‘We’re Talking About Radical Islam!’)
He and a few dozen of his colleagues were covering the sit-in from the House press gallery, situated across from the visitor’s galleries and above the Speaker’s podium, when the Democrats on the floor began applauding each other and thanking their supporters. They had been occupying the floor for the better part of a day, demanding a vote on a gun control measure that would strip their constituents of their 2nd Amendment right to buy a gun if the federal government so much as suspects them of a crime.
“They congratulated each other and cheered,” Singer writes. “The partisans who had packed the public visitors’ gallery cheered with them … The lawmakers then turned to the galleries and thanked the visitors for their support, and everybody cheered some more.”
“And then, my moment of shame,” he continues. “Someone on the floor called out thanks to the press, saying our reporting had spread the word and fueled their protest. The 100-or-so Members of Congress on the floor and the several hundred partisans in the gallery cheered for us.”
Reflecting on his “moment of shame,” Singer confesses that although the press are proud when labeled the enemy, they are often working with the politicians they’re covering rather than against them in what he calls a “symbiotic” relationship — he needs the stories they’re offering.
“They use us, and we are willingly used, and we know that,” he writes.
Singer insists he doesn’t “like” being used as he confesses he was in the gun control sit-in scenario, but ends the piece by basically throwing his hands up in the air and asking not to be openly embarrassed again.
“I did what my job tells me to do,” he concludes. “But please — don’t thank me.”
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