We try not to spend a lot of time focusing on the petty antics of political campaigns, but we just heard that some of Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi's campaign hobbits pulled an inappropriate stunt at a press conference this morning.
Democrat Melina Kennedy, who's challenging Brizzi, held a media event with several mothers and children to show support for an ordinance she's backing to keep sex offenders out of city parks. Whatever you might think of the proposal, we hope you'll agree that while it might be okay to stake out an opponent's press conferences with video and audio equipment (most spies just like to hang out and listen), it's not okay to do so when children are literally in the picture.
The Brizzi hobbits already have photographed Melina, her husband and their two young twins and posted those photos on a blog. That was questionable. But video-taping supportive mothers and their unsuspecting kids for future campaign commercials? Not so smart, kids. Do unto others.
To her credit, Melina politely asked the hobbits to refrain from video-taping the event, which they eventually agreed to do. However, they claimed that they had a right to be there and to do what they wanted.
That's a fair point, especially given our liberal stance on free speech and expression. However, he who calleth the press conference runneth the press conference, and it's nothing new for candidates and pols to exclude certain members of the media -- and most certainly members of the opposition party -- from their events.
Would you like a real-life example?
Last week, we hear through the grapevine that Corey Smith, the husband of former Indiana Criminal Justice Institute executive director Heather Bolejack, tried to get into the Governor's press conference announcing his recommendation that Bolejack and an ICJI deputy director be terminated. Smith was politely but forcefully excluded from the event. We'd guess the TDWs would receive much the same treatment were we to try to attend one of the Guv's availabilities.
So, there's plenty of precedent to exclude folks from media events, but the Brizzi issue is more about decency than politics. The hobbits are a young crew, and they might not understand how things work, but in our world, there are certain things that are or should be off-limits. Taking video footage of mothers with their children for future political use is one of 'em.
We're glad they ultimately decided to back off, but the point is that they shouldn't have had to be told. This is politics, and it can be brutal for the candidates, but if Brizzi's folks are going to pull tricks like this, maybe they belong instead working in the devil-may-care world of reality television.
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