Disgusting.

Though this makes me wonder why I heard such a hullabaloo from Republicans and Democrats alike in districts fueled heavily by military spending that it was sacrilege not to build any more F-22s, or to have less than 11 active aircraft carriers- obviously, those are more important than, y'know, funding/fixing the VA.

How in the hell can you be forbidden to give someone your phone number? Filming in a hospital without checking in, maybe, but I'd think you could give your phone number to whomever you damn well pleased.

Mrs Shaman works at the VA. This whole story sounds like bullshiat..... It is presented like these people are prisoners.... Even the 28 day drug rehab ward is unlocked.... and has open phones...

Like any government facility, recording, filming and taping are very restricted.

Sounds like someone has a problem with strong women. The misogyny is sickening.

Smells like we're not getting anywhere near the whole story on this one....

Approves

muck4doo: Sounds like someone has a problem with strong women. The misogyny is sickening.

Oh, I get it. It's a joke-like statement.

"get ugly"?

Lenny_da_Hog: Smells like we're not getting anywhere near the whole story on this one....

I'm not one to defend the gubmint.... but I think you're spot on here...

I dunno. I mean who knows what he was filming. What if the patients didn't want to be recorded? Patients have the right to privacy. So I guess it's a case of asshole reporter vs. shiathead personnel, so obviously I have to blame Obama.

We wouldn't even have these kinds of stories popping up if the VA was funded as well as the military.

stolibro: Lenny_da_Hog: Smells like we're not getting anywhere near the whole story on this one....

I'm not one to defend the gubmint.... but I think you're spot on here...

This!
Hopefully we can get the real story eventually, for all we know the reporter was bothering the patients and violating their right to privacy

Earlier this week a secretly recorded tape revealed that the VA was being pressured by higher-ups not to diagnose PTSD.

Think the feds are maybe getting a little antsy about reporters in the wake of that?

wow did anyone bother to even skim the article? he was an NPR affiliate reporter using a recording device to record an interview with a interviewee, no video was being shot.

Headso: wow did anyone bother to even skim the article? he was an NPR affiliate reporter using a recording device to record an interview with a interviewee, no video was being shot.

No, you tool. He was clearly a member of a vast right-wing conspiracy to discredit government health care. Thank god his propaganda materials were confiscated. The world might the the wrong idea about how things work in this country.

Bushwa. Any reporter would say "Arrest me. It's show time!"

I went to a VA hospital with the BF recently, and it wasn't exactly prison.

There are serious HIPPA regulations that need to be considered when you talk about filming (or even recording) medical procedures or issues.

what_now: There are serious HIPPA regulations that need to be considered when you talk about filming (or even recording) medical procedures or issues.

When you're interviewing a patient?

what_now: I went to a VA hospital with the BF recently, and it wasn't exactly prison.

There are serious HIPPA regulations that need to be considered when you talk about filming (or even recording) medical procedures or issues.

Are there procedures for giving your phone number to reporters as well?

One of those veterans, an amputee in a wheelchair, approached Schultz and asked him for his phone number.

"I started to give it to him and then the woman {Hairston} became irate, she said you can't give him your phone number.

Jesus...even in the VA, they take the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing WAY too seriously.

Huffpo has a follow-up (new window)

"Since the veteran Schultz had interviewed gave him his telephone number, Schultz said, he was able to finish up the talk with the patient the following day; Schultz's story aired on WAMU on Wednesday. "

"Roberts, spokeswoman for the VA, said the reporter "took advantage of the patient" in approaching him for an interview, causing "total disorientation." In addition, she said, Schultz did not identify himself as a reporter."

"Schultz maintains that he told the interviewee and VA officials he was a reporter.

Schultz's tape will be returned if the patient signs the consent form, Roberts said. The VA is willing to accommodate media requests, she said, "but [WAMU journalists] just refuse to talk with us about the consent form process.""

The people that run VA hospitals are sleazy immoral bureaucrats. Here's some more evidence of them abusing their authority.

Treason of the clerk: accused of sedition, a V.A. nurse beats the rap (new window)

brigid_fitch: The VA is willing to accommodate media requests, she said, "but [WAMU journalists] just refuse to talk with us about the consent form process.""

This is what you get when you let banks branch out into journalism...

here's where you need to be outraged! Only one side of the story, but still, this is horrible.

Freedom of speech, you got no freedom

I chairman Obama ban this free talk

My loyal Comrades, feel free to supress this.

Chairman Obama..........

We haven't heard anything about mistreatment? Um, go Google "VA" and "HIV". Not a good story.

winterwhile: Freedom of speech, you got no freedom

I chairman Obama ban this free talk

My loyal Comrades, feel free to supress this.

Chairman Obama..........

Obama will have to clean up Bush's messes based on priorities. Right now saving us all from bankruptcy and illegal foreign wars takes precedence.

He may not be able to get to the VA mess until his second term.

I Chairman Obama have extended the terrorist surveillance program initiated by the Bush administration.

My loyal Comrades, feel free to surpess this information as well.

Chairman Obama

winterwhile: I Chairman Obama have extended the terrorist surveillance program initiated by the Bush administration.

My loyal Comrades, feel free to surpess this information as well.

Chairman Obama

Lies die of their own accord.

Burn98: winterwhile: I Chairman Obama have extended the terrorist surveillance program initiated by the Bush administration.

My loyal Comrades, feel free to surpess this information as well.

Chairman Obama

Lies die of their own accord.

Too bad the same can't be said of liars.

Burn98

winterwhile: Freedom of speech, you got no freedom

I chairman Obama ban this free talk

My loyal Comrades, feel free to supress this.

Chairman Obama..........

Obama will have to clean up Bush's messes based on priorities. Right now saving us all from bankruptcy and illegal foreign wars takes precedence.

He may not be able to get to the VA mess until his second term.

HUH??? Bush won the war, he put 10 Million new folks in houses, and brought the biggest increase in wealth to the Black community........ ever in History....

OK, so you get me, he did go in the hole for 500 Billion, but heck Chairman Obama in 40 days made that number 2 Trillion.

2 Trillion? I guess Bush did not try hard enough to push the burdon to our kids.

Folks, please please I chairman Obama have Cybersecurity Act of 2009, which goes far beyond anything ever contemplated by the Bush administration. Heck I chairman Obama can even shut off the Internet if I want ( Sec. 18 (2), if you care to read it).

Please surpess this info, my loyal Comrades.

Chairman Obama

winterwhile: he put 10 Million new folks in houses

I think we'll just be saving that one for another thread...

winterwhile: OK, so you get me, he did go in the hole for 500 Billion

Some of the numbers in that budget were redacted.

mediaho: Too bad the same can't be said of liar

Someone Famous (anyone remember who?) once said that political movements went through phases as they grew stronger.

First they're ignored.
Second they're laughed at.
Third they're condemned for being dangerous.
forth they're argued with.
finally they're accepted.

I think trolls go through the process in reverse.

I Chairman Obama will now get an additional $83.4 billion to fund more military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan

Please loyal Comrades, I did vote against the war, but now I need the war as a distraction from my failed policies here at home.

Anyone see my cute new puppy?

Chairman Obama

Funny how the VA got better in just the last couple months....or is it just the MSM reporting?

winterwhile: HUH??? Bush won the war, he put 10 Million new folks in houses, and brought the biggest increase in wealth to the Black community........ ever in History....

OK, so you get me, he did go in the hole for 500 Billion, but heck Chairman Obama in 40 days made that number 2 Trillion.

2 Trillion? I guess Bush did not try hard enough to push the burdon to our kids.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

There is so little here that has any relation to the truth. You can't possibly expect me to bite.

vonster: Funny how the VA got better in just the last couple months....or is it just the MSM reporting?

Your imagination.

Just more of the Bush Administration and their war on the Constitution and attempts to control the press

/wait, what?

Hang On Voltaire: Just more of the Bush Administration and their war on the Constitution and attempts to control the press

/wait, what?

It will take a while for Obama to clear all the corruption of the Bush administration out of government.

Burn98: vonster: Funny how the VA got better in just the last couple months....or is it just the MSM reporting?

Your imagination.

My fellow Comrades

My failures in Europe on my Apology tour were huge:

I asked for more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan, those Farked up euro's rudely rebuffed that idea

I asked for more stimulus spending from the EU. I got nothing.

I asked Russia, even gave them a reset buttion, but got no help on Iran

And just what did I get for Guantanamo? France took one? What only one?

Look I know I now look like Jimmy Carter, but heck what he did took 4 years, and I Farked it all up in 40 days.

Chairman Obama

winterwhile: My fellow Comrades

My failures in Europe on my Apology tour were huge:

I asked for more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan, those Farked up euro's rudely rebuffed that idea

I asked for more stimulus spending from the EU. I got nothing.

I asked Russia, even gave them a reset buttion, but got no help on Iran

And just what did I get for Guantanamo? France took one? What only one?

Look I know I now look like Jimmy Carter, but heck what he did took 4 years, and I Farked it all up in 40 days.

Chairman Obama

Yea. Damned shame we don't still have the Great Uniter in office anymore, comrade winterwhile. Palin/Jindal will fix everything, though.

My fellow Comrades

My failures in Europe on my Apology tour were huge:

I asked for more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan, those Farked up euro's rudely rebuffed that idea

I asked for more stimulus spending from the EU. I got nothing.

I asked Russia, even gave them a reset buttion, but got no help on Iran

And just what did I get for Guantanamo? France took one? What only one?

Look I know I now look like Jimmy Carter, but heck what he did took 4 years, and I Farked it all up in 40 days.

Chairman Obama

2/10

Amazingly there is no video of the incident with a camera literally RIGHT there.

mediaho: Are there procedures for giving your phone number to reporters as well?

no, that's bullshiat. But as someone said, I'm pretty sure we're not hearing all of this, as a REAL journalist would have LOVE to get arrested on a trumped up charge.

winterwhile: My fellow Comrades

My failures in Europe on my Apology tour were huge:

I asked for more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan, those Farked up euro's rudely rebuffed that idea

I asked for more stimulus spending from the EU. I got nothing.

I asked Russia, even gave them a reset buttion, but got no help on Iran

And just what did I get for Guantanamo? France took one? What only one?

Look I know I now look like Jimmy Carter, but heck what he did took 4 years, and I Farked it all up in 40 days.

Chairman Obama


You are quite the dumbshiat. Enjoy your continued stupidity. We will.

Wolf Blitzer is a Substitute Teacher: Um, go Google "VA" and "HIV". Not a good story.

This.

I submitted a story about this, but as I'm a filthy liter now, I don't know what happened to it.

BTW, they gave people AIDS because they didn't wash colonoscopy equipment.

Let that sink in.

Comrade Blues_X

winterwhile: My fellow Comrades

My failures in Europe on my Apology tour were huge:

I asked for more NATO combat troops in Afghanistan, those Farked up euro's rudely rebuffed that idea

I asked for more stimulus spending from the EU. I got nothing.

I asked Russia, even gave them a reset buttion, but got no help on Iran

And just what did I get for Guantanamo? France took one? What only one?

Look I know I now look like Jimmy Carter, but heck what he did took 4 years, and I Farked it all up in 40 days.

Chairman Obama


You are quite the dumbshiat. Enjoy your continued stupidity. We will.

Please tell me we got some, some, some European help in my new Vietnam/Afghanistan?

Please tell me they will be spending their kids money just like we did?

Chairman Obama

what_now: mediaho: Are there procedures for giving your phone number to reporters as well?

no, that's bullshiat. But as someone said, I'm pretty sure we're not hearing all of this, as a REAL journalist would have LOVE to get arrested on a trumped up charge.

As a small point of correction - most, if not all, reporters do NOT want to get themselves arrested.

Not to mention the fact that if your boss doesn't doesn't back you up, then you can bet on not getting legal help or bail once they do pop you.

The one and only time you'll generally hear about reporters in the pokey is related to disclosure of confidential sources. That's a matter of professional ethics and reputation, plus there's some well-establish legal protections there.

But just chasing a story? No.