20070603 Columnist and author Eric Alterman arrested at Democratic debate

Columnist and author Eric Alterman arrested at Democratic debate

June 3rd, 2007

It appears that Eric Alterman[1] has met his karma.

Yeah, as journalists we’ve all been there. But apparently Mr. Alterman did not get the memo: “When in hole stop digging.”

We’ve all been in the VIP tent trying to land a story. The rule of thumb is that when you are asked to leave, be obsequious. Be polite and ya never know, ya just might be able to stay a little longer.

And never ever hassle with the police. Security at a big event can often be your biggest ally.

Whatever. Read on…


June 3, 2007

Columnist/Author released after being arrested in Spin Room

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN ) – Columnist and author Eric Alterman has been released after being arrested Sunday night inside the debate spin room. He was charged with criminal trespass after police say he refused repeated orders to leave.

Goffstown, N.H. police said Alterman was in the spin room as a guest of the Creative Coalition and went to an area reserved for a private reception for WMUR-TV. Police said he was asked by an executive at the party if he was invited to the private area and was asked to leave. A police officer was called after a verbal altercation ensued. According to police, Alterman was asked seven times to leave and became increasingly loud as he refused. After ignoring a final request, police said he was handcuffed and taken from the building.

Alterman spoke with CNN after being released. He called the arrest a “misunderstanding” and claimed he did not refuse orders to leave.

[…]

Alterman writes a column for “The Nation” and writes the “Altercation” blog for Media Matters. He also has authored several books, including “Why Presidents Lie.”

Read the entire saga here: Columnist/Author released after being arrested in Spin Room

Read his bio in the footnote below.

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[1] Bio

Termed "the most honest and incisive media critic writing today” in the National Catholic Reporter, and author of “the smartest and funniest political journal out there,” in the San Francisco Chronicle, Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, senior fellow and “Altercation” weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com), senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the “Think Again” column, and a history consultant to HBO Films.

Alterman is the author of the national bestsellers, What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News (2003,2004), and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Mark Green, 2004,2005). His most recent book is When Presidents Lie: A History of Deception and its Consequences, (2004,2006. His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992, 2000), won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen (1999, 2001), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award. Alterman is also the author of Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy, (1998).

A frequent lecturer and contributor to virtually every significant national publication in the US and many in Europe, in recent years, he has also been a columnist for: Worth, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and The Sunday Express (London). A senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at New School University, and former Adjunct Professor of Journalism at NYU and Columbia, Alterman received his B.A. in History and Government from Cornell, his M.A. in International Relations from Yale, and his Ph.D. in US History from Stanford. He lives with his family in Manhattan where he is at work on a history of postwar American liberalism.