St. Augustine Record: Camera, Congressman collide

Camera, Congressman collide



By CHAD SMITH
chad.smith@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 09/05/08


You say "butt out," I say "head butt."

That is essentially the discrepancy in the respective stances of ABC News and U.S. Rep. John Mica, who on Monday had a run-in with an ABC reporter and producer in Minneapolis while attending the Republican National Convention.

In a video that made the Internet rounds, Mica, who represents the Florida district that includes St. Johns County, is seen Monday night walking along a sidewalk before bumping into a producer's camera, a hand then shoving it away.

In a telephone interview from the convention Thursday, Mica said he didn't "head butt" the camera, as ABC reported Tuesday, but the producer hit him with the camera.

"All I tried to do was just get away from him," Mica said, adding that he didn't think the incident was intentional.

Mica was filmed trying to skirt around a group of young people who assembled between the journalists and himself.

As he got closer, the producer said, "Look, I don't mean to pester you. I'm just curious with a couple of questions."

Before he could finish that last sentence, Mica tried to duck under the camera and asked, almost with a little laughter, "What do you want? What do you want?"

Then, the contact.

"Ooh, you hit me in the head," Mica said, alarmed. "Don't hit me in the head again."

"I didn't do that, sir."

Then a hand, seemingly Mica's, pushed the camera away, as the congressman said, "I'll knock that thing out of your hand."

"Don't touch my camera, sir."

Then a police officer or a security guard yelled in the background, "Hey, hey," to break up the quarrel.

As Mica walked over to the officer or guard, the producer repeated, "Don't touch my camera. Please don't touch my camera."

A man in a white button-down shirt then ran up to the camera and pushed it away, saying, "That's enough."

The producer then said, "I'm just a journalist. I'm on public property."

The man in white then told a cop that the producer hit Mica in the head.

"No, I did not," the producer said, walking away. "Oh, my God."

In the interview, Mica said he didn't know who the man in the white shirt was, and he didn't know whether the journalists were legitimate journalists because they never identified themselves as such, and he didn't see their press credentials.

Mica said the U.S. Capitol Police, traveling with the politicians at the convention, warned them that some protesters might pose as reporters. Also taking into consideration that some violent protesters had reportedly been throwing urine and feces, slashing tires and breaking windows, Mica said he was skeptical.

"We didn't know if he was a reporter or a protester, and he came at me," he said. "I did not know who he was or what he was trying to do."

In a phone interview, also from the convention, Brian Ross, ABC's chief investigative correspondent who was around the corner when the conflict ensued, said the reporter and producer, who he would not name, did indeed say they were from the news agency. However, that isn't heard on the video.

Ross and the reporting team were working on a story about the power of lobbyists at the convention, focusing on the appearance of former House majority leader Tom DeLay, who stepped down from his post in 2005 after he was indicted in a Texas campaign-finance case.

The producer was attempting to ask Mica what he thought about DeLay's return to the GOP spotlight.

"If he had said something like, 'I don't have any thoughts on that,' we would have left him alone," said Ross, who felt Mica ran into the camera not the other way around.

An online ABC News story co-reported by Ross briefly mentioned the encounter: "Asked his reaction to DeLay's appearance in Minneapolis, (Mica) declined to answer and then head-butted the ABC camera."

Mica said he felt the bump on his head for a while afterward but didn't plan on taking any action because he didn't think the producer bumped him with malice.

But he said, "That's not professional journalism or responsible action."

Ross said essentially the same about Mica.

"He wouldn't dream of doing this in a Washington hallway."

Click here to watch the video.


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