Meg Kissinger 'creeped out' by Mary Burke aides

MILWAUKEE, Sept. 30 (UPI) —

A longtime Milwaukee reporter said she was given troubling instructions by an aide for gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s campaign at an event at which first lady Michelle Obama appeared.

Meg Kissinger, a reporter with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal who said she’s been covering "all kinds of political events" since 1979, said she was "creeped out" when a Burke campaign aide and a White House aide said she was not allowed to speak to the people in the crowd.

"To say that I was creeped out is an understatement. This is what reporters do in America: we speak to people. At least that’s how I’ve been doing things — at all kinds of political events — since 1979."

Obama was appearing at the Burke event in Milwaukee on Monday. According to Kissinger’s published account of the event, there wasn’t enough seeing for guests at the event, including several disabled people.

"At the Burke event, a number of people in the crowd were upset about a lack of seating," she wrote.

"Several people, including a woman using two canes, complained that she had nowhere to sit."

“Reporters and photographers were cordoned off in a central area with chairs and tables. Several people in the crowd asked if they could have extra chairs reserved for the media — but reporters were initially forbidden from handing them over. Eventually, some of the Burke staff gave the extra chairs to attendees.

"Burke and White House staff also told reporters not to talk to people in the crowd before the event."

Kissinger saved her more angry reaction for her personal Facebook page, saying she’d "never seen anything like this."

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Post by Meg Kissinger.

"Never seen anything like it in 35 years as a reporter covering dozens of political events," she wrote in a comment on the above post. "White House and Burke aides telling reporters we were not allowed to talk to the people on the other side of the rope. But that’s what reporters do: we talk to people. In America, that’s our job."

Post by Meg Kissinger.

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