Reporter Physically Assaulted at Palin Rally in North Carolina

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A reporter for the Greensboro News-Record was physically assaulted by a McCain/Palin supporter at a Sarah Palin rally in North Carolina on Oct. 16. Reporting from the rally at Elon University, reporter Joe Killian described the altercation on his blog as follows:

After the speech was over, I was walking around getting peoples' reactions to it when I wandered into several clusters of sign-waving Obama supporters outside the stadium area. They were surrounded by McCain-Palin folks, and both sides were yelling at each other.

I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.

As he was telling me, a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.

"Hey, hey," I said. "I'm trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay?"

The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.

This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks, who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.

It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.

"Oh, you think that's funny?!" the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that's real funny..." he said.

And then he kicked the back of my leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.

This assault is a direct result of hate-based verbal attacks not only on Barack Obama and the Democrats but also on the "liberal media" at McCain/Palin events. This was no isolated incident, as attested by many recent accounts of the hate festivals these events have become. While no one in the McCain/Palin campaign told the "large bearded man" in this account to physically assault a reporter, the campaign is responsible for the hateful atmosphere at rallies which led to the incident described here.