Natasha Loder is a reporter from The Economist. Not some silly blogger, not a cub reporter at a local paper. She works for The Economist.

Now, some reporters these days don't mind reporting press releases, or reporting "facts" verbatim without checking to see if the facts are indeed true.

Some reporters even seem not to mind reporting on a speech from a gaffe-prone candidate that's on a delay. But not Natasha Loder and a handful of others.

According to Raw Story:



A national correspondent was briefly handcuffed and detained on Tuesday as she was trying to watch Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s victory speech at the Diamond Center in Novi, Michigan. The Economist‘s Natasha Loder told The New York Observer that she left the press filing room when she realized that the televisions in the room were showing the candidate’s speech on a tape delay.

The nerve! Leaving the press room and trying to listen to a candidate's live speech? But then she might hear Romney refer to Americans as "The Great Unwashed" or "The Help". She might observe Romney pointing and laughing at a regular American's sweater from The Gap. "Where'd you get that ugly thing, The Gap? Don't you guys have a tailor? For Pity's Sake, at least get yourself to Brooks Brothers, man!"

But the Romney campaign, sensing that their candidate is slowly losing this primary due to what The Daily Beast terms "Political Tourette's" came up with a fantastic plan.

Don't let anyone who might be able to tell America what he really says listen to his speeches. Like most ordinary Americans, he just wants a small time delay so that he can edit out the idiot things he says.

So Anne doesn't have to strangle anyone! Come on, America, this is for your own good!!

Natasha Loder didn't appreciate the tactic, and did what any decent, self-respecting reporter would do, something that would have been normal just a few years ago.

She tried to listen to a live speech by a presidential candidate.

What did she get for her effort?



Although the doors to the room where Romney was giving the speech had been opened all night, a security guard threatened to close them when reporters began gathering to listen to the speech in real time. A police officer approached the guard and offered to arrest Loder and other journalists for trespassing. The officer handcuffed Loder after she refused to leave. Chad Livengood, a reporter for The Detroit News, tweeted photos of Loder as she “sat down in the door way in protest of the closing.”

A nearby Romney campaign staffer reportedly declined to intervene in the matter. “I just said, ‘Look, I’m sorry, I just wanted to do my job,” Loder told the Observer after speaking with the policeman and being released. “They gave me a ticking off and that was it.” “There was somebody there [from the Romney campaign], he didn’t offer to help or smooth things over, not in front of me anyway,” she added.

Oh, those noble police officers just trying to do their job arresting journalists. But Loder asserted that she was just trying to do her job.Ms. Loder, you must understand that we have to protect reporters from Anne Romney. If you don't want to be strangled, you must be cuffed for your own protection.

This is what America is come to.

Edit: In response to some input from the comments, I would like to point out that, while it is true that there was a delay in the press room, and it is true that the doors of the main room were closed to reporters trying to hear the live speech, it is only my speculation that there is a connection between the two events.