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Press kept safely penned away from lawmakers at GOP retreat

As House Republicans enjoyed their annual retreat here this week relaxed in half-zip sweaters, they were protected from an all-too-familiar nuisance: reporters.

Journalists used to covering Congress in the long hallways of the Capitol were instead confined to an inoperative seafood restaurant two parking lots away from the Hyatt Cambridge, where lawmakers met on the bank of the Choptank river to plot policy strategies on immigration, the debt ceiling and more. When House Speaker John Boehner and his top lieutenants spoke to reporters Thursday morning, Boehner stood behind five eagle-topped American flags and a black curtain. Behind the cameras and 50-odd journalists was a sign: “The Crab Pot: Where All the Crabs Get Steamed!”

But it was the reporters who felt like they got steamed.

Complaints of access were rampant among journalists at the two-day conference on Thursday and Friday. Of four news conferences scheduled, two—helpfully titled ”An America That Works for Women” and ”An America That Works to Protect Taxpayers”—were cancelled, including the only one slated for Friday. http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/31/reporters-get-steamed-at-republic
an-retreat/#ixzz2s0AbD37H

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

The freedom of the press means they can ask. Doesn't mean they are due answers.

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