VP Biden's Office Apologizes for Confining Reporter in Storage Closet During Fundraiser

This is one of the more bizarre snippets to come out of the political/media axis in awhile.

Fox News:

The vice president's press secretary has apologized to a local political reporter after he was kept in a storage closet during a Florida fundraiser.

Scott Powers, a reporter with the Orlando Sentinel, was relegated to the storage space during a fundraiser Wednesday for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., apparently to prevent him from speaking to people before Vice President Biden showed up.

The Sentinel did not make a big deal about the incident when it first happened, publishing a somewhat lighthearted account on their political blog:

Not looking for sympathy here, but the life of a political reporter isn’t all champagne and canapes. Consider our man Scott Powers...

But the story took on more extended life when the Drudge Report featured it prominently with in a "flash" report:

Reporter Scott Powers was the designated "pool reporter" for the vice president's Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn't arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.

Not so for Powers. A "low-level staffer" put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. "When I'd stick my head out, they'd say, 'Not yet. We'll let you know when you can come out.'"

NY Daily News:

Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement Sunday that the decision to put Powers in the storage room was a "mistake" and that the reporter accepted her apology on Wednesday.

She said that reporters often gather in "hold rooms" when the Vice President makes appearances, but she acknowledged that the cluttered storage room wasn't an appropriate place for Powers to wait.

Fox News:

"This was the unfortunate mistake of an inexperienced staffer and the vice president's office has made sure it will never happen again," she said.

She explained that "hold rooms" are typically provided for pool reporters covering the vice president when he speaks at private homes. In this case, Biden was speaking at the home of a wealthy developer and the reporter was told to wait in a storage closet -- which Alexander said contained open space, as well as a table and chair where the reporter could work. She said the space was chosen because of its "close proximity" to the room where Biden was speaking.