Some Liberal bloggers and tweeters today are suggesting that Jeh Custer, arrested yesterday after hollering at MPs in the House of Commons, punched himself in the face prior to an appearance on CBC Newsworld, er, CBC News Channel last night so that he would look good and beat up.
Well, as a reporter who was sitting in front of the demonstrators when they started and who followed the arrested gang into the basement interrogation room, let me report this:
I was the only reporter standing in the basement of the Centre Block when Custer and the rest were frogmarched into an interrogation room with their hands handcuffed behind their backs. I saw Custer myself with a line of blood running out of his mouth while he was in handcuffs.
So far as I know there are no pictures of Custer bleeding in the House of Commons because camera operators may not use cameras in the House of Commons except in the foyer and in the Hall of Honour.
Now, is it possible that, in the melee as 120 people were being physically thrown out of the House of Commons, that Custer punched himself in the face to produce that blood. I guess he could have but he was bleeding from the mouth and it seems to me you'd really have to whack yourself to get your mouth bleeding. Did I see him getting punched by security personnel, as he says? No. But, as I said, I did seem in handcuffs with two RCMP officers on either side of him with a line of blood coming out of his mouth.
Well then why didn't he wipe off the blood before the TV interview? Beats me. But it sure made a visual impact and, given the level of organization of this whole event, it seemed this group was pretty media savvy and used Custer's accident to best effect. If you want to accuse of him of “enhancing” his injuries, go ahead. But shouldn't the more important question be how did he get them in the first place?
Finally: The other man that was on the panel with Custer (don't know his name) was also frogmarched by me and it was clear that he had been tossed about violently enough that his shirt had been ripped vertically on the back from the neckline to his waist.
UPDATE Just to clarify a few things, partly in response to many of your comments below:
1. I make no claims as to how Custer suffered his injury. I did not see him getting injured. He says he was beaten by guards. Seems to me that would be a useful line of inquiry and a more important one than whether or not he gussied up his injuries for a TV interview.
2. I suppose Custer could have punked us all by carrying a blood packet in his mouth or something but I've only been a political reporter in Ottawa since 2005 and will need at least a few more years of seasoning until I'm that cynical.
3. A Parliamentary Press Gallery member who is a pretty sharp reporter saw lots of blood on the hallway floor outside the Speakers Gallery and blood on the stairs leading down to the basement where I was waiting.
4. Many of you seem to have some legitimate questions about Custer's behaviour after he left Parliament Hill. Knock yourself out. I'd suggest again, though, that the more important question is how blood ended up all over the floor of a building on Parliament.
Well, the point is it looks like he DID wipe off the blood, which then reappears during his CBC interview.
As bigcitylib says, and as illustrated by CBC's reporters: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2009/10/about-that-blood.html
I know it made good TV – but why did CBC decide to showcase these folks, knowing all along that this was a well-organized event, setup to garner media attention by disturbing Parliament?
Are we going to see Evan interviewing the next gang of protesters who pull the same stunt during QP?
David, I haven't read the face-punching thing, I'll take your word for it, but there are legitimate concerns about the chronology here and, while it may be convenient, they can't just be dismissed as being from “Liberal bloggers.”
Indeed, I first read about this story in an article by your press gallery colleague, the CBC's Janyce McGregor, who wrote this morning that, while Custer had a bloody face for the CBC interview at 1715, there was video of him earlier in the afternoon, apparently as he left the hill, looking clean-faced and blood-free.
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2009/10/about-that-blood.html
Now, it's not entirely clear to me when that CBC blood-free footage was shot. I'm surmise it would have to have been after the QP protests though, otherwise why would the CBC have footage of random hill tourist?
I don't doubt he was bloody when you saw him post-protest. But given the video apparently shot between when you saw him and his bloody CBC hit that shows him blood-free, the question is how did he go from blood-free back to bloody again.
I won't speculate as to how or why he became bloody again, but there does appear to be a significant discrepancy that has been raised that you've overlooked here.
“The other man that was on the panel with Custer (don't know his name)was also frogmarched by me ……” . Good work, nice to see a journalist getting involved in the action.
Jeff, are you serious here? If he was injured enough to be bleeding, is it really so implausible he just continued to bleed?
the expression “frogmarched by me” can mean two things
1. the frogmarching was done by me
2. the frogmarching went past me or was nearby me
Yes, it takes significantly less than an hour for blood to clot, unless you have some sort of blood thinning or platelet disorder
But there is video evidence that there wasn't continual bleeding. Here's the chronology as best we can put it:
1. Pulled out of HoC by security, injured and bloody in the process, witnessed by Akin.
2. Videoed by CBC after release from custody/detention, no sign of bleeding or injury.
3. Appears on Solomon's broadcast bleeding.
So step two makes it seem to me there wasn't continual bleeding between 1 and 3, hence the discrepancy here.
Pictures taken from the TV interview with Soloman show a cut on Custer's nose under his glasses. That cut isn't seen on the earlier CBC footage.
The eye-witness account of David lends credibility to this, but I can't trust that this bleeding comes from a security guard.
In the CBC footage from around 4:30pm, Custer comes out with the guy with the torn shirt. He isn't wincing in pain or whining in the slightest about any brutality. I would imagine that an activist trying to draw attention to his issue would run to the nearest camera and say “Those security thugs beat me up for caring about our environment!”, or something like that. The fact that Custer doesn't do that makes me doubt that it came from a Hill security dude. Maybe he got into a tussle with a fellow protester? Who knows.
Young media savvy protesters should be ignored by the MSM, right Jeff?
I take it this includes young Liberals who are summer interns in the OLO and picket the NDP Leader on his way into a meeting in Langevin.
Meantime, for goodness sake, let's drag this story out as long as possible … ANYTHING to avoid having to cover the actual issue of climate change!
sigh
Anyone with any doubts about the authenticity of the blood on Jeh Custer's face should check out this video clip taken by one of Custer's fellow activists while they were being held in a detention room inside Parlaiment Hill. http://www.vimeo.com/7299524. It shows very clearly (and close-up) the extent of Custer's injuries and the exact same blood pattern on his face as was evident on Politics and Power with Evan Solomon. This is obviously not staged.
People are forgetting why they did it in the first place. Nevermind the goddamn blood!!!
Please. Everyone, do the world a favour and read THIS, would ya? http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ben-powless/2009/10/bloodynosegate-and-distraction-parliaments-climate-protests