McCain campaign security ousts black reporter from Florida rally

A black reporter in Tallahassee, Florida was singled out by John McCain's campaign security and told to leave a campaign rally he was covering for a local newspaper.

Tallahassee Democrat writer Stephen Price was covering a McCain campaign rally in Panama City on Friday when a member of McCain's security team asked for his identification, even though Price had already shown his press pass to enter the media area near the rally.

After showing his credentials again and explaining that he was a reporter, he was told to leave the event, according to the newspaper. When another reporter asked why Price was being removed, she too was led out of the area, the paper reported.

Although Price was the only black reporter in the media area, the McCain campaign denied that race was a motivating factor for his removal. McCain advance staff member Jonathan Block told the paper that "access to the senator is tightly controlled."

Although Block was not at the event when the incident took place, he told the newspaper "beyond a shadow of a doubt that race had nothing to do with it."

Block said that the press area from which Price was removed was reserved for national traveling press, but he could not explain why other white local reporters were allowed to stay in the area. "At the end of the day, your reporter was in the wrong place. I do not know why the other reporters were not moved," he told the paper.