Secret Agents At Your Service

This week, the Secret Service (apparently) debunked the story that Palin supporters were shouting "Kill him" about Barack Obama. Folks started to wonder why the media wasn't working to discredit that report, especially since there was plenty of rally footage documenting that the threats were indeed happening.

In an online chat today, Wapo's Dana Milbank may have let slip the real reason why this story isn't getting out:

I wasn't at the Scranton event, but I have to say the Secret Service is in dangerous territory here. In cooperation with the Palin campaign, they've started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd. This is a serious violation of their duty -- protecting the protectee -- and gets into assisting with the political aspirations of the candidate. It also often makes it impossible for reporters to get into the crowd to question the people who say vulgar things. So they prevent reporters from getting near the people doing the shouting, then claim it's unfounded because the reporters can't get close enough to identify the person.

If the McCain campaign needs help making sandwiches for rally organizers, I believe the Secret Service is available.