When I attended political rallies in 2016, I was surprised at first to see how times had changed. In the 2016 campaign, reporters were held in pens fenced off from the rest of the people.
This has persisted down through today. It has actually persisted since sometime before the 2016 campaign, for that matter. Long ago the press agreed to be put into a pen apparently so as to be guaranteed a place at the rallies.
When I was a younger person, back in the day, say 1968, reporters attended political rallies by standing among the other people who attended the same rallies. There were no distinctions. And certainly no reporters thought it was a good deal to be put in a pen like an animal. (No wonder that inmates at a penitentiary call it a "pen," too.)
If reporters voluntarily enter pens, is it really true that they are genuinely shocked when they are treated like animals? No human being should ever be treated like an animal. And no human being who agrees to be put in a pen should ever expect anyone else to believe that they were surprised when the people that make the pens available treat the inhabitants like, well, like they are in pens. See the video here. And here too.
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