This is not a policy that is written somewhere, it is a direct result of the attitude of those we pay to enforce our laws that it is "us against them." I am sure in the 60s when demonstrators were routinely beaten, jailed and dragged around like a piece of meat, even going so far as shooting Kent State Demonstrators, the Establishment saw something that encouraged them; they were getting away with murder quite literally with civil right demonstrators. Now in the 21st Century when corporate market forces are the Gods, it is not a stretch to see that "beating up those news people" might be fairly satisfying. I am sure it was satisfying to the mafia to simply take nosey reporters out for a nice ride in a Limo from which they would never return.
 
The danger here even though we have seen Amy Goodman receive a hundred thousand dollar award for mistreatment by authorities is that the public is not very excited about any of this. I dare say the reason is a simple one, over the years we have been conditioned to the Press being just too willing to cover this side of America. The camcorder is the savior here, ever since Rodney King, we have seen it over and over; in fact on "Cops" and other reality shows we see police beating the hell out of obnoxious people all the time. We have been desensitized to the outrage and many watching are actually cheering the cops who are doing the beating; however it has never entered the mind of most that they might be next.
 
The problem is simple, we have allowed these civil servants to be immune to most punishment, occasionally someone actually gets a prison sentence for this brutality but most of the time, the enforcer knows even if a money judgment is awarded, it will be paid by his agency and not by his own hard-earned money. The idea was to give some sort of protection to these law enforcement types because of uncalled for law suits, but the unintended consequences over the years has been no pain except to the beaten, the beater is often promoted for his brave stance against mob rule. What a sick idea, linking honest protest of unfairness to something evil; but hey, they have done it and for the most part succeeded.

So are you going to continue to watch "Beat The Press" or are  you going to demand authority stop this Cold War communist practice? America is a better place than this, isn't it?