Blogger's pen gets pulled

Blogger Matt Bartel was attending the Katie Couric love fest tour's stop in Minneapolis at the invite of television station WCCO , but the invitation was unceremoniously pulled when Bartel was taken out of the auditorium and told that his participation was no longer wanted because it had been discovered that he had a blog. Bartel was told to either "surrender his notebook or leave the event." When Bartel refused to give up his notebook, his pen was taken instead.

Bartel was matter of fact when asked about the incident. "No one said anything all that remarkable. And even with the interesting things that were said, I can't imagine it would make any difference." He added that "I didn't get anything out of it, which is exactly what the evening news is." As to the important question of whether Bartel got his pen back, the answer is no, but "some WCCO guy gave me one that was even better, so that was okay."

Couric's appearance was held at the Minneapolis Central Library.

Thanks once again to Romenesko.