NBC reporter Ida Siegal, while covering a May Day rally in Manhattan Wednesday, denied seeing any flags bearing the hammer and sickle and later said she didn't even know what they meant, when confronted by an anonymous cameraman on whether she would report on the Communist imagery.
VIDEOGRAPHER: You're from Channel 4 news, I see. Are you guys going to show any of the people with hammer and sickle flags and signs?
IDA SIEGAL: I haven't seen any of those flags.
VIDEOGRAPHER: You haven't seen them?
SIEGAL: No, I haven't. What do they represent?
VIDEOGRAPHER: The hammer and sickle, you don't know what that represents?
SIEGAL: What group are you with?
VIDEOGRAPHER: I'm not with any group. I'm just curious, as a major media company,if you're going to show, in the story you do about this, the hammer and sickle flags? They're right there down by the bandstand.
SIEGAL: I appreciate it. Have a good one.
Siegal's biography indicates she has covered politics for more than a decade, but in that time had apparently never heard of the infamous symbol of Communism.
On an unrelated note, she retweeted MSNBC host Rachel Maddow the same day.
I will be on #wwhl with @bravoandy tonight. Have been advised to bring (a) my dress-up sneakers, and (b) my liver.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) May 1, 2013
[H/T Mediaite]