Category Archives: Politics

Talk Hard, Be Heard

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More than 20 years ago, a little movie called Pump Up The Volume hit theaters.

Key to the plot is something that is now completely alien to anyone born the same year the film came out: a pirate radio station. The core of the story, though, is no less relate-able or important than it was then: a high school kid looking for answers, looking for acceptance, looking to be heard.

The world was different then…

Back before the Web hit it big at the end of the 90s, there was no easy way to be heard. Every now and then, someone would cobble together the equipment to pump out a few watts of broadcast power (against the law, mind you) and share some of their favorite music to whoever tuned in. Or, maybe, they’d hit the local copy shop and make a few dozen copies of a roughly put together magazine composed of original writings and some other stuff they’d read that they wanted to share (in some cases, also illegal). Or, maybe they just put it all together onto a cassette tape and made a few copies to pass around school.

No matter what, before the Web was something everyone knew about, there weren’t good ways to be heard by a wide audience unless you had money and prestige–things most high school students couldn’t even begin to lay claim to.

Now anyone can do it.

Anyone with access to a public library or a friend’s computer can now go out, log on, and start putting their thoughts out there. They can share video clips on YouTube. They can put together a podcast. They can start up a blog (or three) about anything they want.

With a little bit of work, they can build an audience.

They can be heard.

And yet, a lot of what goes on in those YouTube channels, in those podcasts, on those blogs, is, in the strictest terms illegal. Even when it should fall under the Fair Use clause.

‘Fair Use’ is constantly under attack.

Sadly, the idea of the Fair Use section of copyright law has been under attack for decades. The big businesses leading that attack are the same ones who have crafted the SOPA and PIPA legislation that many people are up in arms about today.

The RIAA and MPAA don’t want you to be able to use any of their stuff without paying through the nose for it. They don’t understand (or don’t want to understand) that the main way entertainment content has always been spread is by people sharing it. If they can find a way to stop you–and charge you–they will.

Even if it means silencing everyone.

Piracy is a real problem but…

Yes, there are real problems with copyrighted content being stolen and distributed. Yes, the massive, foreign, pirate operations need to be stopped or curtailed. But that can’t come at the cost of our ability to share fairly.

On a smaller level, though, technically illegal sharing is what’s built a good bunch of the famous bands, actors, and writers out there. If you hadn’t been introduced to that band through that YouTube mashup of their song and your favorite movie, you wouldn’t have bought their album. If you hadn’t seen that short story posted online in your favorite forum, you wouldn’t have been so keen to buy the author’s next collection.

There’s a reason copyright has a fair use clause. There’s a reason groups like Creative Commons have sprung up with alternative ideas to how the rights of creators can be allocated and managed. There’s a reason a friend gives you a copy of that song they’re always listening to.

That reason is simple. We’re social creatures.

We want to be heard.

It’s how we find answers.

Pump Up The Volume is kind of a heavy film. Thick with teen angst and suicide, sprinkled with offensive language and taboo ideas.

Without that kind of talk, though, we never learn who we are… or who we can be.

The main reason for boundaries is so we can push on them, so they can push on us. Breaking through them or standing on the verge and shouting at them or hiding behind them give us all definition. They bring us together as much as they drive us apart.

And it’s our music and movies and books and ideas that put it all in context. It’s how we share them with one another–hopefully as legally as possible (hopefully it will remain possible to share them legally)–that satiates our thirst for connection.

We don’t have to break the law to be heard.

But we do have to ensure that we speak out loudly enough to keep that from changing.

We’re seeing that with the current protests against greedy corporations (the Occupy Wall Street movement). We’re seeing that with the online outcry over the SOPA/PIPA bills.

That’s what we have to keep doing. All the time. No matter what the personal consequences.

And with that, I share with you this clip, the final moments of Pump Up the Volume. Something I wouldn’t be able to do without this wonderful, free, social, and somewhat illegal technology to which we all have access.

Talk Hard.

Pump Up The Volume End Scene

The Purpose of Journalism and the News Media

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Just the other day, New York Times readers’ representative Arthur S. Brisbane wrote an op-ed that posed the question “Should the Times be a Truth Vigilante?”

Thankfully, there’s been quite a bit of outrage that this question even needs to be asked. Sadly, it points to how far from useful our journalists and media institutions have become.

The biggest problem, of course, is that the sad state of things is nothing new.

There is No “Truth Vigilante”

The whole concept of a “Truth Vigilante” is ridiculous. The Truth isn’t something we should have to fight for, let alone as vigilantes. The whole concept of a vigilante is someone who works outside of the law and walks the line (sometimes stepping over it) of being a criminal in order to do what they think is right (however wrong they may be). You know, like Batman.

If the Truth is something that now has to be obtained through questionable or illegal means, than the system as a whole–and the laws that support it–have failed miserably and needs to be torn down.

When lying, corruption, and abuse of power are business as usual, it’s the system that’s become criminal, not those who seek to correct it. Truth isn’t the domain of a vigilante. Truth is the domain of the hero. And that’s what’s Journalists and We The People need to be: heroes.

The Purpose of Journalism

Journalism is there to help balance out the power. To inform and educate the people who elect the officials who run thing, who support the companies that keep the economy running, who cry out over misdeeds, real or imagined.

Journalism is the final check and balance against abuse of power–either on the side of those in charge or the masses. The journalist digs beyond the veil of public relations, politics, or hysteria and shows things for what they actually are.

Journalists, be they part of the old and established institutions like newspapers or young upstarts like bloggers, above all else, have to be honest. Honest about where their biases are, about where their access is limited, about why they do what they do.

What the Times (and other Journalism Outlets) Needs to Do

First and foremost, they need to get their heads out of the asses of their corporate and government interests that are pulling their strings. Then they need to revisit the ideas and ideals that made The Fourth Estate important and useful.

Look back to Watergate–where Woodward and Bernstein worked hard to get actual facts that exposed a tremendous amount of corruption and abuse of power. Look back to Edward R. Murrow and the work he did exposing Joseph McCarthy as the fear-mongering cretin that he was. Heck, look at just about anything that’s won a Pulitzer in Investigative Journalism and you’ll see a good example of what good reporting can do.

What the Times and every other place or person who wants to be considered a Journalist needs to do is follow the basic Principles of Journalism that the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism came up with back in 1997.

  1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the Truth.
  2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
  3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
  4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
  5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
  6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
  7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
  8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
  9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Those nine points should pretty much cover everything.

What We The People Need to Do

We need to accept that the news media, as it currently is, is horribly broken. They’ve lost their way, forgotten the importance of the job they do, of their obligation to the public.

We need to take those nine journalistic principles laid out above and apply them ourselves. We need to dig for the actual truth. We need to hold the feet of the politicians, big business owners, and, sadly, “professional journalists” to the flames until they start doing their jobs right again.

We need to remind them–and ourselves–that we’re the ones in charge here, We The People. And remember, for better or worse, we get exactly what we ask for.

 

Occupy Oakland Flash and Bang

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There’s been a lot of talk lately of the Occupy Oakland action that’s gone on over the past week (part of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement). The most talked about is this video that shows an injured protestor, a group of people who go to help him, and a police officer who allegedly tossed a riot-control flash-bang grenade into the group. Then we see the condition of the protestor who was on the ground.

Flash-bang grenades, while generally considered non-lethal, have been known to lead to sever injury and, in some cases death. They’re usually used in room clearing. According to initial statements from the Oakland police department, neither grenades nor rubber bullets were used as crowd control measures. (They did say that some bean bag rounds were used, even those are questionable in their non-lethalness.)

If you haven’t seen it, watch it here:

In this case, I’m willing to give the initial injury the benefit of the doubt. Things happen when tear gas canisters fly. I’m even willing to accept that there may have been a distinct need for tear gas and other measures to be used.

What I will not accept is the flash-bang grenade lobbed directly into the middle of a group of people who were gathering to help someone who was obviously in distress, and had been for at least a short while. A short while with police officers standing just yards away, doing nothing to help him.

The video speaks pretty clearly to that part of the situation, so that is where my personal complaint sits.

Police action is always a consequence to keep in mind when protesting. Being arrested and all the other dangers that go along with cops asserting themselves as authority are part and parcel of the risks involved in speaking our mind, Constitutionally protected or not.

In most cases, it’s a gray area, as there have been many, many laws put on the books to prevent mass gatherings without proper planning and permits. Most land is private property (seriously limiting the public spaces that actually fall under Constitutional protection). It’s sad that it’s that way, but it is.

Generally, the OWS protest stuff I’ve seen talked about, in video clips, and heard about from people who were there first hand (including people I trust and respect), has been peaceful and as non-confrontational as possible, with protesters trying as hard as possible to obey as many laws as possible (or as many laws as they are aware of). Many have been polite as possible even when breaking laws (especially ones they weren’t aware of). Very little of what I’ve seen, from the side of the protesters, has warranted any serious police response.

Most police response I’ve seen has also been sensible. But there are a handful of cases, like this one, that need to be looked at, talked about, and, when all is said and done, acted upon by the proper courts in order to properly determine the guilt or innocence of the officers who acted in ways unbecoming of someone sworn to protect the public trust and uphold the law. If found wanting, they need to be punished as anyone would be for similar illegal, harmful action. More than just a few days without pay or a few vacation days lost.

Sadly, that doesn’t happen all that often. It’s more likely that, if anything is ever actually done, it will amount to a slap on the wrist, a short (possibly non-paid) vacation, before they’re back on the street.

It appears (based on the Huffington Post article linked above) that the first reaction of the OPD public relations person was to blame it on M80 firecrackers being thrown by the protesters.

I don’t buy that at all.