FERGUSON, Mo.—Post-coverage of our trip to Ferguson, Missouri, we’ve been advised that our presence there on West Florissant, during which we were among the only media that got in with the protesting crowd and in the process pissed off the police, caught the attention of major alternative media.
You saw a couple of hours ago what Kit Daniels filmed of my rant about citizen journalists. Now, here’s the plug we got on Alex Jones’ YouTube Channel, on his regular TV-like program for InfoWars:
We have been promoting citizens as journalists for years. It was a major platform of Ang’s many Tea Party presentations at appearances beginning in 2010. We as independent media fight the low-end mentality many public officials display—in that a journalist needs to have a “press badge” on his person; that someone needs to “look like” a journalist; that if you’re not affiliated with one of the big corporate media conglomerates or with a wire service (AP, UPI, Reuters), you’re not really a “journalist.”
There is no definition of “journalist” in law. A person can start up a news organization, a newspaper, an internet radio station (not regulated by the FCC) any time he or she wants to. Internet has been a powerful tool in getting word out about corruption and wrongdoing by our public officials. Internet, like newspapers, is not regulated…yet.
But as long as people don’t educate themselves to reality, as long as people think they have to have “press badges” in order to attend a public protest and cover it or to merely photograph police working a crime scene, as long as people buy into the bullshit the police have publicly spewed about journalists in the crowd at Ferguson…independent media is going to suffer. People like Eric Gregg and Shannon Deuel are going to threaten our vendors, cause problems for us, and when independent media is stifled, what do you have left? You have what’s referred to as “state-supported” media…the corporate companies like GateHouse who take over all the little local newspapers and make them clones of each other, never covering the excesses in spending, the egregious violations of civil rights, of the law without recourse….because they RELY on those public officials in order to keep them funded….and to keep the cognoscenti happy, so they don’t go off threatening vendors and advertisers.
We’re trying to educate the public to the reality. If we aren’t allowed to conduct our business as we have for nearly 13 years now, the public isn’t going to know that THEY can do the same thing WE do. We’ve been under attack severely just this year alone….and some of the attacks are coming from high up. Add to that the fact that Facebook has opted to target us and trying to squeeze money out of us so that nearly 38,000 fans can be “reached” (most of them are now being blocked), and it’s hard to get through to the people who need to hear it.
So we ask that you listen to the message. Get out and film and photograph events. Do it right; find out what the laws in your state will and will not allow (example: here in Illinois, we’re not allowed to even use a cell phone camera while sitting in the driver’s seat of a running car, even if it’s stopped in traffic. Yes, Illinois is incrementally trying to crack down on citizen journalists.) It is NOT illegal to film or photograph a public official under ANY circumstance, especially in the course of conducting their duties, despite what mainstream, corporate media might breathlessly tell you in televised broadcasts.
Most importantly, let us know of any violations of these basic FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS if you encounter them. That’s what independent media is FOR. There are remedies for violations of the law. But you have to speak out in order to get the attention of those who can do something about it. Stop worrying about namby-pamby bullshit about your neighbor did this or that or you’re pissed off at the cops or the prosecutor for “going after” you or your relative or whatever. That’s bad in its own way, true. But we are facing a greater threat; a bigger threat than what we’re seeing on the local level with corrupt prosecutors and police. We’re facing a complete shutdown of our rights…and if we don’t start getting involved, and doing something about it, “they” are going to facilitate this….much more quickly and overtly than what’s going on in Ferguson. That was a test plot. There have been others. Please, PLEASE, do the research and see.