Be afraid... Be very afraid...

(http://www.freepress.net/news/30691)  Thanks to wonderful organizations (and their members) like Free Press and Savetheinternet.com Coalition, today, an open forum at Harvard University, began discussions regarding whether the internet should remain an open media or should it be controlled by media conglomerates.   Let's see.  Keep the internet a place where people can gather information for as long as like, from any source FREELY available, on any topic they choose?  OR Make people pay for information based upon a tiered system, where the common person will have limited access to information and have to pay additional fees to access it?  Seems like a no brainer there.  

Seriously!?!

So, last Tuesday we were talking in class about how cameras can and cannot be used regarding the law.  On Wednesday, I found this:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23144420/ & this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAGb7_g4Aso.  A Hillsborough County Florida deputy Sheriff dumped a paralized man from his wheelchair after she allegedly believed he was being non-compliant when asked to stand to be searched.  Forty seconds after he is wheeled through the doors, she unceremoniously dumps him on the floor as her co-workers stand idly by.  Now, there is no sound, so the conversation between the deputy and the wheelchair-bound gentleman is unknown.   When reviewing the video, the man is apparently not yelling, flailing about or acting an ass.   So I wonder, under what circumstances is it acceptable to dump anyone out of their chair?  I worked for several years as a crisis counselor with sever to profound BD/LD/ED adolescent students.   On the rare occasion, I had reason to remove a student from his/her chair.  Mind you, none of my students were handicapped,  but we spent much longer time (usually several minutes, dependent upon the threat severity) trying to give the student options and discussing the pros and cons to his/her behavior before removing the student.  So I can't help but think that the deputy was being, for a lack of a better word, an ass.

Get 'Em, Copps!!!

Today, February 11, 2007, the Advertising Age's Mya Frazier wrote an article on FCC Commissioner Michael Copps (http://adage.com/article?article_id=124973)  She outline his history of fighting an uphill battle against the Republican controlled FCC and Big Media organizations.  With the upcoming presidential elections, America may find itself under democratic rule.  And with that rule comes the awesome responsibility of crowning a new FCC chairman. (YEA!!!)  And Copps is just the person to wear that crown.  

Having been part of the "3,500 self-described 'media-reform activists'" as Frazier stated, and having heard him speak to us all and later to a much smaller group of approximately 20, I can honestly say, I worship the ground this man walks on.  He has been part of Washington for longer than I have been alive.  He and his democratic cohort, Jonathan Adelstein, have spent years publicly voicing their dissident opinions regarding media control, fighting against Republicans and huge media conglomerates.  

Both of these men are more than willing to travel anywhere, anytime to speak out for the rights we have as citizens in this country regarding the media.  They will speak out against one corporation owing everything media.  They will tirelessly and without complaint spend several hours discussing how we (the average citizen) can be part of the reform, about how we can take an active role in changing the media.   They stand up and fight for the rights of those too small to be heard over the din made by media giants.  

If we are lucky, Copps will be named the Chairman of the FCC.  He will stand up to the large media companies and tell them they are no longer allowed to eat everything in site.  He will tell them they are not welcome.  He will tell them that Washington is 'closed for business'. 

More Media Consolidation

Microsoft has bid $44.6 billion dollars in an effort to buy out Yahoo. Google is freaking out. As Peter Whoriskey of The Washington Post points out in his article from February 4, 2008 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR2008020302675.html), Google is calling Microsoft a monopoly (which it is) that is trying to stifle the competition.

Student Newspaper VS Student Government

Kareem Fahim of The New York Times recently reported on an on-going battle between The Montclarion (the Montclair University student-run newspaper) and the Montclair University student-body government (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/nyregion/29montclair.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=journalism&st=nyt&oref=slogin). Apparently, Ron Chicken, the president, halted the newspapers funds after a series of articles concerning the student government ran in the paper. The artiles were not favorable towards the government. Halting funds is one of the few legal ways that can affectively cease a university publication from going to press.

It seems rather juvenile to me. It's like saying, "I don't like what you're writing, even though it's true. So, I'm going to shut you down. Oh, wait, I can't. That's illegal. But, ah-ha!!! I found a loophole. I can cut off your funding!!!" Grow up people. One of the greatest things about this country is our ablility to speak our minds, outloud, in any forum we so choose, so long as there is no emiment danger or false statements made. If you don't like what an article says, you have every right to write a letter saying so. Or hold a rally. Or sing a song. Or do nothing. It's your choice.