Freedomedia

The following was excerpted from an e-mail I sent Ryan Tate of Gawker after reading his post about David Simon’s testimony at a Senate hearing on the future of newspapers May 6.

As far as the whole issue of bloggers attending city council meetings and what not… the fact of the matter is that bloggers can and do play a watchdog role, but it is rarely sustainable on a full-time basis, and watching city hall can be a full-time job. Yes, some people are probably managing to cover it with the depth and regularity of whatever the daily rag happens to be in that town, but again, it is the rare case where this is sustainable for any long period.

That said, while there are a number of news Web sites that are able to generate enough revenue to pay employees a living wage, I don’t know of any good examples of a local news site. Advertising on the Web only seems to be practical on a scale that doesn’t seem realistic for local content.

If anything is Google’s fault. This is where it happens. By owning the advertising market and garnering a small slice off every ad on the internet, it was to Google’s advantage to drive down the cost of advertising to the point that it became ubiquitous. Sure, they created an open market, but they did so in such a way that created a race to the top, but a race to the bottom.

Now advertising on the Web is so affordable, that I could take a month’s paycheck and probably buy a million “quality” impressions. Compare that to the cost of a million impressions through print publications and you’ll see why Google may not have violated their ‘do no evil’ mantra, we certainly can no longer say they’ve done no harm.

         

© zoriah/www.zoriah.com

Zoriah has a gift for photography. I first came across his work last night, and immediately felt the impact. But even before I was moved by his images, I was blown away by his story.

As an embedded journalist in Iraq, Zoriah has been traveling with the multi-national forces and covering the occupation first-hand. On June 26 he witnessed the immediate aftermath of a suicide bombing that left several dozen people dead.

Zoriah writes:

We are searching homes for weapons and information regarding Al Qaeda in Iraq, when a message comes over the radio. “We have one killed in actions (KIA), and two wounded in action (WIA)…”

We grab our gear, throwing on our body armor, Kevlar helmets, gloves, goggles, and other proactive gear as we run out of the house…

I have nearly 70lbs. (31kg.) of equipment strapped to my body and, although I am in good physical shape, I feel the heat burning my lungs every time I inhale. We see people running down the street in panic.

The soldier who is running next to me glances onto the pavement at the same time as I do. There is an ear on the ground. About five feet away, we see a chunk of scalp with hair on a palm sized piece of skull. We look at each other, realizing that we are walking into true madness …and this is just the beginning.

During the next few minutes, Zoriah documents the carnage snapping as quickly as he can. Before long he is ordered out of the area, but not before capturing at least two images of a Marine that had been killed in the attack.

On June 30, several days after the attack, Zoriah uploads his images and his account of the event to his blog.

By July 1, he had been removed from his assignment by the US Marine Corps (more…)

         

Rock the Vote recently held a call out to recruit a number of correspondents to Rock the Trail. As part of the application, I had to write a series of essays and produce a two-to-four minute video package on “Our World: My Country as I see it.”

Click to Play

This is the piece that I put together with a musical backing that I added after posting my original application (the music is from Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I which has been released for free, but I’m not sure if the rights include using the tracks in other media and I didn’t want to send MTV an entry that possibly infringes on any copyrights).

My 300 word essay on Sustaining young voter participation beyond 2008 is after the break… (more…)

         

“You’ll be the first one cited and released,” the officer reassured me as I protested my unlawful detention. While I was the first to be led away in handcuffs, this wasn’t the “catch and release” operation the cop had suggested it was. I actually wouldn’t be released until six that evening. It was 10:30AM, and I was just about to take a break from filming and grab something for breakfast. I knew I should’ve eaten before I left, but had wanted to begin filming as early as possible.

I attended the protests as a journalist, and had been actively working to stay out of the officers’ way as I filmed the various actions commemorating the five-year anniversary of the war. I don’t pretend to be neutral; I marched down the streets in a state of rage and sadness the day the bombs first dropped, but I was clearly acting as a news gatherer at the time of my arrest. The police didn’t care, and throughout the day several other journalists would find themselves imprisoned for reporting on the day’s dissent. (more…)

         

For those that have been wondering why I’ve been so quiet here, please visit my daily blog Mediasphere. Right now, I’m dropping blogs detailing my time at the Web Video Summit. Check it out.

         

A couple days ago, I noticed a couple comments came in with different names, but the same e-mail address. Curious, I decided to search his or her IP address in my comments log and discovered that he or she had made over 85 different comments under dozens of names and e-mail addresses (PDF of all the comments found).This discovery begs two questions:

1. Just why is it that whoever resides at 76.21.18.197 feels so driven to spend so much of his or her time leaving derisive comments about me?

and,

2. Why does 76.21.18.197 feel compelled to hide behind a myriad of identities instead of posting as him or herself?

And, aside from 76.21.18.197, What should I do about comments that are, well, not spam, not necessarily productive either. The argument that I should allow anyone to comment freely on my blog because anything else is tantamount to censorship is a bit absurd. The idea of deleting comments that I find inappropriate a bit of a bogus idea though; it’s true.

I’m all for open debate on my blog, and would like to encourage those who disagree with me to feel comfortable expressing their views, but there should be some level of accountability as well.

That said, I’m not sure what the solution is, but I’m beginning to think that I may have to disable anonymous comments and require everyone who wishes to comment to provide a valid e-mail address. I don’t like the idea of implementing this approach but it may be the best means to encourage an open and honest dialogue here.

Please let me know your thoughts on these matters…