After several years maintaining my blog as The Revolution Will Be Televised, I decided it's time for a change. And so, I bring to you FreedoMedia wrapped in an oh-so-temporary skin (what can I say, I didn't exactly want a whole new name with the same old look, right?)
I'll get on that in the coming days, but FreedoMedia isn't the only new project I'm working on…
Today is Aug. 1, and that means that exactly two years ago, I was nervously fretting over the contempt hearing I was about to attend. As most of you probably are aware, I was hauled out of court at the end of that hearing and placed in handcuffs and shackles and eventually transported to the Federal Detention Center in Dublin, CA.
During that time I kept a daily diary, and beginning with my first entry on Aug. 2, I will be keeping a side blog going at joshwolf.net/prisondiaries/ — I hope you'll check in from time to time and read the experiences I lived through day-by-day.
August 1st, 2008
© 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…)
July 9th, 2008
It’s almost 2:00 AM, and I have to get up in less than 5 hours to move my car before street cleaning begins. That and I also have an appointment to get an oil change and inspection at 8AM.
The past week has been intense.
On Wednesday afternoon, I was offered a job as a reporter at the Palo Alto Daily Post, and today was my first day. In that interval, I somehow managed to get a car, and insurance (there’s a whole lot more as well, but I won’t bore you with the details).
If the haters who said I wasn’t a real journalist, are still lurking. I hope you don’t have too much indigestion after eating your words.
July 8th, 2008
At tonight’s Berkeley City Council Meeting, council member Donna Spring will ask for an urgent agenda item be added to confront the University over blocking the public sidewalk along Piedmont Ave at the Oak Grove.
SPRING: “I’m hoping that six members of the council will be willing to add it to the agenda, and there I want to make a motion to ask that we write a letter to the university telling them that we need our sidewalk back again. We need public access and to get their barriers off the public sidewalks. If they want to restrict the tree sitters they’re gonna have to do it on their own property. Not use the public right-of-way to try to restrict the tree sitters from getting food and water.
Protesters first occupied the trees in the Oak Grove more than 18 months ago in an effort to stop a planned Sports complex adjacent to the stadium at UC Berkeley. Last Monday, in anticipation of a judge’s ruling, UC Berkeley brought in a Watsonville tree service company to remove the sitters’ platforms and traverse lines.
On Sunday, police blocked supporters from providing food and water to the tree sitters. Ayr a supporter of the Oak Grove, told KPFA that he did not know how much food or water the tree sitters have left, but indicated the situation is not urgent.
Ayr:“Obviously as each day passes their rations are getting lower and lower being that we’re not able to get them any new stuff, so we’re demanding that the university allow food and water in.”
Dan Mogulof, executive director of public affairs at the university, said that the university feels it has achieved its goal of making it difficult for the tree sitters to maintain their protest.
Mogulof: “If they’re tired and if they’re hungry and thirsty then all they need do is come down and they can have everything they need. Having said that, we continue to monitor the situation on a day-by-day basis. We’re in constant contact with the people in the trees, they’re telling us that they have adequate supplies. But if we perceive, or hear about any significant change in the status quo, in so far as their health and safety and well-being is concerned, we’ll be ready to reevaluate our current position.”
Mogulof would not say whether or not the university would allow the protesters access to food or water after they exhaust their existing supplies. In a formal letter to City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the university affirmed that it is monitoring the health of the tree sitters, and will provide food and water to any protesters who come down.
Mayor Tom Bates said that he does not feel the University should take action against the tree sitters until the legal case has been completely resolved.
Bates: “Eventually this is gonna wind down, just not that far off. The future is here, so it looks like, very shortly, we’ll have a definitive answer to the question, “Can they cut down the trees?” And if they can cut down the trees in the near future, which I wouldn’t like to see happen, and hope doesn’t happen, then obviously the tree sitters are gonna have to come out of the trees. So it seems to me that, right now, that the university oughta not try to starve them out, or not allow them to have water too, in order to stay in the trees until we get a definitive answer from the judge.”
Mogulof said he did not know why the university contracted with Williams Tree Service in Watsonville.
Mogulof: “I personally have no idea where that firm is from I wasn’t a party to any of those conversations, but to the best of my knowledge we selected a firm that had had specific experience with these sorts of events and activities in the past and were adaquetly trained and experienced to manage the situation. The fact is, is that no one was seriously injured last week, that we did manage to achieve our objectives and as far as I know the only one seriously injured was an arborist who was bit by one of the protesters.”
The company has done business with UC Santa Cruz in the past. During the winter break, Williams Tree Service removed materials left near the site of a tree sit there. The Metro Santa Cruz Newspaper reports that the tree service’s activities at the Santa Cruz site led vandals to damage company property held in its service yard. Citing safety concerns the University is refusing to speak publicly about the Tree Service company.
Dennis Williams of Williams Tree Service also refused to comment on the companies operations saying that he can’t speak about the matter until he has permission from the University police department. Mogoluf said he was unaware of any orders prohibiting Williams Tree Service from speaking to the media, and KPFA was unable to secure permission for Williams by the time of this broadcast.
For KPFA, in Berkeley, I’m Josh Wolf.
June 24th, 2008
As the battle between tree sitters in the Oak Grove near the Berkeley stadium and arborists hired by the university to cut traverse lines and remove platforms continued for the second day Wednesday, one supporter climbed a light pole to join the protestors in the trees. This rough video captures what happened.
June 19th, 2008
The University of California at Berkeley held a press conference to respond to a judgement by Barbara Miller of Alameda County Superior Court. In brief, the UC contends that the ruling is a victory with a few minor hurdles that must be overcome before the sports training complex can be erected.
June 19th, 2008
On Tuesday morning, the University of California at Berkeley began the process of dismantling the support structures including platforms and traverse cable that had been used by the Berkeley tree-sitters who have occupied the Oak Grove for the past 18 months. The tree-sitters are attempting to stop the University from leveling the grove for a planned sports training facility.
June 18th, 2008
These notes were drafted as part of the Citizen Media and the law — freedom and risk breakout session at the Minnesota Journalism that Matters New Pamphleteers conference…
FOIA and public access:
- FOIA - the fee waiver has been expanded to include those who publish regularly, legal fees can now be recovered if you need to sue.
- There is no exclusion for FOIA under copyright law.
- Every state has something parallel to FOIA — some are good for citizen journalists whereas others are terrible
- Open-meetings act: How do they define what falls under the act? Bloggers and professional media are covered equally
- First ammendment right to criminal and civil trials and proceedings with an exemption for juvenile proceedings
- The law provides some limits; however, generally speaking you can take photos and video in public places, but not private property. The states have been very restrictive regarding ride-alongs, telephoto photos in private area.
- Public private property is treated as public space.
- As a general rule you have a right to any public place, but whenever a security personnel asks you to leave, it is recommended that you leave.
Risks of publication:
- Mainly defamation
- You’re liable if you’ve done something you shouldn’t have done, or failed to do something you should have done.
- The highest standard is a public official or figure who must prove actual malice - a subjective standard that means the publisher had reason to know the info was false.
- Be consistent with whatever your standard practice is regarding notes
- Be careful of creating contemporaneous documents that you have doubts about validity of information
- The other category falls under private individuals who have a lower standard: negligence in verifying the information is accurate
- If you’re thorough in your reporting you’ll reduce your risk of lawsuits.
- Publication of private facts can also open you up to lawsuits
- Intellectual property, copyright infringement, all expressive works are automatically covered under copyright unless expressly stated elsewhere
- Communications decency act means that you will generally not be liable - even if you edit for civility and choose what comments to publish
All of this, and more, can be found at the Citizen Media Law Project. There is an entry form to improve the database of legal issues.
June 4th, 2008
That was the subject of the e-mail I received this morning from Jeff Marks the executive producer of MobLogic.TV. He writes…
Hey Josh
Just wanted to draw your attention to today’s time sensitive Moblogic. In the spirit of the Sean Bell coverage we did, MobLogic is in Georgia this week, covering the second execution the state has carried out since the Supreme Court decided to allow lethal injections to continue.
To cover the story, we’re asking our viewers to comment, video comment, etc and tell us what aspects of the case they’d like to see covered. We’re doing our best to create an interactive journalism experience. We also gave out Lindsay’s phone number so viewers can call her directly with suggestions.
Really excited to get the word out about our little experiment, and hoping you could help us spread the word. A quick blog post about it, or a link to the show, or even just broadcasting Lindsay’s number would be a huge help. We’re trying to stir up how this stuff gets covered - it’s as much a media story as it is a death penalty story.
Here’s a link to the show:
http://www.moblogic.tv/video/2008/05/21/execution-day-what-would-you-do/
…(one unrelated line and closing salutation omitted)
Having not tuned into MobLogic for a while, I had missed their coverage of the verdict regarding Sean Bell, but found the episode in which Lindsay is arrested at the protest to be particularly insightful (I’m especially curious how exactly she managed to get a camera into her cell), and I’m really excited to watch how MobLogic is exploring new journalism.
Right now, the Moblogic crew is in Georgia where David Crowe is set to be executed tomorrow at 7PM. A Google news search turns up very little about his execution; in fact, it seems that Moblogic may be the only outlet actively covering the story. When it comes to the death penalty, or any story really, there are a lot of sides that can be explored, and a lot of questions that can be asked. In order to help navigate what Mob Logic should focus on, the show has asked people to offer suggestions by commenting on the blog, but in an effort to make themselves even more accessible, Lindsay Campbell has gone ahead and shared her number - (917)273-7212.
Sure, it’s unusual, but it isn’t unprecedented. I remember Robert Scoble talking about how he’s had his number on the internet for years, and Justin Gunn of Current TV shared his number after it was leaked with the rest of Paris Hilton’s cell phone, but it does demonstrate that Mob Logic is committed to having a conversation with their audience and pursuing networked journalism. Although others may suggest that it’s just a publicity stunt and she’s planning on switching to AT&T when the 3G Iphone comes out in a couple weeks anyhow (by the way, I making that up)…
As of right now, 12:30PM - Lindsay has received 30 calls and 20 texts… I didn’t ask, but she didn’t mention if any of them were weird stalkerish types, but I’d expect all of the calls were legit.
May 21st, 2008
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.”
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…)
May 10th, 2008
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