Early You Tube Stars Got Real Income

What the Buck? Here's Michael Buckley's "My You Tube Story." According to a Dec 2008 NY Times report, "You Tube Videos Pull In Real Money," Buckley earned over $100k in the previous year from his YouTube video-commentaries or rants about celebs. 

Since she was about 14, my now-19-year-old daughter's main source of daily news was, for years, Philly D (of "The Philip DeFranco Show"), who offers his take on current events and celeb news. (Should I have been monitoring my daughter's online activities better?)

Cory Williams and his smpFilms hit the big-time with "Hey Little Sparta" (aka "The Mean Kitty Song" -- over 80 million views). He told the NYT in 2008 that he was earning over $200k per year, partly from (ugh!) product placements in his videos. 

The rise of The Young Turks

The Young Turks is a web TV phenom,  and YouTube played a major role in its success; here's a Turks' video on media censorship. And here's the trailer for new doc, "Mad As Hell," about Cenk Uygur and The Young Turks. (Here's the original "Mad as Hell" excerpt from the 1976 movie Network.) A 2014 London daily profiled Cenk. Yours truly was interviewed by TYT about media coverage of candidate Bernie Sanders. 

Brave New Films' "McCain's Mansions" played a role in the 2008 election campaign, thanks in part to YouTube. Ditto for this citizen journalism video about the then-dictator of Tunisia.

AOL's Journalistic Values

Soon after AOL announced its merger with HuffingtonPost in February, 2011 Business Insider (followed by the Boston Globe) published leaked AOL documents offering a glimpse into that company's journalistic approach -- not one that Arianna Huffington would endorse. (H/t to former indy media student Leah T, for posting the Insider's summary of AOL's guidelines.)

Conservative political blog . . .

Legal Insurrection, WAS launched by Cornell Law professor William Jacobson in 2008.  College Insurrection was launched in 2012.

"The Price I've Paid for Opposing Donald Trump"

Conservative journalist David French describes the violent, racist deluge he and his wife received from Trump supporters.

Web censorship in China

After Yahoo provided info to China's government that led to 10-year prison sentences for two Chinese dissidents beginning in 2003 and 2005, the families of the victims (Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao) sued Yahoo. As a result, Yahoo announced in 2008 that it had established a fund for people persecuted or jailed in China for posting political views online. Too little, too late?

In response to demands from China's government, Google agreed in June 2010 to quit automatically switching its users in China to Google's uncensored Hong Kong search site. But there's a tab users can click to be switched. Should Chinese citizens feel safe when hitting that tab?

Web censorship in the USA

In 2008, the media reform group Free Press highlighted media and telecom corporations who'd recently been caught censoring web or cellphone traffic.

Inner City Press was delisted by Google News not long after its founder/leader asked an embarrassing question of Google at the United Nations.

Tom Tomorrow, editorial cartoonist

The chaining and corporatization of alternative weeklies can undermine alternative cartoonists like "Tom Tomorrow"/Dan Perkins.

A victory for bloggers' access to courtrooms

In March 2012, a Massachusetts court ruled that bloggers deserve the same privileges in covering courts and trials as traditional media.

John Oliver on decline of newspapers

Here's a 5-min condensation of Oliver's 19-min presentation, and full presentation here.

Beacon Reader closing down. . .

. . . in 11 days after a three-year run.  Sad news, but someone or something will take its place as a platform for funding/crowd-sourcing journalism.

Can pay walls save newspapers?

No, says Arianna Huffington, as she testifies on "The Future of Journalism & Newspapers" before the U.S. Senate in May 2009 (at 59:02). (A former indy media student complained about Boston Globe's paywall around the Globe's editorial.)

"The Internet is my religion," says Brave New Films cofounder

Intensely personal 2011 speech from Brave New Films' Jim Gilliam (who was raised a conservative Christian evangelical) discussing how the Internet offered him salvation -- and literally saved his life.

Indy filmmaker Tia Lessin. . .

(and Carl Deal) codirected "Citizen Koch" in 2013, about billionaires like the Koch brothers funding politicians, movements and policies. After public broadcasting employees got cold feet on the project and withdrew their promised $150k support-- David Koch had been on the board of WNET in NY, the biggest public TV station -- they turned to Kickstarter and raised the money from the masses.

Tia also co-produced several Michael Moore movies, including "Where to Invade Next."

Historic outlets profiled by class

Cherokee Phoenix; Frederick Douglass' North Star; The Revolution; The Woman's Journal in 1911 reports on a state victory; Peace News from Britain; George Seldes, editor of In Fact newsletter; Izzy, with the printers of I.F. Stone's Weekly; The Ladder, pioneering lesbian publication;  the investigative satire publication, The Realist; one of the most important alternative weeklies, Berkeley Barb; Jeff Sharlett's Vietnam GI

Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule . . .

. . . raised $75,000 in small donations from her fans in 2008 to pay for professional recording fees to produce her next album. Here's one of her semi-hits, "I Kissed a Girl," (not to be confused with Katy Perry song that came out a dozen years later).

Pre-financing of journalism and documentaries

A new project, BeaconReader.com, hopes to fund freelance writers and indy media by seeking donations from the public for specific articles or topics. 

Kickstarter.com is "a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..." A key aspect of Kickstarter and some other funding platforms is "All or Nothing funding."

On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Here's a documentary movie project that I was a small part of, which used Kickstarter successfully.

Before Kickstarter was launched, the Robert Greenwald documentary on war-profiteering (Iraq for Sale) was PRE-funded mostly by small donors -- an example of grassroots financing of a work that had real impact.

Amy Goodman faces "riot" charge in North Dakota. . .

. . . for engaging in journalism. Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has to explain "Journalism 101" to the prosecutor who brought the charges against Amy. Update: charge against Amy was dismissed by the judge.

Media start-ups as flukes. . .

. . . such as Icanhas.cheezburger.com

Biggest moments in journalism blogging history

A list of historic moments in blogging from 1998-2008

2011/2012: Cops vs. Journalists Who Covered 'Occupy Wall Street' Movement

HARASSMENT OF JOURNALISTS COVERING OCCUPY MOVEMENT: A citizen journalist with a video camera taped himself apparently getting shot by police rubber bullet while covering a seemingly peaceful moment during Occupy Oakland (CA) protests.  At Occupy Nashville, a reporter for the long-established weekly Nashville Scene was arrested for violating a curfew imposed by Tennessee's governor (a night judge questioned whether that's legal), was threatened with a "resisting arrest" charge, and was ultimately charged with "public intoxication." Nashville's big daily reported on the dubious arrest.

Between Sept 2011 and Sept 2012, more than 90 journalists (both independent and mainstream) were arrested while covering Occupy protests in the U.S. Removing journalists and citizen journalists from the scene seemed to be a strategy because acts of police brutality -- when recorded by citizen journalists and ubiquitous cameras & cell phones -- led to more sympathy and activists for the movement: for example, in NY City and at University of California, Davis. Like in the 1960s, the federal government built a large surveillance apparatus to spy on Occupy activists. 

And the surveillance of social movements continues into the present. 

"THE MAYOR'S AFRAID OF YOU TUBE": In October 2011, hours after New York City authorities made a last-minute decision NOT to clear protesters from the original Occupy Wall Street site in Lower Manhattan, filmmaker Michael Moore said this to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell (begin 2:54 for context): 

"One cop down there actually today. I asked...'Why don't you think the eviction happened?' And he said, 'Cause the Mayor's afraid of You Tube.'...The power of the new media, the media that's in the hands of the people -- that those in charge are afraid of what could possibly go out."

Harassment of Indy Media at 2008 Republican Convention

Since the 1960s when the FBI and local police engaged in violence and continuous harassment against "underground weeklies," repression against dissenting U.S. outlets has decreased. But it has certainly not ended. Case in point: the 2008 Republican Convention in Minnesota. Three years later, the journalists' suit against the police was settled, with $100,000 in compensation being paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments and the Secret Service. The settlement included an agreement by the St. Paul police to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the 1st Amendment rights of the press and public, including proper procedures for dealing with journalists covering demonstrations.

Two stars of 1960s indy media

"DR. HIP": Syndicated widely to "underground weeklies," Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld dispensed blunt and humorous advice about sex (and drugs). That legacy is carried on by Dan Savage's "Savage Love" column in today's alternative weeklies. Savage started the "It Gets Better" project.

RAMPARTS: One of the most explosive indy magazines of the 1960s, Ramparts published photos of the impact of U.S. napalm (a chemical weapon that eats away human flesh) on Vietnamese civilians in its Jan. 1967 issue. Martin Luther King, Jr. credited those photos with being the spark that got him to break his silence and speak out loudly against the Vietnam War a few months later.  Besides its investigative scoops and dramatic story-telling, Ramparts was known for its cover art, shown here and HERE.

Movies about I.F. Stone. . .

. . . include All Governments Lie, an educational movie on his legacy, and an original black and white doc from 40 years ago.

The "Blacklist" during the late 1940s and haunted 50s

Two top mainstream reporters take a joy ride with Trump . . .

. . . aboard his helicopter. Who could ever question their objectivity or independence?