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'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

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Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#101

Post by prepend »

mc32 wrote: post #34
zaroth wrote: post #19

The mainstream news reporting on Portland (and other regional rioting) got to the point where they were bald-faced lying about peaceful protests standing in front of burning buildings. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white. There can be a concept of “BLM”…

Obviously this is to control the narrative. Why would they shoo and have "minders" ala repressive regimes? Is it because "fake news" (that'd be a tough sell coming from the left who question that assertion). Is it because they don't want people to see the underbelly of the movement or at least the bad elements in their movement? What we do know is that if you are an organization looking for change, if you're not very…

> What we do know is that if you are an organization looking for change, if you're not very careful, your well intended movement will be usurped by those who have ulterior motives

It seems to me, as an outsider, that this has already happened given what started as good intentions from occupy Wall Street down to whatever we have now. I can’t imagine the goal was actually burning buildings, but is a subversion of the goal.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#102

Post by lawwantsin17 »

seibelj wrote: post #13

The libertarian non-profit Reason Foundation and it’s associated magazine (linked article) have become much more prominent and linked as a respected news source since the beginning of the year. They do fantastic reporting with a logical (although biased towards freedom and individual rights) and informative style, which has simply disappeared from mainstream sources like the NYT and WaPo. I trust Reason much more tha…

Bias towards Union busting you mean.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#103

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

zaroth wrote: post #19

The mainstream news reporting on Portland (and other regional rioting) got to the point where they were bald-faced lying about peaceful protests standing in front of burning buildings. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white. There can be a concept of “BLM”…

I have also seen little reporting on what I suspect (admittedly, merely judging from photos) has driven a lot of the more confrontational protesting in Portland: youthful energy and enthusiasm that doesn’t actually think that much about theory or aims. Press coverage and the attacks of ideological opponents depict these protestors as a focused political force that knows exactly what it seeks and why it is doing the specific things it is doing, but I don't believe that is actually the case.

You would think that after May '68, people would be aware of this. Back then the French Communist Party, the Maoists, and the Situationists who developed elaborate theory and carefully pursued their goals, were seen as boring windbags by the actual masses of young people in the streets. Most of those young people were not coming out with clear policy aims and strategy, but rather they were motivated by a more vague feeling of discontent at the authorities, by the pleasure of rebelling, and by the satisfaction of being part of a community with fellow protestors.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#104

Post by [deleted] »

sudonim wrote: post #58

There’s reason to be skeptical. From a local Portland journalist covering the protests: https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1302284883625046016?s=21 “ Not that I want to legitimize this @reason piece, but I have filmed copious moments of ppl throwing things at police/vandalizing bldgs/etc & have never been told I’m not allowed to film. I have never heard of the so-called “IPC.” The lack of sourcing in this story show…

[deleted]

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#105

Post by awerawerawrjhui »

kombucha111 wrote: post #93
zaroth wrote: post #19

The mainstream news reporting on Portland (and other regional rioting) got to the point where they were bald-faced lying about peaceful protests standing in front of burning buildings. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white. There can be a concept of “BLM”…

Honestly, the media is way off about the Portland protests. Take it from people on the ground: the picture painted by the media is largely wrong and mostly inadequate.

So what's the accurate picture from people on the ground?

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#106

Post by kombucha111 »

cwhiz wrote: post #51
Kednicma wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which buildings have been burned, exactly? Local reporting covered the Molotov cocktails last night [0] but did not indicate that any buildings were being burned down or even caught on fire. Portlanders continue to note that most of the city is unaffected by protests. Life goes on as normal. Only a couple specific blocks downtown are contested, and only because the police have chosen to make those blocks into a battl…

Police are making it a battleground? Not the people throwing Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and bricks. No, it is the police who have made it a battleground.

the police have been making it worse. Using questionable tactics, using disproportionate force, lieing, inciting/supporting one side over the other, using beyond questionable reasoning for declaring a riot, using agent provocateur ...i could go on. Check out Blue Leaks as well. The fact is the majority of the media covering Portland are not showing the whole story.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#107

Post by compiler-guy »

watwut wrote: post #85
zaroth wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the state wants people to respect the laws and remain peaceful, it needs to clean its own house of violent criminals first. No, the people demand that everyone respect the laws and remain peaceful. To that end, the people fund and enact a police force to protect life and property, and to apprehend suspected criminals. I don’t think it’s accurate to say that “some of the protestors have turned violent.” There is…

And when the people think the police is endangering their safety, does the job badly and abuses power given to them or breaks the law, what are people supposed to do?

At least one thing that you do is allow others the freedom you want for yourself.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#108

Post by liability »

dalbasal wrote: post #94
zaroth wrote: post #19

The mainstream news reporting on Portland (and other regional rioting) got to the point where they were bald-faced lying about peaceful protests standing in front of burning buildings. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white. There can be a concept of “BLM”…

"these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white." This is one of the main phenomenon of an issue becoming "political," or what Orwell called "nationalism" in a clunky-but-brilliant essay. It's a "with us or against us" dynamic. Every fact, opinion or take can only be an argument for or against a position. When it's at pea…

> The CNN siege in NY

I believe that was in Atlanta.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#109

Post by formercoder »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #78
formercoder wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve found that most people I speak to can’t accept that most issues are complex shades of gray. It’s all our team or their team based on whatever news channel they subscribe to. No one takes time to dig below the surface and think for themselves.

I think this is a natural, human tendency. Us vs. them. Tribalism. That sort of thing.

Certainly. I even catch myself doing it too. I’ve had to develop a kind of framework for considering political issues to avoid it:

What’s best for me? What’s best for my family? What’s best for my community? What’s best for my country? What’s best for the planet?

Often these questions have contradicting answers. However once I think through them, I can at least begin to structure an opinion.

Re: 'You're Not Allowed to Film': The Fight to Control Who Reports from Portland

#110

Post by Yetanfou »

the-dude wrote: post #37
zaroth wrote: post #19

The mainstream news reporting on Portland (and other regional rioting) got to the point where they were bald-faced lying about peaceful protests standing in front of burning buildings. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that these professional journalists think that their readers can’t understand a nuanced world of gray and need everything reduced to black and white. There can be a concept of “BLM”…

In my experience from the Dutch press, they are all very left leaning. Especially our public broadcasters. There is hardly any right leaning press in The Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, just like in Sweden and many other European countries you more or less need to balance the left-leaning main stream media opinion with some of the alternative channels - Geenstijl in the Netherlands and Nyheter Idag in Sweden to name a few - to get something which resembles the truth. I generally find you can get a good grasp of the political balance of main stream media in a country by looking at whether that country has a thriving alternative news scene. If it does, the media tends to be tilted in one direction, if it doesn't the media is either more balanced or the country oppresses alternative media sources. In that case those alternative sources tend to sprout outside of the country, e.g. Epoch Times vs the PRC.

I also suspect the term 'alternative news sources' is ripe for overhaul, especially in those countries where these sources play a large role - e.g. Sweden. This is already happening in a way there, the division goes more towards whether a news organisation underwrites the ethical guidelines for news reporting ('pressetiska regler' in Swedish) or not. Another rather important division in Sweden is that between organisations which get monetary support from the state and those which do not, either because they do not want to be encumbered (e.g. "Nyheter Idag") or because they do not follow the ethical guidelines (many others).

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