Media drops ball regarding ACORN tapes, shows it in coverage.

You can’t deny that the way the mainstream media is handling the ACORN tape scandal [LINK to YouTube search] is a bit…odd.

Lets face it, it’s not secret that ACORN is a shady organization whose ties to the democratic party hurt, but didn’t hinder President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential bid. Evidence of the organization’s dealings has been known, again, since 2008 and these series of videos obviously prove that.

However, my post isn’t about the video itself, because in the end, I really don’t care what ACORN does. They didn’t invent voter/tax fraud and they aren’t the first to do it. My post is more about what the media didn’t see.

Last night, Jon Stewart made a very good point regarding this story. The media totally didn’t see this coming and ultimately got “scooped” by two students with $3,000 and a hidden camera. In their coverage of this, it’s apparent that they aren’t pleased.

Other than FOX News, who is flaunting this with their usual swagger, I have had to do more foraging than normal on the interwebs to find some stuff about this.

I really don’t think this has to do with bias, it is pretty well known that ACORN will show you various ways to declare your Ecuadorian sex slave as a dependent in your tax forms. But rather, I think the media realized that this whole “citizen journalism” is a pretty large gorilla in a very small room.

As a current student journalist and writer, I think that this is good for us, the little guys who put together a 12-page paper three times a week or update a blog. It evens the playing field a bit for us, and lets us know that just because we don’t have the vast resources of some of the bigger players doesn’t mean we can’t get things done. But this is also good for the media, the big dogs who we one day aspire to work for.

In the end though, people like us want to work for a big player one day. Entering the jobs of writers and editors with this mindset will put a fire under our asses to get the big stories and not get scooped by a bunch of kids. I think this is a great wake-up call for not only mainstream journalists but those who aspire to be mainstream journalists. We will have to comepete.

Hey, AT&T. Summer is almost over, where’s my MMS?

At WWDC, Apple made a note that MMS would be coming to the iPhone, well…to every iPhone except those on AT&T.

With the end of summer, the deadline imposed by AT&T, rapidly approaching I have yet to be able to send and receive video and pictures on my device. So I decided to take matters in to my own hands…here is what I asked @ATTNews last night.

@ATTNews Guys the summer is almost over. Where is MMS for the iPhone? I can order pizza to my GPS coordinates but I can’t receive pics?

I’ll keep tweeting until I get an answer…or MMS, whichever comes first. I am starting to think that an update opening MMS up for AT&T will be announced at the iPod event on September 9th that I keep hearing about.

If only Verizon had an iPhone…I’ll keep you posted

The Internet and First Amendment rights: Is freedom of speech really free?

According to CNN this morning, model Liskula Cohen sued Google for the identity of a commenter who defamed her on a Blogger site. Here is a quote from the CNN’s Newsroom blog:

Cohen went to court after a user of Google’s blogging service, Blogger.com, created a site called “Skanks in NYC.” The blog featured photos of Cohen with insulting captions. The judge ruled that Google had to turn over any identifying information it had (in this case an IP address and an e-mail address) on this blogger, and Google has complied.

After Don Lemon read a few comments on the air (one of those comments being mine, many thanks to Don) he asked a question that I think sums up this entire situation. Does “hatespeak” count as freedom of speech?

The argument in this case is that the blogger’s comments about Cohen are defamatory, and they are. According to Gawker, the blog “Skanks of NYC” labeled Cohen as well, a New York City skank. I would quote the blog, but I don’t quote gossip and smut.

Americans today throw freedom of speech around heavily. However, we can’t pick and choose what we are free or not free to say. When white supremacists spew ignorance and hatred, they have a right to do it. In the end I disagree with it, I criticize it, but I will not challenge their right to be stupid.

I once had a high school teacher who would pretentiously quote Voltaire every time students disagreed with each other, and it rings true now:

“I may not approve of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

In actuality, that was said by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in “The Friends of Voltaire”, but that’s neither here nor there.

In the end, freedom of speech is a take it, or leave it issue. People will hate and defame, but in the end unless they have definitive proof, most people are smart enough to dismiss it. If you want to live in a country where you are free to say whatever you want, you need to be able to take the good with the bad.

This ruling is going to set an ugly precedent for the Internet. This is a huge set back for the blogging community, who is heavily based on opinions and Op-Ed commentary. I have a feeling this is going to be the first of many.