"I will not be returning to Ferguson"

[Blue_Tires]

I had been on the ground helping Al Jazeera America cover the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., since this all started last week. After what I saw last night, I will not be returning. The behavior and number of journalists there is so appalling, that I cannot in good conscience continue to be a part of the spectacle.

Things I’ve seen:

-Cameramen yelling at residents in public meetings for standing in way of their cameras

-Cameramen yelling at community leaders for stepping away from podium microphones to better talk to residents

-TV crews making small talk and laughing at the spot where Mike Brown was killed, as residents prayed, mourned

-A TV crew of a to-be-left-unnamed major cable network taking pieces out of a Ferguson business retaining wall to weigh down their tent

-Another major TV network renting out a gated parking lot for their one camera, not letting people in. Safely reporting the news on the other side of a tall fence.

-Journalists making the story about them

-National news correspondents glossing over the context and depth of this story, focusing instead on the sexy images of tear gas, rubber bullets, etc.

-One reporter who, last night, said he came to Ferguson as a “networking opportunity.” He later asked me to take a picture of him with Anderson Cooper.

One anecdote that stands out: as the TV cameras were doing their live shots in front of the one burnt-out building in the three-block stretch of “Ground Zero,” around the corner was a community food/goods drive. I heard one resident say: “Where are the cameras? I’m going to go see if I can find some people to film this.”

Last night a frustrated resident confronted me when he saw my camera: “Y'all are down here photographing US, but who gets paid?!”

There are now hundreds of journalists from all over the world coming to Ferguson to film what has become a spectacle. I get the sense that many feel this is their career-maker. In the early days of all this, I was warmly greeted and approached by Ferguson residents. They were glad that journalists were there. The past two days, they do not even look at me and blatantly ignore me. I recognize that I am now just another journalist to them, and their frustration with us is clear. In the beginning there was a recognizable need for media presence, but this is the other extreme. They need time to work through this as a community, without the cameras.

We should all be ashamed, and I cannot do it anymore. I am thankful for my gracious editors who understand that.

http://ryanschuessler.com/2014/08/21/i-will-not-be-returning-to-ferguson/

[KittyWampus]

1. This morning the thought occurred to me that a component of protests is Political Theater

Political Theater… and the residents can either be conscious of themselves as Political Actors and ORGANIZE as much as possible or they will be used, like it or not.

Going back to my youth, there was Abbie Hoffman who was a master of the political theater of his time.

Saying the words "political theater" is not an insult. It does not belittle the protests.

What it does is raise what they are doing up to a higher level.

I hope if the protests go on, the residents find help in organizing more and more.

It would help in many ways, one of which would be in dealing with tv crews and journalists. And also outsiders coming in to use the spectacle aspect of it for their own personal ends.

They are going to be there- the residents can impact what they see and get on camera.

[longship]

2. In other words, if it isn't going to be all about him, he is going to go away.

Hypocrisy, anybody?

[sarisataka]

3. I read it as

Frustration with journalists who want to create the story rather than report the story. Also a lack of respect for the residents except as a means to their (the journalists) end.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Very few are real journalists.

[JimDandy]

26. So the supposed one real journalist

abandons helping the repressed and under-represented black citizens of Ferguson and leaves them with what he believes is only uncaring and selfish journalists. And then he writes up a piece all about himself. Sheesh...

Aljazeera is probably just out of sorts that the current focus in the US and world is not on the conflicts in the middle east (Israel/Gaza, Syria, Iraq), which is their bailiwick.

[Jakes Progress]

18. You misread.

Try again. He wants the story to be about how good the people are, not how bad.

The media keep lumping community activists, mourners, looters, thieves, self-agrandizers, and thrill seekers under one title: protesters. To the media "they all look alike". A balanced story about serious residents trying to get respect and change for their community is overshadowed in a ratings chase. Don't buy in.

[longship]

19. Thank you very much.

I will take that into consideration.

Regards.

[cwydro]

24. Yeah

and call names if you want to...but this is a silly rant. (not yours, the reporter)

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. somebody call the Wahmbulance!

[bigtree]

5. that's a pretty shallow perspective of their role and operation there

from John Nichols at The Nation:

“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both,” declared James Madison, the author and champion of the Bill of Rights. “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”


_____ The assault on press freedom does not begin or end in Ferguson. The robust journalism that America requires has, of course, been undermined by the constant cuts imposed by hedge-fund media moguls. But even where media outlets still try to tell the stories that need to be told, they face threats from government agencies that are supposed to be checked and balanced by a constitutional prohibition on any official action abridging the freedom of the press — or of the related democratic rights to speak, to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances . . .

None of this means that we must to pretend to like all journalists, or all media outlets. It is right and necessary to call out journalism that fails democracy. Media criticism, at its best, is not rooted in partisanship, or ideology; it is a demand for the pursuit of truths that someone with economic or political power does not want told. Americans have good reason to be frustrated with media that misses the essential stories of racism and inequality, as well as assaults on privacy and military adventurism. They should be furious with media monopolists who abandon civic and democratic ideals in the pursuit of commercial and entertainment compromises.

That frustration and anger cannot, however, become an excuse for abandoning the defense of journalism. In these times of manipulated media and constant assaults on the people’s right to know, citizens must take up the cause of the journalism that is on the street in Ferguson, that is exposing corporate wrongdoing, that is meeting with whistleblowers in Washington.

What is happening in Ferguson must be condemned, and there must be accountability. Authorities need to explain why journalists have been assaulted and arrested even when, according to the The Intercept’s John Cook, “they had their hands raised in the air and were shouting, ‘Press! Press! Press!’” And journalists need to recognize their circumstances as part of a broader First Amendment struggle, as CNN’s Don Lemon did after he was physically pushed around Monday by police during a live shot from Ferguson. “Now you see why people are so upset here, because we have been here all day,” said Lemon. ”We’re on national television. So imagine what they are doing to people when you don’t see on national television, the people who don’t have a voice like we do.”

. . . What is at stake is a free and open society; and it is not enough that the most egregious wrongs have been identified and decried. The culture, the climate, in which those wrongs occur so frequently, must change. It must change because the journalism that goes to places like Ferguson, the gets behind the façade of institutions like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, that demands accountability from street cops and presidents, is much more than an exercise in information gathering. It is the vital link that gives citizens the information they need to bend the arc of history toward justice. There is no middle ground in this regard. Americans are either going to defend speak-truth-to-power journalism and vibrant democracy — as part of a broad reassertion of First Amendment rights — or they are going to have to settle for propaganda and oligarchy.


read more: http://billmoyers.com/2014/08/19/defend-journalism-that-speaks-truth-to-power-from-ferguson-to-washington/

[Blue_Tires]

17. I'm not denying the fact that many there are doing great work

and an essential job of showing what's going on in St.L to the nation as a whole, but it has to be said that when you get that many journos in one place, some of them do tend to lose the plot and forget the purpose of their story...It's a fairly common occurrence...

[bigtree]

21. most there are doing essential work

. . .and the article reads like projection.

Moreover, it's an almost certainty his own one-sided view is just going to be used to defame the entire media role there. I say the author should speak for himself for much of what he's griping about. It sounds like he's more engrossed watching and listening to how the major media is portraying the story in Ferguson, than describing the reality of what the press is actually observing, and the essential function most reporters are providing in relating that.

[napi21]

6. I don't blame you for staying away and it has become a spectacle, BUT

The media being there has HELPED the citizens of ferguson. If this shooting had not been publicized, it would have been swept under the proverbial rug, no cop would have been charged, no grand jury, and Mike Brown would have died without anyone but his family and friends in Ferguson caring. Because of the heavy media coverage, EVERYBODY has been made aware of the gross injustices against black people all over the US. I'm not excusing the behavior of the media that's there, but things would have been worse without them.

[Laelth]

7. Interesting comment from Matt:

(following the article)

As another media member who was down there videoing and taking photographs – my photos of members of the community doing anything other than rioting were not accepted by the networks. When I took pictures of men standing shoulder to shoulder protecting stores that had been broken into, no one cared. When I got video of Antonio French pleading with a young man who wanted to fight the cops, and managed to talk him down and calm him down – no one is interested in that story. The networks want sexy photos of police with guns raised and people fighting each other.

I left on Monday. The story of how police treat that community, and how they have subsequently treated people thereafter is one that should be told, but no one is listening to that story.

-Laelth

[bigtree]

10. so much defeatism and myopia in the original article

. . . I'm glad he chose to leave.

I'm even more pleased that so many will persist, several at their own expense and initiative.

[whathehell]

11. Excellent point. n/t

[Kali]

12. this

violence sells, civil rights and justice are boring

[Duppers]

14. Yes!

Great comment.

[Blue_Tires]

15. Another great point...

I've been wondering how many more potentially positive stories have been overlooked in lieu of violent chaos...

[cleduc]

16. This:

The story of how police treat that community, and how they have subsequently treated people thereafter is one that should be told, but no one is listening to that story.

Has been told on blogs/forums (like this one and DKos) and in some articles but it has been terribly understated.

The loss of Mike Brown is a horrific thing.

But a key reason he has been lost and others will continue to be lost is due to the oppression of blacks in that community - beyond the police.

Their right to register and vote, lost to all these bogus warrants and charges, needs to be restored. The predominantly white city politicians, predominantly white school board and other predominantly white government workers need to be removed or diluted. If they can get fair control of the top, it can trickle down. Without that, I don't know how it can be corrected in a meaningful way that can last.

[tblue37]

9. Someone named Matt says this in a comment on that article:

As another media member who was down there videoing and taking photographs – my photos of members of the community doing anything other than rioting were not accepted by the networks.

<snip>

[840high]

22. Sad.

[frylock]

20. AJA is the last legit news network

[Aldo Leopold]

23. This strikes me as patently superficial

" The networks want sexy photos of police with guns raised and people fighting each other."

Sexy? I get the lingo, but this is, after all, the fucking core of the issue.

[George II]

25. As I've said elsewhere, it used to be that correspondents/cameramen REPORTED the news....

...unfortunately now they try to MAKE the news.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. 'safely' reporting from the other side of a fence?

If that's a reference to MSNBC, they had rocks chucked at them, which kind of undermines the notion that being behind a fence made them 'safe'. And it's a fence, with holes in it, not a bulletproof enclosed building. They were perfectly capable of being tear gassed or hit by bullets behind that fence should the police have fired that way. And is there any reason they shouldn't be 'safe'? They weren't pointing guns at anyone in their attempt to stay 'safe'. And given how police kept trying to 'move along' journalists, or even arrest them, renting out that locked parking lot and staying inside might have been a pretty sensible way to avoid having cops run them off or arrest them.

[stillcool]

28. can't say as I blame you

getting corralled, and teargassed, and have gus pointed at you. Too many reporters in one confined area does seem pretty stupid. Those citizens using cellphones to video have made a real difference. Maybe journalists should all go home..except the foreign press. they might actually report something we can read online.

[Boom Sound 416]

29. I believe every word of this OP

Seen it for myself.

But as for the crews. Please remember. They are men and women, many are union, their to do a job away from their families to make a check and make a living.

Sometimes we forget ourselves as we go from crisis to crisis from event to event and nothing much changes except the hotel names.

I can't even remember half the stories I covered. And I'm pretty sure I could have been anyone of those folks making the same mistakes. It happens. You can get comfortable. Too comfortable.

But if someone says to set the tent here. You better damn well do it fast and smartly, because 2000 other people are happy to take your spot and bosses are happy to give it to them. Union or not.

So for the all the exhausted crews out there I say: I'm sorry. Please forgive us. We're just not thinking about anything but our present task. And sadly we'll be leaving to soon.

On another point about what's being covered. That too is spot on.

I've stood there so many times dying about what we leaned and what everyone else won't. It's a damn shame.