Category Archives: Media

Relentless Deep Diggers

General, Media, Social Justice, Women, ,

Last Friday, the Nobel Prize Committee stood up for democracy and awarded its 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa(Philippines) and Dmitry Muratov (Russia), “in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”

After the last five years of our ears being assaulted by cries of “fake news!” by the last U.S. president and his minions who whined anytime they were confronted with inconvenient facts by reporters or criticized in the slightest by anyone, this announcement of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to these fearless journalists was like a breath of fresh air to me. A reminder that there are people in this world who do care about holding people in power accountable and informing citizens with FACTS.

Here’s an article from The Conversation for you that better expresses what I could write in this blog post:

Nobel Peace Prize for journalists serves as reminder that freedom of the press is under threat from strongmen and social media

I wrote of my respect and admiration of Maria Ressa in January of this year, so I am extra happy she was awarded this honor. I spent my college years managing one college paper and reporting and editing for two – and have developed over the years a soft spot in my heart and great respect for journalists like Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov who relentlessly dig deep to expose abuses of power, knowing that they may be jeopardizing their safety and lives in the process but continuing to work nonetheless. I admire their determination to hold those in power accountable and inform their fellow citizens.

They and their fellow like-minded journalists would be just the sort of journalists I’d aspire to emulate if I were a working journalist: possessing unrelenting, dogged determination to get the truth out.

I think we need journalists like Ressa and Muratov as long as there are humans on earth or any other planet. They are essential to humankind. They are the courageous and gutsy ones who warn us about powerful people and corporations whose abuses of power would endanger our lives, intentionally or not.

Stand with them. They deserve our respect.

Sources

The Conversation
The Independent
BBC

Stand Up for Journalists, Whistleblowers, and Peaceful Protestors Who Hold Those in Power Accountable

Civics, General, Media, Social Justice, , ,

Do you know about the press freedom violations that have occurred in the past year?

In a year’s time span – from May 26, 2020 (the day after George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, Derek Chauvin, to Chauvin’s conviction on April 20, 2021, where he was found guilty of second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter by a jury.

Freedom of the Press Foundation’s project, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reports that press freedom violations were reported across 36 states and more than 80 cities. In that time, an average of 1.6 assaults of journalists occurred per day. The majority of the assaults documented — more than 85% — were by law enforcement.

Specifically, that’s 580 assaults of journalists. 153 arrests or detainments. 112 reports of equipment damaged in the field.

Here’s the article:

Between the bookends: 1 year of press freedom violations

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers ought to have added a few words about police not having the right to beat the crap out of journalists and detaining or arresting them for reporting on people peaceably assembling – especially when they assemble to protest police brutality?

Virginia was the first state to formally protect the press. The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights stated, “The freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments.”

Do we have a despotic government, regardless of who is in charge? I’m not talking about just the federal government, but also state and local governments.

The rough manhandling and other abuses against journalists – as well as whistleblowers and peaceful protestors – by law enforcement over the decades, have sometimes made me wonder about government being despotic. That thought has been magnified in the past several years by our preceding president who was (and still is) allergic to being held accountable and who reveled in publicly bullying and belittling journalists.

You’d think publicly bullying and belittling journalists (and in some cases, detaining or arresting them) were the hallmarks of dictators in faraway lands, not of presidents in America!

What a fucking insult to the U.S. Constitution and to those who have the courage to report on corruption and injustices in our society.

Notice the photo in the link: it shows a freelance journalist glancing back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020 – shortly before police pushed him over a wall.

Stand up for journalists, whistleblowers, and peaceful protestors who work tirelessly for the public good – to hold those in power to account for their abuses.

Sources

U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
National Constitution Center
History.com

Hello, Media? Asian. American. Lives. Matter. Wake UP!

General, Media, Social Justice, ,

On the same day that I signed a petition created by Asian American Collective that asks mainstream media to get up and cover the issues of the Asian American community, mainstream and cable media (except Fox News) finally brought to America’s attention the recent spate of murder and multiple assualts against Asian Americans.

Hey! Public pressure can work!

Early last week, I signed this petition:

Get Mainstream News Coverage Of National Elderly Asian American Assaults

It reads in part:

Over the course of the past year, the unfortunate inflation of racist rhetoric associated with the origin and spread of the Coronavirus has resulted in an uptick of deadly hate crimes against Asian Americans.

In the past week we’ve seen murders and hateful assaults skyrocket across America but have noticeably felt ZERO pressure to cover from America’s mainstream news sources. Why is it that in the eyes of American media, Asian lives do not matter?

President Biden very recently signed an Executive Order to help combat hate crimes toward the Asian American community. He even outlined his agenda on the campaign trail for the AAPI Community.

Because Asian Americans still have not been given a voice in mainstream America and it’s time they covered OUR struggles, fights and needs. We are Americans and deserve to live without constant fear, or the fear of our elders being senselessly murdered. 

Why does it take public pressure to compel the media to inform Americans about their fellow human beings becoming targets of racial hostility? And in particular, elderly Asian Americans?

Is it just convenient to pretend we’re invisible? Especially elderly people?

Asian Americans have been in the Americas for a long time. According to Wikpedia’s page on Asian immigration:

the first Asian-origin people known to arrive in North America after the beginning of the European colonization were a group of Filipinos known as “Luzonians” or Luzon Indians. These Luzonians were part of the crew and landing party of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza.

The ship set sail from Manila and landed in Morro Bay in what is now the California Coast on October 17, 1587 as part of the Galleon Trade between the Spanish East Indies (the colonial name for what would become the Philippines) and New Spain (Spain’s colonies in North America).

And according to a historical pamphlet, Timeline: 400 Years of Chinese in The Americas produced by The Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA) in New York City, the Spanish documented Chinese settlements in Acapulco “as early as 1600s and later in Mexico City by 1635”.

Filipino sailors were the first to settle in the U.S. around 1750 in what would later be Louisiana.

And the arrival of three Chinese seamen in Baltimore in 1785 marks the first record of Chinese in the United States.

We’ve been here a while, people!

After all these centuries, are Asian Americans still reduced to only cultural things from which non-Asians enjoy and benefit?

Things like martial arts: kung-fu, karate, and jujitsu? Foods, including sushi, No. 1 Chinese take-out that, in my opinion, no-self-respecting Chinese person would consume, and bobo drinks? Movies that portray women as either submissive and docile or conniving “dragon” women – and men often portrayed as emasculated nerd scientists or good guy-bad guy martial artists? Or somewhere in between but invisible – an extra in a movie – an office worker or random person walking in the street but silent or having a bit speaking part of no signficance?

Asian Americans have built America’s railroads, have turned California’s swamplands into farmlands to feed America, have fought patriotically in its wars (like my father and uncles), have taken care of our fellow citizens when they become ill via countless medical personnel, fought for rights and better living conditions in Congress, have worked tirelessly as scientists among their colleagues to find cures for diseases, and so much more.

And what thanks have we gotten? I’ll give you a sampling:

• The Nazi-like 1882 Chinese Exlusion Act – renewed repeatedly until the 1940s;

• Lynchings, physical violence, pillaging, and other untold crimes during the 19th century;

• Chinese detained at Angel Island (the Ellis Island of the West) to answer asinine questions from authorities to determine the authenticity of their identities;

• Japanese internment camps across the country during WWII;

• Racial hostility that continues to this day – magnified in the past year thanks to our now-former U.S. president who cruelly referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus” and “kung flu” and who inspired some of his most rabid followers to spew the same racist rhetoric to complete strangers of Asian heritage – sometimes accompanied by spitting or violent physical assault.

• Invisibility from the media, unless it suits them somehow.

I guess a spate of assaults against elderly Asian Americans isn’t sexy, titillating news.

Allow me to indulge you with naming some of the people who were attacked.

Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84 – knocked to the ground while on his morning walk January 28, 2021, by a teenager. Mr. Ratanapakdee’s fall resulted in his head hitting the pavement and him sliding into a garage door. Ratanapakdee died two days later as a result of his injuries after being taken to a hospital. He was originally from Thailand. (Bay Area, CA)

Yik Oi Huang, 88 – beaten by a teenager with her own cane before stealing her keys and leaving her to die in the sandbox of a playground across from her home on Jan. 9, 2019. Huang suffered a skull fracture, brain bleeding, numerous facial fractures, and injury to her spine, hands and ribs,. She was bleeding heavily from her head, face and nose. She died January 3, 2020, nearly a year after her injuries. (Bay Area CA)

Noel Quintana, 61 – was on his way to work on the L subway train when he got into a dispute with another man and was slashed across the face on Wednesday morning, February 5, 2021. Mr. Quintana claimed the man was kicking his backpack during the commute, according to ABC7. When Quintana asked him to stop, the suspect slashed the 61 year-old man on the right cheek with a box cutter causing physical injuries and ran away when the train made another stop. Mr. Quintana told ABC News he feared for his life since nobody was helping him. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment. (New York City, NY)

Mauricio Gesmundo, Sr., 83 – was getting ready for dinner when he heard loud sounds from inside his house on December 31, 2020 (New Year’s Eve). His son recalled, “All he remembers is whoever it was covered his face and then beat him.” His family found him bound and duct-taped. He died from his injuries on January 18, 2021.(Philadelphia, PA)

There are so many more Asian Americans who’ve been attacked as well. A New York NBC station reports that while the pandemic’s long-lasting impact has affected public health and the economy, the Asian-American community has also experienced the fallout of COVID-19 – being unfairly blamed for the pandemic and becoming the target of discrimination and violence.

According to the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) report “A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions,” they found:

Anti-Asian hate incidents increased dramatically in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and then surged after the election of Donald J. Trump. South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Middle Eastern communities all faced recurring cycles of harassment and violence. Since the onset of the pandemic, however, anti-Asian hate incidents now primarily directed at East Asians have skyrocketed according to both official and unofficial reports.

Across the country, there were more than 2,500 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents related to COVID-19 between March and September 2020. And this number understates the actual number of anti-Asian hate incidents because most incidents are not reported.

The report goes on to say that, as of Dec. 31, 2020,

there were 259 anti-Asian incidents in New York reported to “Stop AAPI Hate,” a report center sponsored by the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University’s Asian-American Studies Department. Although the majority of the incidents reported involve verbal harassment, shunning, physical assault, as well as being coughed and spat on are being reported at an alarming rate, according to the published study.

I’m not going to insult the people I mentioned who were attacked by discussing their attackers. They don’t deserve my time and space. Last I checked, two perpetrators have been arrested and at least two are still on the loose.

Mr. Ratanapakdee, Ms. Huang, Mr. Quintana, and Mr. Gesmundo. These individuals all had families. They were someone’s father, great-grandmother, mother, grandfather, auntie, and uncle.

Many of us have grandparents, parents, aunties, uncles we love – or loved and remembered, if they no longer are with us. The individuals I mentioned could have been one of our own parents, grandparents, relatives, or loved ones. The violence of their attacks numbs my mind and turns my stomach, and I can’t fathom the searing pain their families have endured. What a horrible way to have left this world.

With thousands of anti-Asian hate incidents related to the COVID-19 reported – and likely many unreported according to multiple news sources, why is America seemingly unaware of this? One night of mention on the news will not make an impression in our attention-deficit world. I thought multiple attacks against vulnerable people would garner worthy news attention.

But maybe not if they’re Asian American and apparently deemed invisible by mainstsream and cable news? Is omission of Asian American elder attacks what corporate media desires – to convey to the American public that we really don’t matter?

If so, that’s pretty downright sick.

Asian Americans…they exist?

Damn right we exist!

I’m grateful for activist organizations like Asian American Collective to bring to my attention the injustice of the violent attacks against elderly Asians and to bring national attention to the plight of our fellow human beings.

So hello, American media – yes, that includes you, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, WaPo, LA Times, NY Times, and even those who mentioned the rise in Asian American hate crimes:

ASIAN. AMERICAN. LIVES. MATTER.

We exist. A one-time mention isn’t sufficient.

With more than a couple thousand recorded complaints of anti-Asian hate crimes and counting, throughout the pandemic, you’ve no excuse not to follow-up on this. Tell us about those who’ve been attacked, about their lives, who they are or who they were, how their families are coping, how their respective communities have responded.

Wake UP!

Your silence is deafening. If you proclaim to provide “fair and balanced” news that has an impact on American lives, then treat ALL Americans with respect and tell them when their fellow citizens are being harmed repeatedly. Name names!

Don’t dehumanize and reduce us as just a group.

SAY their names: Vicha Ratanapakdee. Yik Oi Huang. Noel Quintana. Mauricio Gesmundo.

They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Peace.

Sources

Change.org – petition
Change.org – petition update
SF Examiner
Next Shark
CBS Philly
Newsbreak
SF Examiner
ABC7 News
AsAmNews
Next Shark
ABC7 News
The Hill
NBC4 New York
Wikipedia
Asian-Nation
Archives.gov
Times of Israel
Wikipedia
Britannica
History.com
NBC – Asian America
American History USA
Teaching for Change
Asian American Bar Association of New York

No Badge Needed

General, Media, Women,

Last Monday, February 1st, 2021, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Congresswoman from New York, shared on Instagram her harrowing experience on living through the January 6th, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol. In part, she said:

These folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize. These are the same tactics of abusers. And I’m a survivor of sexual assault.
~Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 2/1/21

Take in that last line: And I’m a survivor of sexual assault.

A number of people have taken offense to that, saying that she, as a politician, was using her experience as a sexual assault survivor as a tool to manipulate the public in some way or to make herself the center of attention.

The Spectator writer Amber Athey wrote:

This is gross manipulation, and AOC should be ashamed. Not for sharing that she was sexually assaulted — I have no way of knowing whether or not her story is true and, ultimately, it’s irrelevant to the issue of the storming of the Capitol.

The real story here is that AOC used her alleged trauma as a cudgel against her political opponents. She has weaponized her alleged experience to silence anyone who criticizes her and even went so far as to compare them to the person or people who abused her. This type of behavior cheapens sexual assault.

To which conservative media personality Rush Limbaugh added during his February 2nd radio show:

And to show you how it’s working, I have a friendly supporter who calls and says, “You better be real careful what you’re saying here. It’s obvious you’ve never been abused.” How is it obvious? Maybe I should be proud that I don’t wear that around. That’s also something generational. You just didn’t talk about things. You just lived your life. You dealt with it as it happened.

Now, you wear the badge. Generational changes, generational shifts. But Amber Athey believes that AOC “weaponized her alleged experience to silence anyone who criticizes her.” I know the left does that. They have become champions at that, in fact.

Badge?

There’s no fucking badge. Except in your head.

Generational changes, yes, Mr. Limbaugh. Generational shifts. You said it. Many people change their thinking on different matters over time, like sexual assault and rape. Thanks largely to social movements like #MeToo, survivors of sexual assault can feel safe that they are not alone – that they have the option to reveal they’ve experienced horrific violation, either publicly or privately – rather than burying their emotions.

In more survivors coming forward, they build solidarity in numbers and in shared experiences, so that society, rather than constantly blaming and dismissing them, begins to respect and believe them. And importantly, survivors expose and hold to account their perpetrators.

And maybe you are actually fine with that, I don’t know. But I’m gonna pick on you because you have a record of debasing women to your audience over many years. Notably, women who speak up for themselves: women who might talk about an intimately painful experience in their past, women with whom you disagree politically, or women whom you perceive to be an obstacle to the advancement of your favored person’s position (like a judge or a president). Does the name Sandra Fluke ring a bell? Dr. Christine Blasey Ford?

And now you cast aspersions on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

You started your broadcast on February 2nd introducing her Instagram video with “Have you seen this video, folks …If you haven’t, it’s amazing acting.”

ACTING?!

So most people besides Amber Athey aren’t gonna have the guts to properly characterize this. But you ought to see this video if you haven’t. I mean, it’s filled with acting and gyrations of the body in order to transmit the nature of the assault she feared was happening all over again. And it was a sexual assault that she was being reconnected to.

So you have no right to be critical, because this is a traumatic event, and so forth and so on.

But when did you ever hear Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez say that you can NOT criticize her for revealing she is a sexual assault survivor?

Those are YOUR words, dude.

YOUR WORDS.

Later in your broadcast, a caller implied AOC and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford were pretending (acting?) when they revealed their traumatic experiences:

CALLER: Right. So when you have Christine Blasey Ford and AOC as someone, you know, pretending — and what they did to Justice Kavanaugh — what it does to people who really lived through it.

RUSH: Oh, yeah.

CALLER: — is it minimizes or diminishes —

RUSH: What a great example.

CALLER: — those of us who go through it.

RUSH: What a greatly [sic] example. Christine Blasey Ford and all these people piling on Kavanaugh.

So you agree with the caller that Dr. Ford and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were just pretending about their sexual assaults? Do you think they were making stuff up to grab attention and/or elicit sympathy?

If that’s not making light of one’s experience, I don’t know what is.

Or maybe or a more accurate term for casting aspersions on them is cynical.

Cynical, according to Merriam-Webster, means:

Having or showing the attitude or temper of a cynic: such as
a) contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives
b) based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest

You apologized for a misunderstanding at first. Namely, that you thought Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said she was sexually assaulted during the January 6th insurrection. Later, you said your primary point was not disputing that she has been abused and you weren’t making light of it or laughing about it, yet you continued to minimize her experiences she had both during the insurrection and her mention of being sexually assaulted (along with some of your callers).

You know, the question that got all of this started about her divulging that she had been sexually abused — the question that got it all started — was, “Why don’t you guys just move on? The January 6 thing was January 6th. The siege of the Capitol is in the rearview mirror. It happened. Why don’t you just move on?”

That’s what triggered her to talk about her alleged sexual abuse, and that’s when she said (summarized), “Look, these instances of abuse don’t ever go away. They compound on one another,” meaning the impact is added to each new instance of abuse and what she went through during the siege on January 6 was abuse on top of — which she then shared — was her sexual abuse and so forth.

So put another way. She was asked why she can’t move on from January 6, and she said because of her alleged sexual abuse. She politicized it, not me. She did.

“…and she said because of her alleged sexual abuse.” Not.

You conveniently glossed over horrific insurrection by dismissing Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’ revealation as a sexual assault survivor as she spoke about the fears she experienced that day, comparing the tactics of her some of her naysayers as similar to abusers. And you said she politicized her trauma.

How cynical of you.

According to trauma experts interviewed by USA Today, Ocasio-Cortez’s reaction is normal and expected, and her account aligns with what science shows happens to a mind and body under extreme forms of stress. It’s likely, experts said, that Ocasio-Cortez’s experience with sexual assault intensified what she endured at the Capitol. Clinical psychologist Seth Gillihan told USA Today:

Trauma isn’t processing ‘sexual assault’ or ‘Capitol assault.’ What it’s processing is an overwhelming sense of danger, of feeling powerless, feeling my life is out of my hands. From an outsider’s perspective the sources look different, but inside our bodies and minds … it’s exactly the same message.

People died because of the assault on the Capitol! It was a potentially life-threatening attack on members of Congress, and for Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, it was a trauma compounded by her experience with sexual assault made all the more terrifying by the death threats she has received since she was elected to Congress.

It’s not triggering trauma, it’s trauma overlaid on trauma, Gillihan said.

Experts also said that Ocasio-Cortez’s gender is likely influencing reaction to her emotional disclosures. It’s much easier to suggest Ocasio-Cortez is fragile, oversensitive or even politically motivated than it is to accept the horror of what happened to her. They agreed with AOC and said denial and victim-blaming are common tactics abusers use.

One of the experts, Jennifer Gómez, a psychology professor at Wayne State University stated:

Abusers demand silence. The trouble is such a silence mandate is crazy-making for people who experience the violence and who see the world for what it is: a place that includes such violence just as much as it includes joy.

Screw silence on demand.

I believe as some observers have noted, that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez spoke in such personal terms in order to reject calls to move on from the events of January 6th. “We cannot move on without accountability,” she insisted. “We cannot heal without accountability.”

Accountability, indeed.

So go take your cynicism to the nearest toxic waste dump where it belongs, Mr. Limbaugh. And throw your imagined badges in there while you’re at it, please.

Y’all stop invalidating @AOC’s experiences because you aren’t hearing about the experiences of other members. Everyone deals with trauma differently, her stories are validating for so many of us with similar experiences and she is showing people that vulnerability is strength.
~ Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Congresswoman, 2/1/21

Sources

Nation
Washington Post
New York Times
Merriam-Webster
Newsmax
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Spectator
Alternet.org
MSN
USA Today
NY Post
Wikipedia
CBS News
Wikipedia
New York Times
Real Clear Politics
Media Matters

A Ray of Sunshine

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

Do you know who Maria Ressa is?

I only vaguely knew of this renowned journalist who was accused of cyber libel in June 2020, and then the other night, PBS’ Frontline show had a great documentary on the threatened status of press freedom in the Philippines, focusing on Maria Ressa. She is a dynamo! Intensity and reslience packed into a small stature. Check out this documentary:

A Thousand Cuts

With press freedom under threat in the Philippines, A Thousand Cuts goes inside the escalating war between the government and the press. The documentary follows Maria Ressa, a renowned journalist who has become a top target of President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on the news media. …

Her resoluteness, her confidence, and her forthrightness shine bright – so much so that she has remained ingrained in my mind for days. And I’ll venture to say, for years to come.

Ressa is a top target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, having been an outspoken critic of his policies for many years – in particular, the extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, and fast-rising death toll from Duterte’s brutal war on drugs as well as the alleged pro-Duterte online “troll army” who were pushing out fake news stories and manipulating the narrative around his presidency. She has posted bail 9 times and has endured relentless political harrassment by the Duterte government and its supporters. Yet it doesn’t deter her from battling disinformation.

Bullies like Duterte don’t seem to faze Maria Ressa. (Would you expect less from someone who spent many years investigating terrorist networks in Southeast Asia?)

And she says she will not let herself be intimidated.

I love that about her!

For me, Maria Ressa is a ray of sunshine in these dark days of the pandemic. She is an inspiration for those who are deeply disgusted by the US wanna-be dictator who has repeatedly called the press the enemy of the people and has denounced any journalist who has committed the “crime” of criticizing him. She may be in the Philippines – she is by the way also a US citizen, but she nevertheless is an inspiration to many around the world who value and respect a free and open democracy.

Amendment I of the US Constitution clearly states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Similarly, Section 4 of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines clearly states:

No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

Nice to know the US Constitution has inspired others around the globe to enshrine similar rights into their own countries’ constitutions!

But not-so-nice to know that the most powerful man on earth has been inspired by the dictators of the world with regard to how to treat members of the press, as per his own acknowledgment.

Neither the leader of the Philippines nor the soon-to-be former leader of the United States like the press, let alone respect it. Well, arguably, no political “leader” does; however, but when you, Presidents Duterte and Trump, publicly single out journalists by belittling them in front of their peers at a press conference or at a mass rally of your followers because they wrote something you didn’t like, arrest them on allegedly politically motivated charges, insinuate that a certain journalist “could be a target for assassination”, laugh when your dictator buddy calls the press corps “spies”, announce in a jesting tone that you think it’d be a good idea to arrest and maybe “get rid of” journalists who criticize and contradict your mistatements with facts just like another dictator buddy, and worst of all, say that the press is the enemy of the people, then I’d say that you, Dear Leaders – and there’s more than two of you on this planet, have an unimaginable contempt for your fellow citizens. For those who elected you as well as those who did not.

Journalists are here to hold our elected leaders accountable! Every last one of them, from the local level all the way to the president.

It disturbed me recently that CBS News had recently put out a promotional ad about themselves stating the obvious: without a free press, we don’t have a free society. Probably not the exact words – I can’t think of them at this moment…but you get the idea.

I thought to myself: What?! This is what our president inspired – that a national media company felt compelled to remind the public of this?

Fortunately, we have courageous journalists like Maria Ressa here in the US, too. Like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who is one of my favorite investigative reporters and no stranger to having put her life on the line as has Maria, to report the news.

To Maria and Amy and all the intrepid journalists like yourselves out there in the world: you are essential to our freedom to live and breathe safely by keeping check on those in power, informing the public when you expose abuse, corruption, and goodness knows what else has occurred. You shine a spotlight into the dark nooks and crannies of our world for the public good. America needs you now more than ever. The world needs you.

I need you!

We can’t fight monsters by becoming monsters. ~ Maria Ressa

Sources

PBS Frontline
Rappler
Elle
Wikipedia
NPR
The Guardian
U.S. Constitution
constituteproject.org
Vox
Washington Post
National Review
Global News
The Guardian

In Praise of Ms. Jones

Civics, General, Media, Women, , ,

On the morning of December 7th, 2020, former Florida COVID-19 data scientist Rebekah Jones had her home raided by state police. They aimed their guns at her and her family, as seen on video. They seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks.

Jones wrote on social media after the raid:

“They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids… This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo [sic].”

She built the much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to “manipulate data”, according to USA TODAY. She was fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the department on May 5th, 2020. 

The World Socialist Web Site reports that the specific allegation made against Jones that led to the police raid was:

that she was responsible for an email being sent to Florida’s Department of Health employees imploring them to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead,” which Jones denies having sent. She asserts that, in part, officials seized her devices to determine what contacts she has within the Department of Health, who will in turn likely be victimized in the near future.

Rebekah Jones has since launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after being removed from the state’s project. You can find it here. And explained in some detail, here.

She has also just filed a suit against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over the raid at her home.

Why am I writing about this?

Because when I think about what happened to her, this is what is going through my mind: This is where hard-earned taxpayer monies go – to use armed state police to harass an unarmed scientist and her family in their home due to an unsubstantiated suspicion? Is this perhaps a retaliation against Ms. Jones from certain leaders in power who didn’t like that she refused to fudge the COVID-19 numbers to make their government look better?!

I personally have never had any really negative encounter with local or state police in my lifetime. Not even from two encounters with state police who issued me the traffic tickets I’ve gotten in the past. (getting the tickets was more painful!) I don’t have any personal grudge against police.

However, I do take great issue with law enforcement officers who abuse the public trust when they engage in corruption, sexism, racism, or employ excessive force against peaceful, UNARMED, law-abiding citizens, be it a scientist or peaceful protesters. Particularly against people of color.

I had a close, late friend who relayed his tale of walking home from work one night when he was suddenly bodyslammed to the ground because…why? He apparently resembled a suspect accused of some offense. It was a case of mistaken identity and he was released. But I don’t know if the officers apologized to him. My friend was a big man, originally from India. And no security officer ever came to his rescue when rocks were thrown at him and his friends by a crowd who supposedly “didn’t want his kind” at a country music concert somewhere in a southern state. My friend loved American country music. I thought part of security personnel’s jobs was to prevent and stop harm to others.

And I think it is deeply dangerous to idolize police, as if they are all angels who can do no wrong. They are human beings, for crying out loud!

To put them all on some fantastical, god-like pedestal and make excuses for those who perpetrate heinous crimes against their fellow citizens is irresponsible and a betrayal of public trust. It’s a willful denial of the lived experiences of those who have been the target of police brutality, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. Call a spade a spade and quit giving a free pass to law enforcement officers who do wrong to others, instead of trying to immediately shift blame on the injured (or dead) party by casting aspersions on their character or actions. Like, if only he wasn’t swaggering around the way he did, or he should have answered/obeyed the officer immediately (like a dog?), or why was she out at night and dressed like that, or why did she have to be so loud and sassy? That’s bullshit.

Disgusting.

I do not condone crimes; I want public accountability of those who have been entrusted with power – who abuse it and harm others.

What’s so hard about not using excessive force on peaceful, unarmed people? Particularly in the privacy of their own home?

The important point, to my mind, is that Ms. Jones kept her fellow Floridians and researchers around the country informed with facts about the spread of COVID-19. Determined to do so even after she and her spouse were violently harassed by state police, and her young children terrified by them.

(remember, violence is not always physical; it can be verbal, too)

She has stood up for science. For public health. For FACTS. And has not been afraid to tell the truth about what has happened to her — she has refused to bow down to bullies. I respect all of that. Immensely.

If anything, this pandemic has helped me to appreciate and respect science that much more. I’ve always liked science…I just didn’t apply myself very well on science exams during my school years, from elementary school through college. And I felt guilty when I didn’t do so well because I knew instinctively that science was important.

So huge kudos to you, Rebekah Jones, for your work in helping to inform others. For standing up for yourself, for standing up for Floridians’ health, and not letting anyone bully you! I hope you will keep doing your work for many, many years to come. Florida is lucky to have you.

Sources

USA Today
Florida COVID Action
NPR
World Socialist Web Site
CNN
Tampa Bay Times