"Why Ferguson’s About Net Neutrality, Too"
http://billmoyers.com/2014/08/21/fergusons-about-net-neutrality-too/
At the end of the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart, as Senator Jefferson Smith, is in the midst of his filibuster against the corruption of the political machine that sent him to Capitol Hill as their lackey. Now he knows the truth and he’s taken over the floor of the Senate to tell it.
The nation is enthralled by his one man stand, but no one back in his home state is hearing the story: the machine controls all the newspapers and radio stations and even when the kids in Smith’s youth group print out a special edition of their own paper to try to tell his side, they’re run down by Boss Taylor’s goons.
Ultimately, Jimmy Stewart triumphs, of course, thanks to some handy, Hollywood-style deus ex machina, but just imagine if Jeff Smith and those kids had mobile phones, the Internet, Twitter and Facebook. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t have made for movie magic, but look at the power of today’s social media in the hands both of journalists committed to truth-telling and everyday citizens fighting back against injustice. And think of the loss to democracy if that ability to access a free and open Internet is taken away.
(snip)
The tragedy and ensuing crisis in Ferguson, Missouri, have shown the ability of social media to get the story told. David Carr wrote in The New York Times that, “Twitter has become an early warning service for news organizations, a way to see into stories even when they don’t have significant reporting assets on the ground. And in a situation hostile to traditional reporting, the crowdsourced, phone-enabled network of information that Twitter provides has proved invaluable.”
Also contemplating the situation in Ferguson, Zeynep Tufekci, a fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy noted, “It seems like a world ago in which such places, and such incidents, would be buried in silence, though, of course, residents knew of their own ignored plight. Now, we expect documentation, live-feeds, streaming video, real time Tweets.”
(snip)
More on the link.
= new reply since forum marked as read
we would be without the net and our social media devices. I think about it how fortunate we are with a means to fight back since the media became manufactured news and infotainment.
the net and Twitter became so prevalent as a way to get real news out.. I keep lobbying for Occupy to Occupy the Media and before that for the masses to protest the media like we did bush's war on Iraq. My fervent wish was for the m$m to go the way of the dinosaurs..
David Gregory's MTP did that but NBC's bright idea is to bring in Chuckie Todd..
But, we got this on Monday!
#ItsBiggerThanYou: Atlanta protesters challenge CNN’s Michael Brown reporting
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the CNN center in Atlanta on Monday to march in memory of unarmed Missouri teenager Michael Brown who was gunned down by a police officer, many in protest of CNN’s controversial coverage of the incident.
Demonstrators who had been urged to attend dressed in their “Sunday’s best” marched under the slogan: “How good must we look to be considered innocent?” and used the #ItsBiggerThanYou hashtag.
The protest was staged in response to CNN’s Ferguson protests coverage, which had a strong emphasis on past actions by Brown which may have incriminated him. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, as many as 1,000 protesters marched.
More to the story..
http://rt.com/usa/181456-cnn-protests-rally-brown/
"Participants and observers also took to Twitter to denounce CNN’s lack of coverage of a protest directly outside its offices."
Daaa-mmnn!
for the former and 
for the latter.Exactly! But, the visual and power were palpable at cnn Atlanta on Monday.. hoping it's a template for what can be done on a relentless basis! Sick to pieces of cnn corporate Koch party propaganda.
Gotta give props to this "cnn" host, though..
CNN host calls out Ferguson mayor for referring to Mike Brown’s body as an ‘it’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025423709
Michael Brown
'That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for a corporate media host'
Thanks for the thanks.
