Friday, June 1, 2012

A Strategy For Handling The Mainstream Media




Our esteemed media are well known for the hack-jobs and hit-pieces they perpetrate upon those with whom they conduct interviews when the interviewee's opinions vary disgreeably with those of the interviewer or, perhaps more often, the people who sign their paychecks.

There is a very simple countermeasure available to all persons who expose themselves to the risks posed by the unscrupulous editor: arrive at the interview with your own camera crew. If media representatives object to their presence, walk away, having had your crew recording the process of their refusal.  This way, when they air the false claim that you refused to be interviewed, you are at least free to counter the usual implications of their expressive styles in such cases with your small snippet of the truth and let the chips fall where they may in the forum of public opinion.

If enough people would put their egos back behind their zippers where they belong, the media would soon come to the realization that they need the interviewees more than vice versa.

Imagine showing up with, say, a 2-lens crew. Everything they record, you do as well, and perhaps more. When they broadcast a hack, your full-length and uncut recording finds its way to the net via a number of popular media venues, available for the world to view for comparison's sake. Were this tactic to become widespread, the MSM would be faced with a choice to straighten up and cut the misleading cherry-picking or face what could prove to be a costly erosion of credibility and perhaps more importantly, revenue. This tactic would also provide evidentiary bases for litigation in the cases where misrepresentation of an interviewee's positions prove concretely libelous or result in demonstrable torts.

In this age of low cost, high quality video equipment, there is precious small excuse for almost anyone not to show up with a small crew of their own as, shall we say, "insurance".

I feel it is time we start becoming more creatively assertive in the use of such technologies in ways that work best in the favor of our interests as free individuals. If they can use them to bring us to harm, we must use them equally for our protection. It astounds me that so many place themselves at the mercy of people whose nearly total absence of knowledge and/or ethics in this age of advocacy "journalism" offers at best even odds of being represented in so much as the most marginally honest way.

Don't be a chump. Fight back. Use what they use to best ensure you do not become the victim.

Until next time, please accept my best wishes.

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