With A President Absent, We Found New Voices
This is the week we learned who to listen to.
At some point during his first or second term as President, Barack Obama lost faith in his power of office.
No matter how centrist his positions became, the right dodged further right, and attacked the President’s stance as being damn near Marxist. He’s even under fire from his successor, as Hillary Clinton is out there avenging her 2008 primary loss by lamenting Obama’s lack-of-hawkishness to The Atlantic.
Beset from all sides, it’s enough to drive you mad. Whomever he sides with becomes demonized, Obama remembers when he gets an iMessage from Van Jones. Mitt Romney’s health care plan was a death camp when Barack Obama was associated with it. Somehow, he never ever gets mad.
Somewhere during the six years of his presidency, Mr. Obama decided, after watching too many superhero movies, that it was dangerous to be associated with him.
That all might sound ludicrous, but it’s the set of conditions I had to arrive at after listening to President Obama’s remarkably unambitious statement today.
After watching this police state activate, some went into President Obama’s statement with hope of him calling out that travesty of “police”-work for
We watched on as journalists were arrested and forced to stop covering Ferguson, as peaceful protests were met with sonic weaponry, tear gas, and “non-lethal” (well, “almost-lethal” is more accurate) assault.
The statement President Obama gave to the press, as well as many who voted for him and were hoping for something strong, continued a trend of disappointment.
A President Obama without an election left to win, could have given a speech that spoke constitutional law truth to terror.
That didn’t happen, and instead he delivered a muddling statement you might as well call The Grand Equivocation.
Now that Obama’s blown his chance, let’s talk about those who are to be listened to.
Yes, these are all people you can and should follow through their Twitter account, and with the exception of one television program, that’s the best way to keep up with their reporting.
Yes, Twitter. The online territory mocked for its 140 character limit. During Wednesday night, I realized how lucky we are that Twitter’s core product — a live stream that any and all with a connection can broadcast to — has stayed untouched.
There are ads dispersed throughout, but there is no Facebook-style trickery about what Twitter shows you. You get the live feed, and nothing else. More on Facebook at the end, though.
Antonio French, alderman of the 21st Ward in St. Louis was the first voice on the ground covering the tragedy of Michael Brown’s death and the subsequent police state. If you only followed one person reporting on Ferguson, he would be that person. Unfortunately, for about 12 hours, his feed was empty because Mr. French had been arrested.
From the interview Mr. French gave to the local media, you will find out he does not know what he was being charged with, and that he was being released without posting bond. What follows, is a brief description of what he says in that video, which I’ve got linked above in my Dropbox.
“Unlawful assembly,” he notes is the charge most of the jailed folks are supposedly put in on.
Cops told Mr. French that people should cease protesting at 9pm, Wednesday night.
Once 9pm struck, cops got on the bullhorn and told those gathered — who were peacefully protesting — that they were no longer a part of a peaceful assembly. That everybody was to leave or to return to their cars. This was repeated twice, a final warning was given, and then the police line moved in on those assembled.
As the line moved in, this intimidation caused some of those assembled to curse at the police.
That grave injustice of swearing triggered a gross over-reaction of smoke bombs, then soon followed by tear gas.
If you watch the video, you’ll start to understand more about what was going wrong in Missouri this week, under the watch of the Robocop-wing of the local police.
Yamiche Alcindor, a USA TODAY national breaking news reporter, who has been, and will continue to report from the ground. Proving how much can be done within technological limits, her Vine account (that app that allows you to record and send six-second videos), gives a glimpse, below, into the St. Louis Police Department’s attempts to stop peaceful protests.
Ryan J. Reilly, justice reporter for HuffPo, is also a journalist reporting from Ferguson, and he was arrested without cause when the police decided to close down the local McDonald’s.
On MSNBC, he told Chris Hayes of the story, saying police slammed his head into the glass on the way out of McDonald’s, then mocked him sarcastically.
On the scene, Wesley Lowery, Washington Post reporter, was being pushed out of the premises, first asked by cops, “Who are you? Why are you here? You should leave.” Who went on, with a phrasing that smacks of the mafia, “We can’t ensure your safety, it’s dangerous out there.” Mr. Lowery too, was arrested by the St. Louis Police, for no good reason.
Rembert Browne, Grantland writer.
In the hour of 9–10pm EST, I became fearful for the life of a friend of my friends. I’ve never met the guy, but the tweets from that hour, would give anybody concern over what’s going on in Missouri.
Rembert has always been a must-follow on Twitter. The experience he reported Wednesday night, over the span of a single hour, live in Ferguson, MO, should shock news outlets back to life when it comes to sending reporters out to cover the story.
Luckily, Rembert resurfaced around midnight. I don’t know if he’s sticking around in Missouri, but I had to share that story.
EDIT: Rembert’s story on Grantland regarding his 48 hours in Ferguson, MO, is a must read.
Joel D. Anderson, is on the ground reporting for BuzzFeed. That BuzzFeed has on the ground live-tweeting of Ferguson should make its detractors think twice.
Willis Arnold, Arts and Culture Reporter for @stlpublicradio, and a college classmate of mine, is on the scene reporting as we type from home.
Chris Hayes of MSNBC has not only been a good source for news on Twitter, but his program, Up With Chris Hayes, has been the only informative (or even tolerable-to-watch, really) TV coverage. That’s only going to be getting better as I believe his will be the only cable news show on-site.
Lastly, there was one tweeter on Wednesday night that made an ass out of themselves that we can’t overlook.
And somehow, it wasn’t the social media person for the local FOX station. They had one of the few and last operating livestreams. Their twitter account, is also worth following, for the time being.
The Screwup of the Night was made by none other than the smartest tactless idiot in the room: Nate Silver.
The name Nate Silver that Bill Simmons (who employs Rembert at Grantland) fell over himself to hire away from the New York Times.
That acquisition was supposed to be some big coup.
So, read these tweets in chronological (1–8) order, and tell me how big of a major free agent signing Nate Silver was.
Sure, you say, one does not hire Nate Silver for his tact, they hire him for data driven journalism.
They don’t hire him to be embarrassed by a story about sharing Burritos with the fuzz.
The Times might have thought they were getting a gold star by placing the photo of the armored Humvee cop car on the front page, but it was below the damn fold.
It’s what you see online, for instance, in a photograph like this snapshot from Josh Marshall of TPM, is what keeps people trusting their twitter feed more than CNN.
Lastly, because it’s sort of the least important thing here, late last night I finally realized that Facebook is a land of willful ignorance.
This post, is supposed to be a representation of what I saw in my timeline on Twitter.
When I checked Facebook to see what was happening there, I saw a sea of baby photos, requests for people to help out with fun runs, and a lot of Robin Williams. Maybe one mention of Ferguson for every 15 mentions of anything else.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I made sure my settings were to see the most recent posts, and they were.
So, this morning, I asked for my Facebook friends’ twitter handles.
I don’t think spending more time than is necessary on Facebook is a good idea anymore. I’m not saying Twitter is Reality, but it’s miles closer than Facebook is.
