Wow. Damn. "Been in several conflicts around world... but to be arrested and yelled at? Ferguson...

[bigtree]

Yamiche Alcindor @Yamiche · 2h
Wow. “@mattdpearce: Damn. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/ferguson-journalists-arrested/ … pic.twitter.com/ip8yz3RY3x”

Three journalists from German newspapers were also taken into custody on Monday evening. Two of them, Ansgar Graw and Frank Herrmann of the newspaper Die Welt, were detained for three hours and then released without any charges.

"This was a very new experience," Graw wrote, according to an English-language translation of his German-language account. "I've been in several conflict zones: I was in the civil war regions in Georgia, the Gaza strip, illegally visited the Kaliningrad region when travel to the Soviet Union was still strictly prohibited for westerners, I've been in Iraq, Vietnam and in China, I've met Cuba dissidents. But to be arrested and yelled at and be rudely treated by police? For that I had to travel to Ferguson and St. Louis in the United States of America."


read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/ferguson-journalists-arrested/


. . . it was one of the most peaceful and quiet nights in Ferguson yet. I was collecting tweets to show just how nice. . . how nice it was without the police lining up ready to attack everyone, when the mood shifted rapidly and dramatically. I posted the entire account here:

VERY quiet and PEACEFUL tonight in Ferguson- THEN, one PLASTIC bottle thrown and its a POLICE STATE!

[avebury]

1. That kind of says it all. nt

[joeybee12]

2. Let's face it, the USA looks like a bunch of assholes to the rest of the world...

When the phuck will people here wake up?

[Javaman]

17. when we are scrambling for the last slice of bread on the floor of the workhouse, after we have been

put in there for failing to pay a debt.

[fadedrose]

3. That old song

"Meet Me in St. Louis" is no "fair" to be singin' about these days...was it ever?

[GliderGuider]

4. I wonder how long it will take

for the authorities to realize that arresting journalists is ... ummm ... counterproductive?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

32. That's the plan.

Once you scare the media into submission, it's on to phase II.

[valerief]

5. USA--meth, roid, wealth gap, and racist capital of the world. nt

[99th_Monkey]

6. One of the more positive developments out of Ferguson

is the radicalization of the field reporters who are being abused and detained for doing their job, which is to inform the public of breaking news out of Ferguson.

It's hard to say how much of this newfound awareness will be sustained in the Forth Estate, or whether it will be walked-back from the corporate board rooms of CNN, MSNBC, etc. I'm hoping it might mark a turning point, rather like it did in the 60s, when press would get caught up in the riots and abused by police.

I'm holding a candle for this awareness on the part of the Press will hold and help shift our collective awareness for the better, for more perfect justice in Ferguson and beyond.

[calimary]

7. Great point, 99th_Monkey. When Walter Cronkite reached critical mass on the Vietnam War,

and turned against it, that was the coup de grace for Dinner-Hour-News-Watching-America. I believe there was an anecdote about LBJ lamenting the loss of Walter Cronkite as some sort of ally, because he felt that's what soured much of America against the war.

That was back in the day when a prime time network news anchor's nickname was "The Most Trusted Man in America." Know ANY mainstream news anchors, nowadays, who could justly say they've earned such a nickname?

I used to be proud of my former profession, as a news anchor/reporter myself. Now, not so much. Now, some of 'em don't even know their third-grade grammar basics anymore. I heard one network-level reporter saying that some people or efforts or some such plural "have went." "Have WENT"????? AAAARRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! And THAT gets to rise to network-level cable/television?

Dear God.

No wonder America is so ill-informed anymore.

[99th_Monkey]

10. +10 n/t

[FuzzyRabbit]

23. Daniel Schorr

Some time before his death, Daniel Schorr was interviewed on the radio. At the time Schorr was training some NPR news interns. He lamented that they all thought that Hollywood gossip and show business press releases were serious news. He was trying to teach them that news about Brangelina or whomever was not real news.

So a few nights later I was watching the news on Seattle channel 13 (Fox news) when a new young anchor read a news item about some movie couple breaking up. Then the older anchor said "On to some important news" and the young anchor replied testily, "You think that (referring to show business gossip) is not important?"

[90-percent]

25. Daniel Schorr used to pal around with my hero Frank Zappa

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128738162

-90% Jimmy

[calimary]

26. Welcome to DU, FuzzyRabbit!

Glad you're here! Great story. I remember when Daniel Schorr was a correspondent you saw on the "CBS Evening News" all the time. That was when it was okay for the gents to be older and look a little rumpled. Nobody was blow-drying their coifs or spending much time in the makeup chair back then. Not even the men.

Anybody remember the "new" fad in TV news during the 70s? The "happy talk" anchor team? They'd try to seem friendlier and more accessible, the transitions between anchors (usually male and female) were more easy-breezy, and it was no longer an event when an anchor(man) cracked up or laughed out loud about something on the air. Now it's commonplace. Almost gossipy. And "gossip" has developed into a King-Kong-Meets-Godzilla with an entire universe of its own.

[FuzzyRabbit]

27. I remember "happy talk" news

and the lame forced banter that the anchors did between stories. Sometimes it was surreal to hear them joke and smile right after a heartbreaking story about a child's tragic death.

[calimary]

35. Remember how it became so prevalent that even Dan Aykroyd took it up on "Saturday Night Live"

in his spoof of Tom Snyder - an anchorman who I think originated here in Los Angeles. He soon got his own side program, as host of the "Tomorrow" show, the original late-night-talk follow-up to the "Tonight Show," where he could really show his personality. But even his news anchoring was personality-driven. A LOT of happy-talk and breaking the fourth wall and the banter with the other folks on the news set and reacting to stories. He really moved the goal posts. He did network anchoring for awhile, from New York as well. And Aykroyd sure nailed his signature guffaw, show after show and bit after bit.

[cui bono]

29. Hopefully. The problem is that it is so corporate now that I think it will take so much more

to get to that point. The journalists themselves may reach it but their corporate bosses won't.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[conservaphobe]

9. K&R... be sure you have all your ducks in a row on sharing this information...

Or the Thin Blue Line crowd will denigrate you.

[Tommymac]

11. The Return of The Ugly American.

At least they didn't meet Officer Gofuckyourself.

[riqster]

18. I thought it was Geaux Fuxyerxelph?

But I could be wrong.

[world wide wally]

12. This used to be a pretty fun country not all that long ago… yet a lifetime away

[Aldo Leopold]

15. +1

Been thinking the same for quite a while. It does feel and look like so many aspects of life in this country have gone to shit recently.

[riqster]

19. A brief history of when it went to shit:

https://m.

These bastards stole their power from the victims of the Us v.
Them years, wrecking all things virtuous and true.
The undermining social democratic downhill slide into abysmal
Lost lamb off the precipice into the trickle down runoff pool.

They hypnotized the summer, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Marched into the capital brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
Heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever, mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The information nation took their clues from all the sound-bite gluttons.
Nineteen eighty, eighty-four, eighty-eight, ninety-two too, too.
How to be what you can be, jump jam junking your energies.
How to walk in dignity with throw-up on your shoes

They amplified the autumn, nineteen seventy-nine.
Calculate the capital, up the republic my skinny ass.
TV tells a million lies. The paper's terrified to report
Anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon,
I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this. So, fuck you, man. (Fuck 'em)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
If they weren't there we would have created them. Maybe, it's true,
But I'm resentful all the same. Someone's got to take the blame.
I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting,
But I feel better having screamed. Don't you?

They desecrated winter, nineteen seventy-nine.
Capital collateral. Brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
Heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever, mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah yeah.

I did not do the revolution. Thank you.

(Mills/Berry/Buck/Stipe)

[greiner3]

33. Also the Who's;

'Won't Get Fooled Again'

[riqster]

34. Yeah, but that one's timeless.

[Enthusiast]

13. Kicked and recommended!

Racist cops on steroids.

[ablamj]

14. America

What a country...

[leftstreet]

16. DURec

[PeoViejo]

20. Amerika's dark underbelly gets exposed.

I wonder how many more towns are like Furguson.

[FormerOstrich]

21. tyvm!

:kick: & :recommended:

[ReRe]

22. K&R

This just might behoove the commandos to change their tune. Maybe lay down their guns and tear gas and start marching with the protesters? Or just forget about it take their toys home?

[adieu]

24. When it comes to herping the derp

America is still the king of the hill. No other country can compete.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

28. The Eagles figured out how terrible the news was a long time ago - 1982

The Eagles - Dirty Laundry Live:

From Wikipedia: The song is about the callousness (and callowness) of TV news reporting as well as the tabloidization of all news. Henley sings from the standpoint of a news anchorman who "could have been an actor, but I wound up here", and thus is not a real journalist. The song's theme is that TV news coverage focuses too much on negative and sensationalist news; in particular, deaths, disasters, and scandals, with little regard to the consequences or for what is important ("We all know that crap is king&quot . The song was inspired by the intrusive press coverage surrounding the deaths of John Belushi and Natalie Wood, and Henley's own arrest in 1980.[2] Lines in the second verse, "Is the head dead yet?", actually comes from journalism lingo, and refers to the major headline story being ready to post or print. If a head is dead, it has already been set and is being printed or created, and it is now too late to make changes to the story.

[calimary]

36. I remember a video that circulated back then, using "Dirty Laundry" as the background music

for a montage of photos and clips and outtakes galore of anchors and reporters at work. It was put together by the White House Correspondents Association for their big banquet that year (the one you see on TV with all the ballyhoo these days). Carole Simpson was president that year. They called it "Tapes of Wrath" and it was hilarious.

[pansypoo53219]

30. racism is a special kind of hate. you may not see how racist you are.

[Enrique]

31. American Exceptionalism