voting this up if it gets redlit. this is good.

+1 here too.

And now we go to Asian reporter Wendy Hanamura.

the system is broken. it's fundamentally flawed.

post to video??? should be posted to front page or at least the politics board.

+1

"In the current model of corporate ownership the incentive to produce good news is not there."

That's a rough paraphrase, but pretty much sums up the clip.

PRESS STATEMENT
For immediate release:
Friday, September 5, 2008
Contact: AIUSA media office
202-544-0200 x302

Use of Force Against RNC Protesters "Disproportionate," Charges Amnesty International

[London]--Amnesty International is concerned by allegations of excessive use of force and mass arrests by police at demonstrations in St. Paul, Minnesota during the Republican National Convention (RNC) from September 1-4, 2008. The human rights organization is calling on the city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations.

The organization's concerns arise from media reports, video and photographic images which appear to show police officers deploying unnecessary and disproportionate use of non-lethal weapons on non-violent protestors marching through the streets or congregating outside the arena where the Convention was being held.

Amnesty International urges that an inquiry be carried out promptly, that its findings and recommendations be made public in a timely manner. If the force used is found to have been excessive and to have contravened the principles of necessity and proportionality, then those involved should be disciplined, measures put in place and training given to ensure future policing operations conform to international standards.

Police are reported to have fired rubber bullets and used batons, pepper spray, tear gas canisters and concussion grenades on peaceful demonstrators and journalists. Amnesty International has also received unconfirmed reports that some of those arrested during the demonstrations may have been ill-treated while held at Ramsey county jail.

Amnesty International is also concerned at reports that several journalists who were covering the RNC were arbitrarily arrested while filming and reporting on the demonstrations. They include host of independent news program Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, and two of the program's producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, who were both allegedly subjected to violence during their arrest. A photographer for the Associated Press (AP) and other journalists were also arrested while covering the demonstrations.

Kouddous described his arrest to media, "...two or three police officers tackled me. They threw me violently against a wall. Then they threw me to the ground. I was kicked in the chest several times. A police officer ground his knee into my back...I was also, the entire time, telling them, 'I'm media. I'm press....,' but...that didn't seem to matter at all."

Amnesty International recognizes the challenges involved in policing large scale demonstrations and that some protestors may have been involved in acts of violence or obstruction. However, some of the police actions appear to have breached United Nations (U.N.) standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials. These stipulate, among other things, that force should be used only as a last resort, in proportion to the threat posed, and should be designed to minimize damage or injury. Some of the treatment also appears to have contravened U.S. laws and guidelines on the use of force. The U.N. standards also stress that everyone is allowed to participate in lawful and peaceful assemblies, in accordance with the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For more information, please contact the AIUSA media office at 202-544-0200 x302 or visit our website at www.amnestyusa.org.


Welcome to the New World Order

Excellent video.

Pardon me Dan, but while you were raking in the big $$$ while a "reporter" for CBS, were you a part of the solution or part of the problem you're complaining about now?

Great stuff. Shame it came from someone that got caught up in it.

Shut up old man, your reputation is beyond redemption.

You made stuff up, you exposed your bias, you tried to "work" the news rather than report it, you were exposed and now you are disgraced.

That is your legacy, that is how you will be remembered. Own it.

Better late than never

Il Douchey: Shut up old man, your reputation is beyond redemption.

You made stuff up, you exposed your bias, you tried to "work" the news rather than report it, you were exposed and now you are disgraced.

That is your legacy, that is how you will be remembered. Own it.

While true, and I'm no fan of Rather, he hit the nail on the head in this video.

The messenger may be wrong, but the message is correct.

good use of hero tag, good greenlight, and great speech.

nothing is harming American politics (and therefore America) more than our political news coverage.

Too bad it will be ignored like everyone else who points this out.

Journalism involves making up crap & peddling it as the truth to further your political goals. That's your frequency, Dan.

Il Douchey: Shut up old man, your reputation is beyond redemption.

You made stuff up, you exposed your bias, you tried to "work" the news rather than report it, you were exposed and now you are disgraced.

That is your legacy, that is how you will be remembered. Own it.

He is still right on this issue.

Kudos to the Rather-haters who pick on one mistake the man made by using un-checked information. Yet, as Dan points out, current so-called journalists do the same thing, and worse, often. They twist facts and even make "mistakes" that could be viewed as outright lying.

soy_bomb: Journalism Being a Republican involves making up crap & peddling it as the truth to further your political goals. That's your frequency, Dan.

Or, more cynically: Journalism Being a politician involves making up crap & peddling it as the truth to further your political goals. That's your frequency, Dan.

Ah the jealous whimpers of sorry souls who will never accomplish anything.

Did you ever stop to think that the situation he found himself in was directly caused by the current state of broadcast journalism? And that that same disaster is very likely why he is crusading against it now?

Or don't you bother with big thoughts like cause and effect?

He's right, but the real question is whether anyone is going to do anything about it.

2007- A pipeline from the Caspian Sea? Boring!

2009- Here's our headline... how will nuclear war affect this season's American Idol?

Hobodeluxe: Use of Force Against RNC Protesters "Disproportionate," Charges Amnesty International

If they were mostly Truthers I'd say it was justified. Kind perhaps compared with my treatment of them.

PoopStain: This farking idiot got paid over a million a year to stand outside during a hurricane and now he's complaining about his bosses being "corporationy"?

Do you know anything about his career?

Hobodeluxe: Welcome to the New World Order

Welcome to DeGeneration X!

Regardless of what Rather may or may not have done in his past, THIS point he is making is valid and spot on. Let's not make the logical fallacy of attacking the messenger when we should be worrying about the message.

/Worrying a lot
//More than that
///More, dammit!

The corporate entities need to clean their houses out and fire the goddamn biased "journalists." Period.

Just ignoring the problem is killing their businesses.

Crude: The corporate entities need to clean their houses out and fire the goddamn biased "journalists." Period.

Just ignoring the problem is killing their businesses.

Viewership numbers prove otherwise.

Rather's new show on HDNet is the best news show on the airwaves right now. Period.

Keep on truckin', Dan.

If digg gets press conferences at the conventions, why not fark? What's next? Duke?

/Thanks for posting that

PoopStain: I do, since I watched it implode with great curiosity. The grand old days of Dan Rather are gone. He can lament that, but he can't change it.

His coda of delving into an untrustworthy partisan was just icing on the cake. At some point people realized that journalists were people, too, and they don't deserve millions just for being on tv, nor do they deserve any trust because of their profession.

I've read that a few times now. The point you try to make seems to collapse on itself each time.

What, exactly, do you know about his career? Please include citations.

Hobodeluxe: Use of Force Against RNC Protesters "Disproportionate," Charges Amnesty International

Sure am glad that Amnesty's tireless exposure of third-world hellhole tyrannies is all finished, so now they can tackle the real monsters.

Steve Biko is spinning in his grave.

The Daily Show has been saying this years for years. Viacom should sue for illegal use of their schtick.

/i keed

Falcc: The Daily Show has been saying this years for years. Viacom should sue for illegal use of their schtick.

/i keed

We all know that the Daily Show is just a LIBERAL media outlet.

All they do is play video of people's statements out of con text.

While the message is good,
he thinks he's alerting the people to something new.

And while its good to be repeated,
so people hear it for the first time and again,
its an old story.

There has always been a battle between news integrity,
and money and politics.
Its been there forever, swinging back and forth between the extremes.

Its been here for the past decades,
it was here with William Randoph Hearst,
it was here when the Founding Fathers setup the nation...
and back further.

And I'm sure that we'll hear it again years from now and so on...
But the message it still good to repeat.

Try to tell it like it is,
resist the man and the money.

But in the end, everyone needs to pay the bills...
Its also a business.

Making it big in media these days requires you to sell your soul to the fat cats. Surely many journalists start out with good intentions, but moral flexibility has become a requirement of participating in mainstream communication.

This compromise will not end soon.

ipsofacto: Il Douchey: Shut up old man, your reputation is beyond redemption.

You made stuff up, you exposed your bias, you tried to "work" the news rather than report it, you were exposed and now you are disgraced.

That is your legacy, that is how you will be remembered. Own it.

He is still right on this issue.

I don't think so.

Even publicly supported or state sponsored media have biases. Have you listened to NPR or the BBC recently?

When it comes to news, diversity is the key, and not just a fake kind of diversity (ie., having people of different ethnicities), but real intellectual, political, and funding diversity. It doesn't matter if you have a rainbow of different colors in your news media if they all come from the same handful of journalism schools, all pretty much vote the same way, and earn their money from the same handful of megacorporations and/or media moguls.

As for Mr. Rather, lets just consider his warning to journalists "Fake, but accurate".

dittybopper: ipsofacto: Il Douchey: Shut up old man, your reputation is beyond redemption.

You made stuff up, you exposed your bias, you tried to "work" the news rather than report it, you were exposed and now you are disgraced.

That is your legacy, that is how you will be remembered. Own it.

He is still right on this issue.

I don't think so.

Even publicly supported or state sponsored media have biases. Have you listened to NPR or the BBC recently?

When it comes to news, diversity is the key, and not just a fake kind of diversity (ie., having people of different ethnicities), but real intellectual, political, and funding diversity. It doesn't matter if you have a rainbow of different colors in your news media if they all come from the same handful of journalism schools, all pretty much vote the same way, and earn their money from the same handful of megacorporations and/or media moguls.

As for Mr. Rather, lets just consider his warning to journalists "Fake, but accurate".

Give us one example of accuracy, in your opinion.

PoopStain:
And broadcast "journalism" has rarely been anything of the sort since its inception. It's a way to sell commercials. Always has been, always will be. It is, at the very best, sometimes a public service. At the very worst it is and has been platform for obnoxious idiots. Like Fark.

Not quite. Broadcast news had higher integrity during its first 20 years. It wasn't until the late 60s-mid 70s when the dollar potential was truly recognized and exploited, coupled with merging news and entertainment divisions at the big three networks.

I'm ancient enough to remember when talking points memos, celebrity press releases and general puff didn't make it onto the nightly news. Once the big three capitulated to Neilsens and ad sales departments, CNN tried to fill that vacuum and did well the first years until they too had to compete for dollars.

Now it's SOP for news depts are underfunded and rely on other sources to provide them with ready-to-broadcast content - and they're all too happy to use it.

Ed Finnerty: PoopStain: This farking idiot got paid over a million a year to stand outside during a hurricane and now he's complaining about his bosses being "corporationy"?

Do you know anything about his career?

Every decade he made a similar mistake exposing himself to be a cheap mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.

His voice sounded a little choked up and emotional toward the end.

Is he aspiring to be the next Ric Romero? It has been known for years that the media is owned by corporations and bases many stories it runs on ratings and hysteria to make money. Isn't that what fark.com tries to point out? He's not giving us any new information. Furthermore, he was taking part in unethical activities. He would probably still be taking part if he didn't get caught fabricating a story to influence a presidential election. It's like a lawyer that gets disbarred for unethical activities that decides to turn on his former colleagues who were also being unethical. Where was all this interest in legitimate news in 2004?

Nemo's Brother: Ed Finnerty: PoopStain: This farking idiot got paid over a million a year to stand outside during a hurricane and now he's complaining about his bosses being "corporationy"?

Do you know anything about his career?

Every decade he made a similar mistake exposing himself to be a cheap mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.

Citation please. One for each decade.

What a whiny little idiot. Yeah Dan, let's blame it all on ownership when you got caught red handed making up a false story to smear someone you didn't like.

Never fear though Dan. Your fellow "journalists" have learned their lesson well.

Nemo's Brother: Ed Finnerty: PoopStain: This farking idiot got paid over a million a year to stand outside during a hurricane and now he's complaining about his bosses being "corporationy"?

Do you know anything about his career?

Every decade he made a similar mistake exposing himself to be a cheap mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.

That's pretty much what I expected. Like a gag reflex.

I await PoopStain's reply.

likespictures:

Brilliant!

Goddamn Madagascar.

Well spoken. A bit overblown though.

BLAARGHGARGALBARAAGHEL

/Proportionalfontgate

Ed Finnerty: We all know that the Daily Show is just a LIBERAL media outlet.

Uh, no isn't. It's a comedy show.

People's bias toward Rather in this thread doesn't make what he said any less true. It's just too bad some people choose to dismiss it solely based on from whose mouth it emanates.