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Create: For What It’s Worth Episode 039
Comments 10
You might check out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0YvoAYGgdOfySQSLcxtu1w
Look at the videos on what’s happening in Portland.
This Beaux guy talks good sense about how the Feds aren’t’ following their own guidance. There is an actual manual the government drew up on how to handle these types of events. Very educational.
Author
Jim,
I spoke to 80-year-olds who are now driving to protest, for the first time in their life. This will blow up in Trump’s face. He will, of course, deny everything and they will spin it but it’s happening already.
Those Fed teams should scare everyone. They won’t. This is going to be a weird tangent based off the ending. I suck at email. I went for a long time not really having to use it. Now I have to get better at it. A lot better. It’s an overwhelming avalanche of crap that gets sent to all of us in a day. Any Shifter readers have a very simple and effective email approach?
Author
Scott,
Burn your computer? I think the Fed scene will blow up on them. When you rile the public and wake the masses of people who have been peaceful until now, it could get weird.
I think and hope you’re right. You just can’t have excessively militarized vaguely identified “officer”s snatching and grabbing people. I’m not at all trying to pull a whataboutism, but I hope for an end to the violence across the board.
Author
Scott,
I’ve seen the three-day detainment with no charges thing happen for several decades, but the snatch and grab are REALLY going to blow up in their face, especially if Barr is booted out. He’s got to start wondering about being prosecuted if Trump loses.
So the latest thing is the protesters have an ally called “leafblower-guys” they form a wall with leaf blowers and blow the tear gas back onto the feds….ingenious.
Author
Jim,
Kinda smart. No idea how well it works. But that gas is no joke. I’ve been maced too and it’s no fun. But it was at a concert so no protest.
Dan, great podcast as usual. I’m curious what your further opinions are on some of the topics surrounding journalism today.
First, the recent calls by online communities and some protest groups for the blurring of faces in photography of these protests. This is due to the way state authorities have used surveillance technology to identify and punish protesters in places like the US, the UK, and China. Most of these groups cite the violent deaths of Ferguson activists after photographs of them became widely publicized. From what I have seen from working photojournalists, most vehemently disagree with these calls. I also disagree, to some extent, but I also think what we have seen in Ferguson and Hong Kong should give people pause as to what new ethical considerations they might consider given the rise of state surveillance.
Second, I’m curious what you think about objectivity in photojournalism vs. documentary work. I don’t have any training in journalism, I’m currently studying cinematography in college. Before that, I got a degree studying philosophy in the UK. Since school shut down because of COVID, I rediscovered my interest in photography, and part of that interest has been in long-form documentary photography. I know that it’s incredibly important to get both sides of the story in order to tell the full story, but I’m curious about what role objectivity plays in documentary work. Of course there is a commitment to telling the truth of what happened, but what if the truth has what would be considered to be a political lean even if it doesn’t? For example, you told a story about how HPD ran down protesters with clubs along with you and another photographer, and how the other photographer got angry with a TV reporter for just taking the PIO’s account of the story. I guess I’m curious if you would approach that story differently if you were doing documentary work at that time, as opposed to photojournalism.
Author
Hey Daniel,
I can’t imagine starting down the road of blurring images. And then what? What’s next? Taking people out of images? They why both taking them? And you don’t think the state has enough of their own surveillance to get their sinister job done? I do. I think they have plenty. And how about the phones in protestor’s pockets. I am no fan of the state violating civil liberties and rights, which they are doing without question, but as far as the photographs go it is the job of the photographer to record, not play God. Objectivity is important but it’s layered, flawed in some ways, and based on all kinds of history, bias, environment. You try. When you are working in a scene like you mentioned there is no time to think about anything other than making the best photographs you can. By the time that even occurred I had already seen LAPD violate so many rights, laws and liberties, I knew what there goals were. They were there to hurt people, bust heads, practice riot control techniques, and get away with whatever they wanted. This was not my first time around the LAPD, and during that event they were BAD from the moment it started. But that really wasn’t my concern. I was there to record everything around me.