[free-sklyarov] campaign idea

[Nick Moffitt]

Begin Jon O . quotation:
> Seth is right, there has been quite a bit of news coverage.  I keep
> getting the feeling the media is battling itself.  They keep writing
> stories but at the same time it was the media companies that wanted
> this in the first place. It's a journalist revolt! ;)

	Okay, so here comes my little rant on the newsmedia.  IANAJ.

	Yes, the larger media conglomerates do have conflicts of
interest regarding certain news topics.  If the Ramjak corporation
owns WJM-TV News and a manufacturer of faulty infant carseats, they're
going to be reluctant to broadcast a scathing expose on themselves.

	Fortunately for us, the Mary Tyler Moore types have had a long
history of fighting for journalistic independence, and this is helped
by the fact that free spirited journalists tend to write interesting
copy.  This sells papers and ad space, for the most part.

	So aside from the extremely high-profile stories such as the
one depicted in The Insider (which, it should be noted, was a
dramatization), reporters and journalists and what-have-you tend to be
able to write on any topic the public will find interesting.

	If anything, the most likely opposition to a story would be
the *advertisers*.  If ads for the carseats were run during the WJM
expose on the things, you'd lose ad revenue and probably get some
nasty civil suits in the bargain.

	Now let's figure out why a news outlet might *ignore* a story.
Have any of you ever submitted a story to slashdot.org?  You are asked
to fill out a box with your little story.  HTML is allowed, but you
have to get it right!  The moderators see your story among hundreds of
others and are able to add a pithy comment to it and shove it off to
the front page.

	Now, if you were to e-mail it to rob malda directly, or mess
up your HTML, or write a poorly-worded description of the issue, or
even misclassify the story, they'd have no inclination to go to the
trouble of fixing it up before posting.  They see hundreds if not
thousands of submissions per day, and the amount of attention given to
each one is miniscule.

	Traditional media outlets work in a similar way.  Actually
sending someone on site to cover something is far more expensive than
building a story out of press releases.  Press releases are like the
story you type in the little slashdot box: you give a well-written
easily-digested news article with no unreasonable claims or glaring
errors, and the paper or magazine can easily transform it into column
inches.

	Now, to get on the front page of the New York Times, you'll
need much more than just a press release, but if you want to get your
story out there, it does help.

	At the protest, we had a lot of on-site reporters and
journalists.  We had TV crews, audio recordings, and people scribbling
madly onto legal pads.  These were people who had already read our
press releases and announcements, and found that there was likely more
story to tell if they just investigated a little.

	But, as Seth says, we have *not* been ignored!

-- 
"The only thing is certain: Russian petty computer hooligans are very
slovenly, while FBI agents are very persistent in hunting them." --Pravda
	01234567 <- The amazing* indent-o-meter! 
        ^	    (*: Indent-o-meter may not actually amaze.)