[free-sklyarov] campaign idea

[Seth David Schoen]

D. C. LeFevre writes:

> Hey folks:
> 
> We've been talking on Slashdot today about the fact that mainstream media 
> seems asleep at the wheel on the Sklyarov story.  Of course, mainstream 
> media are pro-DMCA and have other agendas that might keep them about 
> speaking out about this.
> 
> I have an idea.  One outlet that might be willing to talk about Sklyarov is 
> NPR's "Talk of the Nation."  Today, for instance, they are doing an hour 
> about a controversial child pornography case.  If they are willing to talk 
> about first amendment cases like that, perhaps they would be willing to 
> talk about the Sklyarov case if enough people showed interest.
> 
> Why don't we start a campaign and send them some mail?  Their email address 
> is totn at npr.org.  This might be a good way to get some talk in a big media 
> outlet.
> 
> Please reply directly to me, I am only on the Digest.

Note that NPR did a Science Friday interview on the case, which was
well-received.

I admit that I'd like some more national media coverage, but I think
the slashdot commentators are too pessimistic.  Some of the media
outlets they mentioned as "ignoring" the story have already done _two_
pieces on the case!

For example, someone said the New York Times had ignored it.  Not so:
they already ran a piece by Jenny 8. Lee and Amy Harmon; they printed
Lessig's op-ed; and Jenny Lee was back at the San Francisco protest
doing interviews in person, and may well run another story.

Someone said NPR had ignored it.  But they had that Science Friday
piece last Friday or the Friday before.  Our local NPR affiliate,
KQED-FM, was on the scene in San Francisco Monday, and has broadcast a
story.

I wondered whether the Chronicle of Higher Education had covered it.
Someone immediately showed me the article.

In almost every case where somebody's said "Hey, why hasn't news
outlet foo picked this up?  They must be in the pocket of the
copyright industries!" it's turned out that outlet foo actually did a
story several days before.

Now, I admit that I don't think this is getting coverage _in
proportion to its significance_ (for example, I recall the "China
frees scholars, now it's our turn" signs), but it's hard to find
support for the idea that newspapers or radio stations are ignoring
and suppressing the story.  I'm grateful to the many reporters who've
done nice and informative pieces.  I hope that reporters will also
read Lessig's op-ed to understand the background of the case; I'm
working at EFF today, and when reporters call up, I'm asking them t
be sure they've read that.

Planet eBook's news page has dozens of articles about the case, and
(with no disrespect to the efforts of the folks there) I'm not even
sure whether they've found the majority of the news coverage out
there.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Its really terrible when FBI arrested
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/ | hacker, who visited USA with peacefull
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF) | mission -- to share his knowledge with
     http://www.freesklyarov.org/      | american nation.  (Ilya V. Vasilyev)