Blogs

You can file this story in a number of different categories: the inability of many New York politicians to grasp the nature of blogs, the cozy way in which political machines do business, the heavy-handed means by which these same machines preserve their power, and lastly, the perils of hosting a forum where anyone can speak out above stuff.

And by stuff, I mean "things people in positions of power would prefer not be talked about".

Per Room 8, that site was served with a criminal subpoena, coupled with a gag order, demanding the release of logs pertaining to a single anonymous blogger on the site. The subpoena was issued in January by the Bronx District Attorney, who was one of the subjects of the posts of the anonymous blogger; you can deduce from the fact that a subpoena was issued that these posts were not in the nature of praise. Unfortunately, the anonymous poster in question deleted all of his entries, but some of them are cached here (.pdf). As an aside, CultureKitchen Media, the publishing entity of this site and others, keeps a lawyer on retainer as a precaution against precisely this scenario.

Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar, the publishers of Room 8, decided to fight the subpoena with the help of a public-interest law firm, and filed papers in state court demanding it be withdrawn.

So we chose to fight the subpoena, and were lucky to be referred – by our friend Orthomom, whom he’d represented – to a talented, dynamic lawyer at the Public Citizen Litigation Group, Paul Alan Levy, a national expert on online free speech. (Support his work here.) He and our smart, thorough, generous, and knowledgeable local counsel – Charlie Spada and Deepa Rajan of Lankler, Siffert, & Wohl – first determined that the Bronx DA was, in fact, seeking the information. Then, in May, they filed a motion to quash the subpoena in state court. (You can read the legal paperwork here.)

Two months later, after we asked the judge to move on the case, the DA withdrew his subpoena. They withdrew the threat of prosecution for speaking about it only after we threatened to sue them in federal court. We’re thrilled by the outcome, and grateful to our lawyers.

With the immediate legal peril removed and the gag order lifted, it's time to take a look at what actually happened here. The outlines of that are damning. An anonymous poster made comments and posted diaries on a blog that were critical of the bi-partisan Bronx machine, including of the local District Attorney, one Robert Johnson. Shortly thereafter, a Grand Jury empaneled by the same D.A. issued a criminal subpoena demanding details captured by the site in an attempt to identify this poster. Subsequently, the poster - his handle is "Republican Dissident" - or someone presumably acting on his behalf deleted the diaries in question.

The New York Times discusses some of the underlying constitutional issues here.

Lawsuits over information posted online are usually civil, not criminal — that is, they are filed by private citizens or companies trying to keep something off the Web. Courts have developed ways to evaluate the claims, often using tests to balance the First Amendment’s protections of speech against the harm caused by whatever someone wrote or said.[...]

But there are fewer precedents explaining how courts should evaluate criminal subpoenas, according to legal experts. Perhaps that is because prosecutors are more cautious about the risk of violating the First Amendment and so issue fewer criminal subpoenas, or because the subpoenas themselves carry language prohibiting disclosure of their terms.

“In the criminal context it’s trickier because it’s the government asking for stuff, and I think it’s going to be harder to fashion a rule, especially when the government is not exactly willing to part with the reasons” for requesting the information in the first place, said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard.

Without knowing the motives of prosecutors, he continued, judges may be hard-pressed to balance their needs against the importance of free speech.

The core of First Amendment jurisprudence is the concept of a chilling effect on Free Speech; broadly, the government may not take certain actions that might intimidate a citizen from exercising his or her right to speak on whatever he or she may choose. There are obviously restrictions to the general principle, including for libel, obscenity, national security, trade secrets, and the like. What was at stake in this case, however, wasn't any of these concerns; it seems, rather, like an attempt to promote the job security of various elected officials, including the issuer of the subpoena, the elected District Attorney himself.

In short, this looks entirely too much like an abuse of power and of judicial process in the furtherance of strictly political goals. Of course, there may be perfectly reasonable justifications for the subpoena, reasons that outweigh the chilling effect.

We could learn about those reasons by means of an independent investigation. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has oversight of the District Attorneys, would be the right man to talk to about that.

So Kos uses his blog, just like Michelle Malkin, to parachute on the AP controversy and call himself a hero. In the post not only does he quote an AP article (something I had done earlier that day for fisking purposes), but proceeds to dump on both Rogers Cadenhead, Bob Cox and Ron Coleman for having the temerity to talk with the AP about guidelines :

"The dumbasses at the Media Bloggers Association, of course, are walking right into that meeting because they crave nothing more than creating the impression that they, you know, represent bloggers (they don't)."

This, mind you, after the fact that Rogers had asked for those guidelines. Here's the back story :

Yesterday was intense day that I think was made worse by an article written by Scott Hansell over at The New York Times. Not only did he describe bloggers as "free wheeling", but Hansell made it look like the boycott started by netroots bloggers that spread through the blogosphere was going to be over once the Associated Press had discussions "with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association" that would produce "guidelines" to impose on bloggers.

We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said the company was going to meet with representatives of the Media Bloggers Association, a trade group, and others. He said he hopes that these discussions can all occur this week so that guidelines can be released soon.

Still, Mr. Kennedy said that the organization has not withdrawn its request that Drudge Retort remove the seven items. And he said that he still believes that it is more appropriate for blogs to use short summaries of A.P. articles rather than direct quotations, even short ones.

“Cutting and pasting a lot of content into a blog is not what we want to see,” he said. “It is more consistent with the spirit of the Internet to link to content so people can read the whole thing in context.”

Even if The A.P. sets standards, bloggers could choose to use more content than its standards permit, and then The A.P. would have to decide whether to take legal action against them.

The last paragraph is not only the other (after the free wheeling adjective) offending point of this article. It gets picked up by none other than The Associate Press, which goes on to "report" (and here I am breaking to boycott in order to fisk them)

NEW YORK - The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers' group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

Jim Kennedy, the AP's director of strategic planning, said Monday that he planned to meet Thursday with Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, as part of an effort to create standards for online use of AP stories by bloggers that would protect AP content without discouraging bloggers from legitimately quoting from it.

The meeting comes after AP sent a legal notice last week to Rogers Cadenhead, the author of a blog called the Drudge Retort, a news community site whose name is a parody of the prominent blog the Drudge Report.

The notice called for the blog to remove several postings that AP believed was an improper use of its stories. Other bloggers subsequently lambasted AP for going after a small blogger whom they thought appeared to be engaging in a legally permissible and widely practiced activity protected under "fair use" provisions of copyright law.

In response, the AP indicated it would seek to create guidelines, though even that idea triggered further protests. Michael Arrington wrote on his TechCrunch blog Monday that AP "doesn't get to make its own rules about how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows."
FULL ARTICLE AND SOURCE

It is outrageous that the AP, with the help of one of it's members (The New York Times), is spinning this Thursday as some sort of workshop that they will use, with the help of the Media Bloggers Association, to tell bloggers what is Fair Use.

And it is what I was twittering about with Jay Rosen last night. Jay and I reckoned there was what it seemed a "diffusing" element to the way the news were being report from Hansell down. He picked up on it as "the journalists' attempt to calm things down". I described as "there's an interesting diffusing dynamic going on, starting @ NYT" that had been preceded by the following twitts :

blogdiva: @jayrosen_nyu what a lot of your media peeps fail to mention is that no matter what AP says about use of their content there'll be a boycott
about 10 hours later · Reply · View Tweet

blogdiva: @jayrosen_nyu the boycott is not going to end after Ap meets the MBA because the issue here is that they don't get to say what is fair use
less than a minute later · Reply · View Tweet

It wasn't until after I spoke with Robert Cox that it hit me : Yes, indeed, people are reading these as "appeasement" quotes from AP. It does look like the article are meant to diffuse the issue and they're doing so by using Robert Cox's meeting as part of their damage control.

We will deal here with the first part of the discussion which is about Rogers' C&D, the agreement he brokered with the AP and the Thursday meeting. The second part, which is about the reorganization of the Media Bloggers Association and how to become a member will be posted separately.

THE UNAPOLOGETIC MEXICAN blog was linked and mentioned yesterday in a Chicago Tribune article. I felt the need to respond to the article.

Excerpt:

What kind of American is this who wants to ride the pile and let others suffocate beneath?

What kind of Americans are these that bubble over with corny conforming and empty joy as they hang cheap Walmart flags thinking it marks them as patriotic—all while they spread Fear of Other sentiment, and lies that divide the different peoples in our nation? In what kind of united state do they exist?

—Humanists VS Nativists

Read the full blog here. And as always, I encourage all those dedicated to Human Rights for All to sign up and join our effort while you are there.

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican.

I got our letter late last night saying that we finally got credentialed for the 2008 DNCC in Denver. It's a convention that promises to be historic and I want to be there front and center.

You can read the press release and check out the whole list of bloggers at the DNCC's blog.

UNFORTUNATELY the DNCC messed up when they went ahead and decided to pick a blog in New York that not only is not only NOT from the grassroots, but that is owned by people working in corporate media.

It's the reason why I got interviewed by Wired.com on the matter :

"What's amazing is that we've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local candidates along with the other state blogs," says Liza Sabater, publisher of The Daily Gotham, one of the New York state blogs that got the cold shoulder from the DNC officials. "Why would you give (the credentials) to a blog ... owned by a journalist? You're supposed to be supporting independent bootstrapped bloggers, not people who are coming in with influence and access. You're supposed to be giving it to people who are helping you to get candidates elected."

Kenneth Cole on blogging :
So why have I jumped on the blogosphere bandwagon? Well, throughout most of my adult life, I have been a reasonably successful, designer, businessman, parent, and philanthropist but I've always been a frustrated activist. This venting arena is the perfect venue for personal expression and for encouraging genuine change (not to mention taking some of the pressure off of my pharmacologist). Over the last 25 years, through my Company and personal pursuits, I've attempted to be topical and relevant to our ever-changing society and raise social awareness, but the fact that you're reading this is proof of how the world is changing. I realize that my monologist approach of the past is as appropriate as wearing socks with sandals - today's must-have is dialog. Sure, I can always help you with what you wear but now you can help us all be more aware.

I am a huge fan of Kenneth. First because I am a shoe whore and I LOOOOOOOVE his style, especially his boots. I used to have a pair of boots of his that I basically wore down to the bone. They just felt like butter and I haven't been able to find a pair like that, although I might actually go out and buy this pair to wear with jeans. Although, OMG, I am totally feeling these, these, these and these as well.

As I said, if there are shoes involved, I am there. And don't get me started with the handbags ... yes, yes, I know ... the truth is, I am really shallow deep down inside.

Yet it's the company's history of ad campaigns that totally rocks my world. As with the Benneton fashion house, Kenneth Cole the fashion designer and company has never shied away from voicing their politics. And grock knows we need that in a realm of culture and society not necessarily oozing with consciousness raising and committed activism.

Who can forget, for example, the "We All Have AIDS Campaign"? How about the infamous black and white posters that just stopped you on their tracks with slogans like : The Homeless Got What They Deserve. And, of course, there's the t-shirts. I am totally feeling this one.

So when I received an email from David Hershkovits, one of the publishers of Paper Magazine asking me if I'd be interested to blog for KC, I was more than flattered. Smelling salts and an EKG were involved in my efforts to say yes.

I have to give a huge shout out to Ron Mwangaguhunga of The Corsair blog fame for this opportunity. We've had blog crushes on each other since forever and it was he who recommended to David to work with his team. The other team is composed by the fine people of Electronic Artists, the company that manages the blog.

So without further ado, let me give you a looky of one of my posts (featured on the front page of the blog).

We had an incredibly busy year in 2007. We saw Lorraine leave us to focus on writing a book. JJ also moved on to focus more on Cooking a Snook.

Yet we have seen other amazing writing join us in our daily cooking of tasty dissent : Nez, Kyle, Moiv, Winter Rabbit, Xicano Power, Katie Halper, Man Eegee, Duke.

Can't wait to see what 2008 has in store for us all.

Without further ado, here's the Top 10 post of 2007 :

SOME OF MY regular readers (I do not, at this point, necessarily refer to the bran-eating amongst us, though they are a well-stirred crew, I'm sure) remember the day back in August I casually (you should have seen me, I was sipping a mint julep as I typed) posted on the MTV Choose or Lose '08 Vlogger competition. Others came to this ongoing Chronicle of Nezua when I created a short video auditioning to represent Oregon for the 2008 Presidential Media Hellfest Cycle (that is the proper name, qué no?). And still others joined our Videolicious adventure when I was named one of the three finalists for my state.

Well, I'm sure you can tell I am not winding up this big delivery to announce that I lost! So here is the day I say ¡Órale vatos! for I am now officially operating as the Oregon Street Team Vlogging Citizen Journalist Beauty Queen. Or will be from January 7 to mid-November of '08, at which point I will accept the inevitable invitation to model the next iteration of the iPhone. Anyway, all blushing and preening aside, I am very excited about the larger platform and greater exposure, and I plan to use it to bring as many gorgeous pixels to as many computer and television screens as I can, perhaps sandwiching a few factoids in there as well. Please see me as your personal man on the inside. Of Oregon, too. And who will be sending moss-scented missives out through the mighty mouth of MTV Vloggerland. In fact, if you live in Oregon and have local news, please get in touch. (And Nike, can't you see my face on a sneaker, come on! WRITE MUH PEEPLES! We'll call it the "Sweatshop Stomper," no? We can make it out of hemp. COME BACK!!!)

ACCESS WASHINGTON: TRACKING THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT MOVEMENT
FROM GRASSROOTS TO ONLINE

WHAT: New America Media conference call with Washington experts to track immigration legislation. This week’s call will look at how anti-immigrant movement has been organizing online as well as the grassroots and how they have been accessing media. From national organizations like FAIR to blogsphere how effective has the anti-immigrant been using new media and getting their message across? What are they doing to put immigration in the hot seat ahead of the caucuses in Iowa? Which are the best-known blogs? Are immigrant rights organizations able to fight back? Who's who in the anti-immigrant movement?

WHO: Participants will include

Henry Fernandez, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center
Liza Sabater, Blogpreneur, CultureKitchen and The DailyGotham
Devin Burghart, Director of Building Democracy, Center for New Community

WHEN: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 10:30 AM PST (1:30PM EST)

RSVP: All ethnic media are invited to participate in the call though space on the call is limited. The call-in number is 1- (866) 244-4629 . The conference ID is 1180231 . For any questions or further information please contact Sandip Roy at sroy@newamericamedia.org or 415-503-4170.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: NAM offers this service to ethnic media across the country. The fee to subscribe is your agreement to send us clippings or links to any articles you produce based on the call. Your stories help NAM sustain the program through foundation support. Please send clippings or links to Sandip Roy at sroy@newamericamedia.org or 415-503-4170.

Yeah! Bejata is back!

I first wrote about Bejata back in 2006 but Bernard is back from a blog hiatus, so it's time for an update.

Bernard has one of the most corageous, provocative yet heart-warming series written on any blog, Black Gay Men at Midlife.

If it is not easy being a gay black man in America, it can be twice as hard for those reaching middle age. Bernie with this series seeks to expose those stories but what he also does is to expose the misconceptions, hypocrisies and ageism that exist within the black gay community and use that opportunity to start a dialogue about "what's next".

Check out the whole series. Another favorite? His sports archives. You're going to have a hell of a blog ride.