By Nathan Barton
I just received this e-mail from Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the local affiliate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and National Public Radio (NPR) and all the other “public media” that the folks over at Freedom Net Daily like to refer to as the “American State Media.” Here it is, except for pictures (I’ve stripped all the formatting out):
In a time of uncertainty, it’s up to all of us to protect what matters most.
Friends of SDPB relies on contributions from members like you to support the quality programming you enjoy each day. But today we’re not asking for your money. Instead, we need your voice!
With the call for the elimination of federal funding of Public Broadcasting, we’re counting even more heavily on loyal members like you to help protect and strengthen the future of SDPB. How? Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Sign the online petition to let your representatives know that you support public broadcasting and value the programs and services that it provides. Continue reading
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up on Friday, a number of places held their St. Patrick’s Day parades on Saturday or Sunday. As with Christmas, it appears that St. Paddy’s Day is a political football. The news was filled with stories about who could (and couldn’t) march in parades in various cities, and about cities where it didn’t seem to matter. And how other groups turned this “allow” or “not allow” into excuses to beat their own drums and push their own agendas – their own political agendas.
Is this aggression? Do we need government to protect us from this?
By Nathan Barton
A recent story states that a Dallas-area media reporter-writer has gotten the FBI to arrest a man in Maryland for sending him a tweet that triggered a epileptic seizure, which was a known hazard for the journalist. The Dallas News reports that Eichenwald’s attorney compared the incident to mailing a bomb or an envelope with anthrax spores to someone. The federal charges are “cyberstalking.”
Based on the reports of evidence supposedly gathered from the accused stalker’s on-line records, it appears to be an actual attempt to do harm to the Dallas reporter/commentator. Eichenwald claims that forty people sent him strobes after they discovered that strobe lights could trigger seizures.
Knowing very little about this, I don’t know whether or not you have to open a tweet in order to see something that clearly is more than a few words (the infamous 140-character with spaces protocol). Can you send videos? A still photo could not (as far as I know) produce a strobe effect. (Apparently you CAN send videos, according to CNN – if you believe CNN.) But I suspect that you have to turn on the video when you receive it. Continue reading →