We Are All Journalists Now

Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

At this point it needs to be said: We are all journalists now. We all know we cannot trust the main media outlets to report the truth.

We the People of this world, in this era of internet accessibility from darn near everywhere, with our smart phones loaded with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Discord servers, have the ability to report to the world in real time what we see, whether it is a bee collecting nectar or a cop expressing blood from a human.  We have immediate upload capability to Youtube, Rumble, Vimeo, Oddysee, so we can immediately upload the videos of those events, for the world as well — if we choose not to live stream as it happens.

We all know — or should know by now — that we can not trust the police “to serve and protect” the citizenry, but we sure as hell can expect them to follow orders from our elected politicians–with all the force they choose to use.

As journalists and chroniclers of our time, we need to keep our cameras focused upon all forms of law enforcement, and every politician at all times, and upload those videos regularly.  We need to teach our governments that the surveillance state goes both ways.  How did Governor Newsom get caught mask-less at an event in violation of his own mandate?  A citizen saw it and filmed it.  This is how we take back power from our bloated bureaucracies — one video at a time.

Will the governments retaliate?  Most likely.  Should that stop us?

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
–Thomas Jefferson

Per Statista in 2019 there were 697,195 police officers in the United States (this article does not specify if that includes Federal officers.)  In comparison, the United States population for 2019 was 327,542,328 non-law enforcement citizens.  That means law enforcement is only 0.002% of the total population or 470 citizens to each police officer.  They can’t arrest 470 people videoing them at the same time.

Don’t be the person who says, “I don’t need to video this because look at all the other cameras here,” or “I don’t need to upload this because look at all the other cameras here.”  Assume that no one else will upload the event.  So what if 20 to 30 versions of the same event get posted?  That is 20 to 30 different vantage points, 20 to 30 different views that may end a brute’s career or exonerate an officer who was in the right.  We wouldn’t have known how George Floyd — among others — died, had no one videoed it or been brave enough to upload it.

Tips for budding video journalists:

• If possible, live stream the events so if your phone is confiscated the video is already up and live.
• Try to not curse during the recording if you have to explain details.  This allows local news to use the footage and not run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission.
• Stay silent — let the events speak for themselves.
• Save your comments for text in the description box, and let the video do the work.
• If things get too tense for your comfort don’t be afraid to bail–live to record another day.
• A picture is worth a thousand words and a video can be worth a life–maybe even your own.  Talking and/or trying to interact with the scene also brings attention to yourself.  Yes, we have the right, and some would say the duty, to record the police; but lets face a simple fact, law enforcement does not like it when we do.  So unless you like the taste of pepper spray, you’re best to video from a safe distance, stay quiet, and stay safe.

Writing is much the same as video for rules of safety.  Write things in your own words.  Live tweet as events happen.  Live post to Facebook, or wherever you post things.  It doesn’t matter if you passed English or not so long as the events get told!  Can you write in a foreign language?  Post in that language!  That increases the number of eyeballs that actually see the events through your eyes.

We all hear about events like the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and what is happening in Europe, and Australia right now. That information is getting out through ordinary people recording from their balconies, or in the midst of the action as it happens.

Do you intend to enter a protest as a participant or citizen journalist?  Along with your trusty smartphone you may want to invest in a bodycam as they are fairly affordable and could be useful to prove you didn’t start something if you get hauled before a judge later.  Let your lawyer handle that!  Speaking of lawyers, if you plan on going to the “action” consider finding one to represent you should things go wrong.  Having a lawyer’s card on you can in some cases keep you from being detained longer than need be.

The issues happening in the world right now with government over-reach and government over-reaction can be stopped without escalating things further if we act now, and if we expose things to the world as they happen. We can bring this peacefully to an end, but we all need to act, we all need to report. And when it comes time to elect our government officials, we all need to remember who has been there, and vote them out.  We didn’t get where we are today in an instant; we got here because of apathy and a duopoly of power convincing us that they were they only choice.  Use your social media to hold politicians accountable as well as law enforcement.  You remember an article about Sen. John Doe where he did something naughty from three years ago?  Share it.  Politicians do this to each other all the time, so why leave all the fun to them and their operatives?  We can do it too.  Politicians have turned public service into a life long career.  It is up to us to bring in new faces and new ideas and holding them accountable, preferably on video, is how we can do it.

“Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often, and for the same reasons.”
-Mark Twain