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GRITtv: Dec. 14, 2010
This weekend, the Personal Democracy Forum convened a symposium on WikiLeaks and the Internet. GRITtv was there as well, and today we bring you excerpts from that event, with journalists, academics, activists, and others talking about the impact of the leaks site on our political and technological systems."The sources are voting with their leaks," notes Jay Rosen of New York University's school of journalism. If the watchdog press was doing its job, wouldn't leakers be going to mainstream news outlets like the New York Times and the Guardian directly, instead of to WikiLeaks first? Meanwhile, Emily Bell, formerly of the Guardian and now at Columbia University's journalism school, says that whether we like it or not, WikiLeaks is the new face of journalism."We do not have the Internet we think we have," says Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed. What we think of as a free and open Web is actually highly controlled by corporations and cash flow. We saw one example of this when WikiLeaks found itself without server space or fundraising ability when Internet service providers, including Amazon.com, cancelled their services and PayPal and MasterCard and Visa refused to process their transactions.And what can we do about that Internet? CUNY professor Jeff Jarvis proposes one solution: an Internet bill of rights.While we talk about the consequences for journalism and the Internet from the WikiLeaks releases, it's important not to forget what's actually in the cables that are causing a stir. Former British diplomat Carne Ross discusses the contents of the cables and what they mean for those watching--and those mentioned therein.Then, documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson discusses government secrecy and why it's become a problem, reminding us all of the national security letters enabled by the PATRIOT Act and still being used under the Obama administration."The breakdown of trust in all institutions--political, financial, media--is at the center of what we're all dealing with," Arianna Huffington notes the connection between the failures of all of our major institutions and the rise of WikiLeaks as an alternative to traditional news. When the traditional media is too close to the political and financial elites they are supposed to cover, who do we turn to for the truth?Finally, Laura wraps up the conversation--while we focus on DDoS attacks and the Internet, let's not forget the people being hurt by the events disclosed by WikiLeaks.
Email this pageGRITtv: Jan. 27, 2010
Obama's preparing for his first State of the Union speech, and we're wondering if once again he's going to try to be all things to all people. After all, on the campaign trail he dismissed talk of a spending freeze, only to adopt that language a year into his administration, and with the economic team he's still using, he's starting to remind us of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton--who may have slashed the deficit, but did so on the back of his "welfare reform. We talk about Obama's choices for the economy and the path we hope he'll take now with Kai Wright of The Nation and The Root, Jeff Madrick, author of "The Case for Big Government," and Lynn Parramore of the New Deal 2.0. Cornel West, Princeton professor and author of "Democracy Matters," recorded a video message for President Obama on the eve of his first State of the Union address, asking him to recommit to concern for poor and working people. Some of the students from the Ciné Institute, who shot footage we've been airing from Haiti over the last couple of weeks, tell their personal stories from the earthquake. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken leader in the Senate on everything from the fight for single-payer health care reform to blocking Fed chair Ben Bernanke's reappointment.
