GRITtv: Jamie Court: Who's Tracking You Online?
Everybody's talking about WikiLeaks and the government's right to its private conversations, but what about you and I? Jamie Court makes the point that Internet companies by and large are in the business of selling information to advertisers, and 80 percent of the public wants to have a Do Not Track registry, similar to the national Do Not Call list. Jamie joins us in studio to talk about Internet privacy issues, from Facebook to Google Buzz, email content to advertisers, and talk about why Internet privacy is a populist issue.
Email this pageGRITtv: The F Word: Solving the Irish Crisis
The financial crisis in Ireland is leading to a political crisis on the heels of a bailout and more “austerity measures.” The coalition that currently rules is falling apart, the Green Party detaching from the prime minister's Fianna Fail party, and elections loom. But just as in colonial days, the “Irish problem” is really a problem from outside. Ireland wouldn't need "help" if it hadn't been robbed by multinationals. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Aug. 11 2010
The favorite bogeyman of the Right, Social Security insolvency, is rearing its ugly head once again. Obama's deficit commission has been told that no solution is off the table, and Dean Baker notes it wouldn't be the first time that a Democratic administration went forward with plans that a Republican couldn't sell to the American people. Baker joins us via Skype to remind us once again that Social Security is solvent for many years, and that there are simple fixes for it if there are problems. He also notes that austerity is a lousy prescription for an economy suffering from a lack of spending. Yesterday we spoke about the problems with charitable giving by billionaires at the expense of paying their taxes. For many charitable givers in the United States, a bigger problem looms; laws about providing "material support" for terrorism have placed a stranglehold on where donors can send their money. Ghassan Elashi, co-founder of the Holy Land Foundation, faces a 65 year sentence for providing material support through his foundation, which was the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before it was shut down by the Bush administration in 2001. Elashi's daughter Noor, a writer and activist, joins us in studio along with Medea Benjamin of Code Pink to discuss what these cases mean for other organizations trying to help civilians in war-torn areas like Gaza. The United Nations has declared the flooding in Pakistan one of the worst disasters in the organization's history, calling for its largest disaster response effort, but it's gone largely unreported here. 14 million people have been affected, and at least 1600 killed. Funds have been slower to come in than in many recent disasters, and agencies are calling for donations to help the victims--you can find links below to donate. Finally, Laura has some thoughts on Verizon and Google's plan to disrupt Net Neutrality--and what it means for shows like GRITtv.
GRITtv: The F Word: Evil Inequality In the Works for the Web
Google's corporate motto, it's been noted, is “Don't Be Evil.” They're going to be sorry they ever said it. By siding with Verizon vs. those fighting for a free and equal Internet -- that may be exactly what they're doing. The Internet and telecom giants Verizon and Google have reportedly reached an agreement that sells out net neutrality. They make it sound like a victory for fairness -- they'll stand by equal access for everyone on the wired web. But the arrangement, not yet public and arrived at in closed door meetings between the behemoths, would enable Verizon to impose tiers and charge for quicker access over wireless devices. That's the future they're talking about.
Global Report: June 15-21: US Funded Child Soldiers and Oversees Prisons
(The show starts at 1:02.) A recent New York Times investigation has shown that a US taxpayers may be funding child soldiers in Somalia, and the Obama Administration is considering keeping prisons oversees. "The Global Report" is a weekly news show dedicated to covering news underreported by mainstream media.
GRITtv: Can You Sue The Internet?
Google has gone from being a search engine to emerging as a world power: it has been pitted against governments and, as Clay Shirky notes, has its own foreign policy. In Italy, on February 24, three Google employees were convicted--with suspended jail sentences--of violating Italy's privacy statutes in relation to a video posted on YouTube, owned by the Web giant.
Shirky rejoins us at GRITtv along with Juan Carlos de Martin, founder and co-director of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at Italy's Polytechnic University. They discuss the case, the implications for Google and YouTube, and how the Web continues to change and shape our understanding of the world.
GRITtv: Mar. 2 2010
On February 24, three Google employees were convicted--with suspended jail sentences--of violating Italy's privacy statutes in relation to a video posted on YouTube, owned by the Web giant. Clay Shirky rejoins us at GRITtv along with Juan Carlos de Martin, founder and co-director of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at Italy's Polytechnic University to discuss the case, the implications for Google and YouTube, and how the Web continues to change and shape our understanding of the world.
Continuing our coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, we bring you more footage from the Cine Institute, and Victoria Marquez, a member of the Service Employees International Union, tells her story of struggling for fair treatment in the workplace and why the U.S. needs comprehensive immigration reform now.
The owner of several downtown New York boutiques was arrested recently and faces four years in jail as well as civil lawsuits for up to $1.5 million. His crime? Not paying his employees for overtime, and paying some of them a flat rate of $340 a week for over 60 hours of work. Carolina Ferreyra was one of those employees, and when she found a flyer for the Retail Action Project, she helped to launch a protest that led to her boss's arrest. She joins us in studio with Phil Andrews of the Retail Action Project and Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, to talk about wage theft, the problems workers face across the country, and what Obama's administration is doing to fight them.
Gentrification is a problem all over the world, not just in the urban areas of the U.S. In this video from visionOntv, a group of activists in Barcelona, Spain fight back against the pressure on their neighborhood.
Finally, if Warren Buffett is afraid of bankers, why can't regular people get some protection?
GRITtv: Google Vs. China: Human Rights or Intellectual Property?
In recent weeks, the tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated in a strange place: cyberspace. Specifically, Google decided that it was no longer willing to continue censoring results on Google.cn, and may potentially shut down its operations in China. Google cited hacker attacks on human rights activists as its primary reason, but Tricia Wang, ethnographer and researcher of technology usage in low-income communities, and Alex Pasternack, editor of Motherboard.tv, note that there are plenty of other issues at play here: intellectual property, class issues within China, and more.
GRITtv: Jay Rosen: What Does New Journalism Look Like?
"Do what you do best and link to the rest," says Jay Rosen, New York University professor and one of the most prominent thinkers about journalism in the new media era. Rosen is the author of "What Are Journalists For?," blogs at PressThink, and famously does "mindcasting, not lifecasting," on Twitter. Where is journalism headed? Is "balanced" coverage really the best option or does it leave too many out in the cold? How responsible are the media for the failures of the health care debate? Rosen has some answers to all of these questions.
GRITtv: Andrea Batista Schlesinger: The Death of Why
Andrea Batista Schlesinger, author of "The Death of Why?: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy," says that the inquisitive mind is an endangered species. And contrary to what many would like us to believe, Google and the Internet are not actually engendering a more critical caste of mind. In fact, they're encouraging easy fast answers to questions that require a bit more thought. So how can we reengage with our critical faculties? Schlesinger also discusses her decision to join Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election campaign. What has she learned and what do progressives have to learn about working for change on the inside and outside.
