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YouTube, Blip.tv and Sclipo

Wow, sorry I was away, but I spent all of Thursday traveling from Atlanta to San Francisco, then covering Bay to Breakers events, and finally just taking time off. Pretty fried, frankly. But the World turns on.

Each Saturday, my new television show is on. It's called The Blog Report With Zennie62 and features the use of my video blogs in a weekly 30-minute format broadcast and co-produced by CoLoursTV in Denver. The start time is 3:30 PM Pacific Time, 6:30 PM Eastern Time and the show is replayed at 11:30 PM and 2:30 PM respecfully. Then it is replayed on Sunday at 12 noon pacific and 3 PM eastern. No TV?, go to Zennie62.com.

The third installment of The Blog Report with Zennie62 features the introduction of a new documentary film made by Sierra Choi and about SF Bay Area journalist Josh Wolf. I met Josh and Sierra in 2006 when both was working for The Peralta Community College District's "Peralta TV" network in different capacities and I was trying to establish something called The Monte Poole Show. Sierra's now a segment producer for The Blog Report with Zennie62.

Josh Wolf was the longest jailed journalist in history


Wolf's story is an interesting one to say the least: he was jailed for 226 days for defying a judges order to give up a video tape he created at the scene of a crime. Josh kept the video because he believed the FBI was actually trying to determine who "subversives" were and develop a list of them and to surpress American journalism. A large number of organizations called for his release:

Tom Hayden
Committee to Protect Journalists
American Civil Liberties Union
Society of Professional Journalists
National Press Club
The Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America
National Lawyer’s Guild
Northern California Media Workers Guild
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Center for Media and Democracy
Reporters Without Borders
National Writers Union
First Amendment Project
Washington Independent Writers
National Press Photographers Association
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
League of Young Voters
Grand Jury Resistance Project
San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris
San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee
San Francisco Labor Council
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Daniel Ellsberg
California State Assemblyman Mark Leno
California State Senator Carole Migden
Steal this Wiki
COA News
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Contra Costa Times
Charles Cooper, Executive Editor, CNET News
Keene Free Press
Peter Laufer, Huffington Post

Eventually, he was released from Jail on April 3, 2007 but the case affirmed how the media is able to protect its sources in the State of California, but not from the Federal Government; that is still an issue.

Some, including the San Francisco Chronicle's Debra Saunders in one of her worst moments, argued that Wolf was not a journalist, but the appeals court in the case of Apple lawsuit against bloggers leaking product information actually protects Wolf and other bloggers because the holding was that the California Shield Law, which protects journalists from revealing their sources, also applies to "web publishers" which include bloggers.

In part as a result of Wolf's ordeal, a move to craft a new Federal Shield Law protecting bloggers was established in 2007 and a new bill was presented this year. The portion that bloggers are interested in reads:

“COVERED PERSON- The term `covered person' means a person who regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports, or publishes news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain and includes a supervisor, employer, parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such covered person.”

It looks like this bill's going to pass, even with its flaws it has 40 sponsors and does protect journalists in those states that don't have sheild laws. For example many bloggers who work for free would not be covered by this Federal Law, but video-bloggers who are YouTube Partners and are compensated by Google AdSense by generating views from their work would be.

Interestingly, Wolf was just accepted into the U.C. Berkeley journalism school. He starts this fall. If I were a professor there, I'd have an entire class based around Josh's experience.

Choi is seeking partners to help finance the documentary. You can reach her through me via email.

Save The Parkway

The second video on the show is the story of the close of the famous Parkway Theater and why its important beyond Oakland's boarders. This was done before I knew about the "Save The Parkway Effort" which is underway, but it's good to look back and see what happened. Only this time, the last day of the popular facility will be in shown in 17 million homes. Be sure to watch it on DISH Network.

The show also features my take on the story of Terrell Owens' separation from the Dallas Cowboys, and why newspaper managers don't get new media.

No. I didn't bury the lead.