Apparently the Yes Men are behind the fake versions New York Times in Union Square today. Gawker has scanned some of the ads.
Once the traffic abates, I bet this website will have all the content. The Yes Men website also down right now.
It’s been a while since I stopped reading the news (that’s been going great, btw!) so I don’t know if I would have seen this on NY1 or whatever, but apparently this road-rage incident was a big story in Portland this summer. Reason I bring it up? Via BoingBoing I see that the accidental photographer, Rick Adams, did a helpful but all-too-short writeup about his experience dealing with the media. He notes that there should probably be some type of FAQ for when you’re in this increasingly-common type of situation, and gives some helpful advice:
First off, and remember this: make the arrangements with everybody yourself. I didn’t understand how this works and it cost me some money. You don’t need to speak to agencies that represent the networks; you can speak to them directly yourself, and if you’re in the middle of something like this where they are running your footage right now they will actually call you back. You won’t know who to call but start with your local TV station, tell them they are running your copyrighted footage and you’d like to get paid for it. Then, while you’re doing that ask for a contact number for the parent network itself so you can do the same thing there. It really is that simple.
This reminds me of the tourist this summer catching the NYPD officer attacking a bicyclist. I wonder if he knew to negotiate a deal with the media? I think this FAQ sounds like a good idea!
I know from my limited experience dealing with the media over a thing in college that they can be unbelievably persuasive in getting you to give them things for free. I’m doubting that tourist got anything for filling the space between their commericals. I hope I’m wrong!
This is the first and last post about politics ever on this blog, and it’s only to say that I’m fed up with it, and am no longer going to follow it. I stopped watching the Sunday talk shows a few years ago, and recently I unsubscribed from all my news feeds (eg Yahoo, NYTimes) and also from political blogs that follow the news, such as Atrios, ThinkProgress and AmericaBlog. The only way I’m going to read the Times is if BoingBoing, Kottke or Gawker links to it.
Why? Nothing could be more frivolous and deceptive than the traditional, international news freakshow. Things that become ‘issues’ of the day (I’m thinking of Jeremiah Wright here because that’s what’s on right now) almost always turn out to be the exact opposite of the story that’s presented as news. Of course, you have to read the story to the jump page. (Usually I find the fragment of truth that invalidates the whole thing in the third-to-last paragraph of the story.)
No traditional news organization is exempt from this. People tend to blame Fox and say that NPR or the BBC is better. Well, it’s not. A comedy show on Comedy Central better informs its audience than any of them, every single time.
So, why the announcement? Because I think you should too! Strip that negativity away and you’ll be so much happier. Read the papers if you must. But keep it to yourself, ok?
