Hi everyone,\r\n<\/p>
\r\nI just wanted to let you know that I just spoke with Rick Karr, \"cultural\r\ncorrespondent\" for NPR, the United States' public radio network. He wrote\r\nto Indymedia yesterday morning -- can't remember if he just wrote to\r\ngeneral@indymedia.org or to imc-editorial@indymedia.org as well -- saying\r\nhe is doing a piece on the CNN\/Palestinian footage rumor and wanted to talk\r\nwith someone at Indymedia about it. I responded saying Indymedia may not\r\nbe the best group to interview because we didn't originate the rumor nor\r\ndid any Indymedia sites put it in their features column. I also mentioned\r\nthe thing I find most interesting about this whole episode, that people\r\nwere so inclined to believe that CNN would fake Palestinian footage in the\r\nfirst place due to CNN's lack of credibility among many people in the\r\nworld, especially in times of (overt) U.S. war. He wrote back asking if\r\nsomeone from Indymedia would still be willing to be interviewed because\r\nthat was an imporatant point and he wanted to make sure it got into his\r\npiece. I'm not one who always likes to do intereviews so I e-mailed the\r\ngeneral-discussion list asking if anyone else would be interested. Only\r\nSharpie expressed interest but the deadline was too soon for me to get his\r\nphone number. So, I just did the interview. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nA few times over the last several months I and others have written to\r\nseveral Indymedia lists asking for volunteers who will be willing to field\r\ninterviews when people write to Indymedia asking to speak with someone.\r\nWhen a request comes in through imc-editorial or general@indymedia.org, if\r\nit is a non-U.S. request someone who is answering those e-mails at the\r\nmoment usually passes it along to someone from the IMC in that area -- for\r\nexample, Brazilian press inquiries go to IMC-Brazil, requests from the UK\r\ngo to IMC-UK, etc. For U.S. press requests we've been a bit more lax,\r\ninconsistently posting the request at imc-process, on imc-editorial or\r\nimc-global to see if anyone wants to answer. Since much of the discussion\r\nabout this CNN footage issue happened on imc-editorial I was surprised that\r\nno one else from imc-editorial responded to the initial request, but now I\r\ncan't find Rick Karr's e-mail to imc-editorial so there's the possibility\r\nhe just sent it to general@indymedia.org, which reaches fewer people. We\r\ndon't have a real process for deciding who is going to grant interviews\r\nwhen asked, nor do we have one e-mail list through which we can put all\r\nthose requests so they'll reach everyone who is willing to be interviewed.\r\nPlease, if you're interested in fielding interviews let people on the\r\ngeneral-discussion@indymedia.org list know, because often requests come\r\nthrough the general@indymedia.org mailbox and, especially when there's a\r\nclose deadline, finding someone who isn't on that list to paricipate isn't\r\nalways the easiest thing to do. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nAs for the interview itself, I started off by very consciously presenting\r\nmyself not as a spokesperson for Indymedia but as one of the many\r\nvolunteers who participates in the network, as I've also done the other\r\ncouple times I've been interviewed in relation to Indymedia. I explained\r\nIndymedia's open publishing system and outlined how it empowers people to\r\n\"be the media.\" We talked about why people were so inclined to believe the\r\nfootage was false and I said what I had said above, adding that people, as\r\nhuman beings, may not have wanted to believe that other human beings could\r\nbe celebrating at what happened on September 11 so they felt better to\r\nbelieve CNN had faked the footage. I also suggested that CNN's showing of\r\nthat footage again and again (and again), whether or not it came from 9-11,\r\nclearly suggested the network wanted to project that Palestinians as a\r\nwhole rejoiced when they heard Americans had died. Why did CNN broadcast\r\nonly this footage and not footage of Palestinians who mourned the human\r\ntragedy, just as they wish people around the world would mourn the deaths\r\nof their family members in their struggles against Israel? Did they go out\r\nlooking for footage of celebraing Palestinians? Even if a video crew just\r\n*happened* to be driving by a group of celebrating Palestinians on 9-11 and\r\ntook the images for purely informational purposes (something that people\r\nare questioning now that more of the footage shot on that day by that crew\r\nhas been broadcast), why did CNN not very consciously and truthfully\r\nindicate that this was the minority of Palestinians and, knowing that,\r\nstill insist on broadcasting this footage again and again? Most\r\nimportantly, why did CNN not provide any context for why anyone would\r\nrejoice at the United States' being attacked? The lack of context CNN\r\npresented for why anyone would rejoice at an attack on America, especially\r\nin the first few days after 9-11, angered and continues to anger (and\r\ncritically underinform) a lot of people. When they saw the rumor that the\r\nfootage was false, many people said, \"A-HA! I knew it!\" Anyway, those\r\nwere some of the many points I touched upon in the interview. We'll see\r\nhow it turns out. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThanks, and again, I hope the interview turned out well,\r\n<\/p>
\r\nJay\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"This email was sent to several Indymedia lists by an IMCer who was interviewed by NPR. The writer makes some important points about the entire incident and how we lie to ourselves to make the world seem like a different.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/09\/indymedia_.html","filesize":"5.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/09\/10818.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":10849,"heading":"IMC spokesperson?","article":"I'm hoping the interview went well also. It sounds like our accidental spokesperson handled himself well, considering his reticence.\r\n\r\nA lot of questions arise from this incident. \r\n\r\nPrimary for me is the question of why when we are faced with a microphone do we feel compelled to speak or to act in such a way as the sacred duty of the reporter would not be impinged. Isn't it amazing that a reporter (or someone posing as a reporter) automatically moves us to a position of complicity? Especially considering that we have no idea if the reporter will use the audio he captured, and if he does what context he might present it. Why do we have this attitude? Why is it we rarely approach such circumstances from a place of power? If we have information the reporter wants why can't we dictate the circumstances? \"Come to a meeting - talk to the collective - no, we can't produce a statement according to your deadline\".\r\n\r\nIf we believe that NPR is likely to be a good opportunity to 'spread the word' we must also be cognizant that our complicity with their methodology renders us 'mediated', while what we are more about is being direct.\r\n\r\nThen there is the ever-present question of who can speak for a collective? I am not criticizing the person who presented himself above as a member of (and representative of) the collective. I think he did a fine job. I only want to call into question the concept of allowing ourselves to be represented by the media when we know their ultimate presentation is beyond our control. If individuals want to talk with the media that would be an individual choice, and I would have nothing to say about individual choices.\r\n\r\nI am beginning to suspect that as an organization we should shy away trying to represent ourselves to the media. I know we don't have a policy on this, and I know that the issue is bound to be contentious, but it remains something we need to talk about. I repeat that, from my perspective, our complicity with mainstream media contradicts our very mission. Corporate media is not easily capable of grasping the complexity of our media model (and have every right to be alarmed by it if they did understand it - after all we call into question their presumed legitimacy!). Let the work of the IMC speak for itself and lets resist the attempts of the mainstream media to use our own sound bites to characterize us in the limited way they are so adept at. Instead when a reporter says he or she wants to do a story on the IMC we should say \"great, why don't you post it to the IMC when you are done\".\r\n","author":"Michael","parent_id":10818,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-09-27 15:37:48","modified":"2001-09-27 16:00:03","fileurl":""}]}