osan

Our esteemed and beloved media are well known for the hack-jobs they perpetrate upon those with whom they conduct interviews.

It occurs to me that there is a very simple countermeasure available to all persons who expose themselves to the risks posed by the editor: arrive at the interview venue with your own camera crew. If media representatives object, refuse the interview.

If enough people would put their egos back behind their zippers where they belong, the media would soon come to the realization that they need the interviewees more than vice versa.

Imagine showing up with, say, a 2-lens crew. Everything they record, you do as well. When they broadcast a hack, your full-length and uncut recording finds its way to the net via a number of popular media venues, available for the world to view for comparison's sake. Were this tactic to become widespread, the MSM would be faced with a choice to straighten up and cut the bullshit cherry-picker editorializing or face what could prove to be fatal erosion of credibility and, more importantly, revenue. This tactic would also provide concrete bases for litigation in the cases where misrepresentation of an interviewee's positions may result in demonstrable torts.

In this age of low cost, high quality video equipment, there is precious small excuse for high-profile persons not to show up with a small crew of their own as, shall we say, "insurance".

I feel it is time we start becoming more creatively assertive in the use of such technologies in ways that work best in the favor of our interests as free individuals. If they can use them to bring us to harm, we must use them equally for our protection. It astounds me that so many people place themselves at the mercy of scum whose nearly total absence of ethics in this age of advocacy "journalism" offers at best even odds of being represented in so much as the most marginally honest way.

Don't be a chump. Fight back. Use what they use.