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Traditional Media Takes a Hit for a Free Press
I'm a bit of a rabble rouser, I'll admit to this. Although I did not attend the May 1st rallies in Los Angeles (because this city makes you oh so apathetic about anything other than traffic patterns), I am glad they happened. What surprised me was less the use of force on protesters, sadly this is not a shock anymore, but how the media was treated.
Being a troublemaker I am pretty anti-Fox News. I took a nearly obscene amount of joy in watching a Fox reporter in San Diego get punched last summer. However, in this circumstance I've got to hand it to them-- Fox's reporters literally took a beating and stood up to the atrotious treatment the media got during this protest. I understand that police, protesters, and the media need to find a way to coexist, but in my mind there is no excuse for hitting camera men or shoving reporters. And if you are going to do that, at least don't do it on film. At the risk of sounding just a little paranoid, it seems like a very bad sign when the police are willing to start hitting journalists.
If one good thing does come out of this event, it will be that the footage aired on a major network. Unlike Josh Wolf, who served 226 days in jail for refusing to turn over footage of a protest, this video aired in one of the country's largest media markets and on a network that (may be biased) but is certainly a "legit" news outlet.
