Posted on 08/23/2014 12:44:20 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I had been on the ground helping Al Jazeera America** cover the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., since this all started last week. After what I saw last night, I will not be returning. The behavior and number of journalists there is so appalling, that I cannot in good conscience continue to be a part of the spectacle.
**A clarification edit: I am not a full-time employee of any Al Jazeera branch or network. I am a freelance journalist who contributes to several media platforms.
Things I’ve seen:
-Cameramen yelling at residents in public meetings for standing in way of their cameras
-Cameramen yelling at community leaders for stepping away from podium microphones to better talk to residents
-TV crews making small talk and laughing at the spot where Mike Brown was killed, as residents prayed, mourned
-A TV crew of a to-be-left-unnamed major cable network taking pieces out of a Ferguson business retaining wall to weigh down their tent
-Another major TV network renting out a gated parking lot for their one camera, not letting people in. Safely reporting the news on the other side of a tall fence.
-Journalists making the story about them
-National news correspondents glossing over the context and depth of this story, focusing instead on the sexy images of tear gas, rubber bullets, etc.
-One reporter who, last night, said he came to Ferguson as a “networking opportunity.” He later asked me to take a picture of him with Anderson Cooper.
One anecdote that stands out: as the TV cameras were doing their live shots in front of the one burnt-out building in the three-block stretch of “Ground Zero,” around the corner was a community food/goods drive. I heard one resident say: “Where are the cameras? I’m going to go see if I can find some people to film this.”
Last night a frustrated resident confronted me when he saw my camera: “Yall are down here photographing US, but who gets paid?!”
There are now hundreds of journalists from all over the world coming to Ferguson to film what has become a spectacle. I get the sense that many feel this is their career-maker. In the early days of all this, I was warmly greeted and approached by Ferguson residents. They were glad that journalists were there. The past two days, they do not even look at me and blatantly ignore me. I recognize that I am now just another journalist to them, and their frustration with us is clear. In the beginning there was a recognizable need for media presence, but this is the other extreme. They need time to work through this as a community, without the cameras.
We should all be ashamed, and I cannot do it anymore. I am thankful for my gracious editors who understand that.
**Addition: After being accused of not doing any work in Ferguson, and having never once contributed to the reporting coming out of there, I politely ask you to read what I have written: http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/s/ryan-schuessler.html
I think it’s mostly about money, not politics, over truth or morality.
Look at where we get our news and where the “liberals” get theirs. Other than talk radio, we get it from bloggers that are lucky to scratch out a living.
The other side has people like David Gregory getting a $4,000,000 bonus just for not saying anything remotely nasty about CNN and have all those other outlets funded by Soros. So most of these scum like the guy that wanted the selfie with Cooper just want to make it to the condos in Washington where they got their armed guards to keep out the little people and they can schmooze with the rich and famous. That’s not going to happen unless they follow the talking points.
Destroying the USA? Meh - that’s just collateral damage.
I doubt he knows this, but if he doesn’t FILM IT and then post it, nothing changes...it just gets IGNORED.
I guess he doesn't see the irony here.
> This young journalist is beginning to realize that, by and large, the American press is a corrupt and narcissistic bunch who care nothing for honest reporting and truth. They are helping to destroy their country..Makes one wonder what they are smoking.
Well look who owns much of the MSM - Liberal idiots like Bloomberg, Murdoch, the Saudis, Al Gore, etc...
Indeed. He recognizes the problem so there is hope for him until he gets ground down and spit out.
The highlight of the riots was watching the Al Jezzera news crew get teargassed.
Journalist is the politically correct term for Carnival Hawker!
Oh my, he has discovered shameless opportunism and hucksterism in Missouri. Time to send the cub reporter home with a bubba, blankey, and nuk-nuk.
Earlier this week during the late night streams, someone said in one section of Ferguson, after the police had ordered every to disperse, said that there were ‘about 20 protesters and 100 journalists remaining in the area.’
What, Ferguson residents are too sacred to be yelled at by anyone now?
What a delicate little flower this guy is.
“. It didn’t stop some from throwing rocks at Chris Hayes——”
—
Well good for them.
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