Josh Wolf Benefit this Thursday 12/7

Josh Wolf, free for now
FREE JOSH WOLF!

A night of speakers, film, spoken word, and music to benefit Josh Wolf’s legal fund

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7
7:30PM

BALAZO GALLERY
2183 Mission Street near 18th
San Francisco

SPEAKERS
MARK LENO California State Assemblyman
BRUCE BRUGMANN Publisher Bay Guardian
CHRIS DALY San Francisco Supervisor
ROSS MIRKARIMI, San Francisco Supervisor
DAVID GREENE Executive Director, First Amendment Project
JANE KIM School Board Comissioner Elect
SARAH OLSON Radio Producer and Independent Journalist

FILM PREMIERE
New short film about Josh by filmmakers
KEVIN EPPS and NJERI SIMS

PLUS SPOKEN WORD AND MUSICAL GUESTS

SPONSORED BY
The San Francisco Bay Guardian
The Free Josh Wolf Coalition
The League of Young Voters
Society of Professional Journalists NorCal Chapter
Reporters Without Borders
First Amendment Project
Youth Radio

Suggested donation $2 to $25
Cash bar available with ID
This event is ALL AGES

CONTACT
For more information and/or to participate in this event contact Andy
andy.blue(at)yahoo.com
www.joshwolf.net

JOSH WOLF is a San Francisco free-lance journalist being held for his refusal, based on journalistic principles, to turn over to a federal grand jury his news footage from a July 2005 protest. Free-press advocates from around the world have called his incarceration unjust and a grave violation of the freedom of the press. Josh is well on his way to becoming the longest-incarcerated journalist in US history. His case has prompted Reporters Without Borders to lower the United States’ ranking for press freedom nine points to 53rd in the world.

For his commitment to journalistic freedom Josh received the 2006 Journalist of the Year Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. On this occasion he was praised by Assemblyman Mark Leno who commended his “courageous dedication to protecting freedom of the press in our country.”

For more information on Josh’s case and to learn how you can help visit www.joshwolf.net

Ecobabes Save the Planet One Month at a Time

Ecobabe Lindsay Hassett

My good friend Lindsay aka Betty Biodisesel is featured on the front page of the SF Chronicle today, above the fold no less. The story? Her ecobabes calendar (she’s Miss August), a hot fundraising tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The online version of the article even has a poll, “Is the ecobabes calendar a respectable promotion for Sonoma County’s greenhouse gas reduction efforts?” Oh, the controversy!

I caught Lindsay on video explaining the ecobabes calendar in this GETV episode from the Bioneers conference last month.

Way Fucked Up


This is way disturbing and makes me grateful for the cushy life I live. What’s up with killing peaceful people in the snow? Link to it and make more people aware.

My 15 Megs

reinvent_getv.jpg

Crazy media week for me.

On Thursday night at 7pm PDT this week, I’ll be on this newfangled interactive Internet conference talk show thing called Reinventing Television with media educator freakstein Jonny Goldstein. We did a walk through tonight and it’s pretty cool. Part video conferencing, part party line, part talk show, part movie theater and much spectacle, this Phovi thing looks like a great way to get a bunch of Internet connected freaks in a virtual room together to throw media around. Irina was going to be on with me, but she had to bail due to a sheduling conflict. So it’s all me reprezentin’. Come be a pioneer and toss me some questions.

Last Sunday, Ryan and I did RU Sirius’ Neofiles show. A two parter even! Part one is up now. Violet Blue came in and did RU’s other show right after. Check it too.

And the previous Friday night, I was on Irene McGee’s old school media show on 106.9 Free FM. She has the 12-2 slot to be all Irene, all the time. Truckers and lonely stoners are known to bring the love. Podcasts of the madness are up now too.

Josh Wolf jailed for standing up for my rights

Josh Wolf

My good friend Josh Wolf was jailed yesterday by a federal judge for standing up for the right of a free press, something that is guaranteed by the First Amendment. It all started when Josh filmed a protest around the G8 summit last year and posted part of it up on his blog. The mainstream media saw this and reproduced it for their newscasts without Josh’s permission. So he sent them a bill and got paid.

Then one day the FBI knocks on Josh’s door and asks for the complete unedited version of the tape that Josh has. He refuses and is eventually subpoenaed before a federal grand jury investigating the burning of a SF police car during the protest. Josh is well within his rights as a journalist to not have to give up his source material. In fact, there is a shield law in California that guarantees this. Except that this is a federal case, and the feds don’t believe in shield laws or the First Amendment. The feds claim that since the SFPD gets some federal funding that the police car in question is federal property and it’s burning is a federal crime. This is such ridiculous bullshit I don’t know where to begin. Under normal circumstances, the local police department would and should be investigating this. Since the feds have taken on the case, the normal rules don’t apply. Josh and his lawyers believe this is a witch hunt and that the feds really couldn’t care less about the burning police car. Josh has stated that he has no footage of the burning car incident and even asked the judge to see for himself. He declined.

The bottom line is the video tape is Josh’s property. He should be under no obligation to be compelled to give up this private property. By doing so, all journalists are automatically deputized by the police to collect evidence for them. That’s not Josh’s job nor should it be.

I just donated $100 to Josh’s legal defense fund and I would encourage anyone reading this to give what they can. Josh is one of the nicest and most principled people I know. Not many people will go all the way to the mat on principle. Josh is a rare exception. Unfortunately, we need more rate exceptions as our freedoms slowly erode.

UPDATE:

  • Josh’s own blog is being updated by his mom and has the latest news on his situation
  • Free Josh Wolf blog has been setup
  • Former NY Time’s reporter Judith Miller tried to visit Josh, but was denied (video)

Testicle Festival

Testy Festy Apparently testy festies are all the rage across the heartland.

“A fresh calf testicle tastes like lobster. You never had anything like it. Bull nuts taste like shoe leather. You can have ’em.”

–Bob Zeier, 75 year old cattle rancher

GETV is big in Canada!

G4TECHTV-TORRENT04-GETV.jpg

The television show Torrent on G4techTV in Canada recently aired our Larry Lessig interview. It would have been nice to have a heads up guys so we could have told our Canadian peeps! Also, how hard is it to get our URL right?! Sheesh. Anyway, if you’re in Canada, look for GETV on Torrent episode 4 that originally aired April 27, 2006. Let us know if you see it.

House of Cosbys

House of Cosbys
I would have never have known about this hilarious parody of the world of Cosby if it hadn’t been for Bill Cosby’s lawyers’ heavy handed attempt at killing it. You know the story: Small time artist makes parody of pop culture icon. Parody gets posted to the Internet. No one really notices for months and months, until parody author or host gets nastygram from big time lawyer of pop culture icon. Parody author or host stand their ground and gets tons of media attention. The whole world now sees parody that big time lawyers tried to kill. I *heart* the Internet.