Years 2009-2012 Breningstall.com

Iowa seeks to criminalize investigative journalism on farms

A proposed law HR 589 in Iowa is the latest effort by a state legislature aimed at preventing investigative journalists from reporting on farm practices. As Cody Carlson explains in The Atlantic, "HF 589 (PDF), better known as the "Ag Gag" law, criminalizes investigative journalists and animal protection advocates who take entry-level jobs at factory farms in order to document the rampant food safety and animal welfare abuses within. In recent years, these undercover videos have spurred changes in our food system by showing consumers the disturbing truth about where most of today's meat, eggs, and dairy is produced. Undercover investigations have directly led to America's largest meat recalls, as well as to the closure of several slaughterhouses that had egregiously cruel animal handling practices. Iowa's Ag Gag law -- along with similar bills pending in other states -- illustrates just how desperate these industries are to keep this information from getting out."

As a work-around to the obvious freedom of speech problems caused by censuring public scrutiny over agriculture, safety, and public health, this latest version of the legislation would make it illegal to make a false statement on a job application in the agricultural sector. Thus, if asked the question, "Are you a journalist?", undercover reporters would be legally obliged to say yes.

In Memoriam: Barney Rosset, Grove Press Publisher

Barney Rosset, one of the most important publishers in American history, passed away Tuesday. Rosset bought Grove Press in 1951 for $3,000 and managed it for 35 years, steering the publishing house through some of the nation's key literary publications and legal trials, including Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer and Naked Lunch.

 

A short list of only some of the authors who had key works published by Grove Press: Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Samuel Beckett, Allen Ginsberg, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Malcolm X, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and  Kenzaburo Oe.

The Los Angeles Times writes, "In 1959, [Rosset] published Lady Chatterley's Lover, which had been banned by the postmaster general for promoting 'indecent and lascivious thoughts,' but in 1960 a federal appeals court found that its frank descriptions of sexual intercourse did not violate anti-pornography laws. In 1961, Rosset published Tropic of Cancer, which was blocked by more than 60 court cases in 21 states. In a landmark 1964 ruling, however, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it had 'redeeming social value' and was thus not obscene."

Rosset had first read Tropic of Cancer (which was initially published in Paris, but not in the U.S.) 21 years earlier as a freshman in college. He is quoted in Wall Street Journal: 'The district attorney said, 'Do you realize that members of the grand jury have children who are buying that book at newsstands right near their school?'' Rosset recalled. "And I looked at him and said, 'If that's true and they buy it and read it all the way through, you as parents are to be commended.'"

Chuck Brodsky: Dangerous Times

Chuck live with Steve Wickham of the Waterboys.
Barry's, Grange, Co. Sligo September 3, 2005.

From Wikipedia: Chuck Brodsky (born May 20, 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American musician and singer-songwriter currently living in Asheville, North Carolina. He is particularly known for his often humorous and political lyrics, as well as his songs about baseball, such as "The Ballad of Eddie Klepp" and "Moe Berg: The Song". On his 2004 album Color Came One Day, he took on pollution in "Seven Miles Upwind", the destruction of independent business and regional culture by multinational corporations in "Trees Falling", and the abridgement of civil liberties associated with Bush administration policies in "Dangerous Times".

 

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Stop American Censorship

Contact your Congressional representatives to let them know of your opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

Microsoft to partner with China's leading censor #Baidu

Microsoft Bing, which already has a rich history of catering to the Chinese government in Chinese language searches, has struck a deal with Baidu to assist the heavily censored China-based search engine with its English language results, the New York Times reports.

From the Times:

Google continues to be available on the mainland, though its search engine, which operates in English and Chinese, was moved last year to Hong Kong, where Beijing’s censorship rules do not apply. But lately, Google’s search engine and its e-mail service, Gmail, have become more difficult to connect to on the mainland. The company, which is based in Mountain View, California, has blamed the Chinese government for interfering with its operations.

For Microsoft, it could be an opportunity.

Chinese firewall blues

It may seem like I'm beating a dead horse but I've made it a mantra to report on individual annoying incidents of web censorship as I experience them, as a way of articulating just exactly how impossible it is to use the web as a tool for anything in China. Last night I was reading advice blogs on selecting camera lenses to photograph professional diving competition. I made the mistake of clicking on a photo blog with Blogspot as a host. What happens when you click on a Blogspot link in China? You get sent to the penalty box. Your whole internet connection is cut off for what probably only amounts to two minutes but which is an exceedingly aggravating two minutes. Seriously Net Nanny, what the fuck? I ended up closing down my wireless connection and re-opening it in order to continue surfing- using websites that those great denizens in Beijing deemed suitably safe.

Media roundtable on release of Ai Weiwei and Hu Jia

Newsweek:

With an impending European visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Ai’s release served a strategic purpose and came after weeks of intense international pressure. Both Britain and Germany had lobbied vociferously on Ai’s behalf; on the façade of the Tate Modern museum in London, huge letters spelled out “Release Ai Weiwei,” and at the recent art fair in Basel, Switzerland, visitors perused avant-garde artwork, wearing paper masks of his face. “They just had to free him,” says a European ambassador to China, requesting anonymity. Otherwise, “this would have been a trip about Ai Weiwei and nothing else.

The Independent:

The first tightening came when Chinese security forces began to "tidy" the city in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and its thousands of international visitors. Among those tidied away was Hu Jia, an Aids activist who concluded that the authorities' lack of respect for Aids patients and orphans was rooted in a disregard of human rights. He was imprisoned for fear he might embarrass the authorities during the Games.

It was pretty minor stuff. Among others arrested were people protesting at being forced from their homes for Games redevelopment. Two elderly women were given "re-education" sentences merely for requesting permission to demonstrate. In the months that followed there was low-level harassment of lawyers who acted for such victims.

But it was with the award of the Nobel prize to Liu Xiaobo last October that things moved up a gear. Beijing reacted angrily, blocking all foreign news broadcasts into China.