free speech at Brave New Films

No Political Speech Allowed

2008-10-08T02:49:42Z

Bush-connected ClearChannel radio has a near strangle hold on radio programming and allows only pro-administration programming. Opposing views in songs or speech are not allowed.

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Jesse Ventura Slams Parties on Civil Liberties

2008-09-29T18:47:01Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura accuses both Republicans and Democrats of failing to adequately protect civil liberties. This program was recorded as a part of Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty: Rally for the Republic event, in Minneapolis, MN, on September 2, 2008.

FORA.tv coverage of the RNC: fora.tv

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Former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura gives an energizing speech at Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty Rally in Minneapolis, MN.

Jesse Ventura, also known as "The Body", "The Star", and "The Governing Body", is an American politician, retired professional wrestler, Navy UDT veteran, actor, and former radio and television talk show host. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. He is also a former co-holder of the AWA World tag team title with Adrian Adonis.

In the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running as an Independent and member of the Reform Party, he was elected the 38th Governor of Minnesota and served from January 4, 1999 to January 6, 2003 without seeking a second term.

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Medea Benjamin & Jodie Evans Disrupt Sarah Palin

2008-10-08T02:41:38Z

At the RNC in Minnesota, CODEPINK cofounders, Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans disrupted Sarah Palin's speech, shouting, "We want a PEACE vice president." They were ejected BUT NOT ARRESTED!!

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Anti-War Protesters Have Every Reason to Yell "Fuck FOX News!"

2008-09-06T05:56:08Z

The DNC is barely under way in Denver, but protesters are already making themselves heard. Their message: "Fuck corporate media!" and "Fuck FOX News!"

That's the response FOX's Griff Jenkins receives when he throws himself into a swarm of marching anti-war protesters. Jenkins plays incredulous well in this clip, asking over and over again why the protesters don't believe in freedom of speech—the irony of ironies, considering these protesters are exercising their first amendment rights with every step they take.

As Jenkins is drowned out by a "Fuck FOX News!" chorus and disappears among a sea of middle fingers flipped at the camera, he cries out, "That's just not necessary." Au contraire, Mr. Jenkins. These calls are entirely necessary, considering FOX has served as the propaganda arm of the Bush administration for the last eight years.

FOX has been Bush's biggest cheerleader in his war with Iraq. FOX joined the corporate media in drumming up support for the war, preying on a vulnerable nation by drawing the false connection between Iraq and 9/11 and touting the administration's so-called "evidence" of WMDs. Even as other corporate outlets realized their awful mistake when evidence proved the administration had no justification to go into Iraq, FOX offered no mea culpa. Instead, the network continued to pretend the war was succeeding, when the reality was it had become a brutal quagmire that continues to this day. But FOX didn't stop with Iraq. Oh, no. For more than a year now, the network has been war-whooping over Iran as well.

FOX is guilty of war- and fearmongering, spreading the administration's lies at every turn, and smearing those who try to set the record straight. So "Fuck FOX News?" I'd say these anti-war protesters get the message just right.

UPDATE: Think Progress notes that FOX sent Griff Jenkins out to that DNC protest specifically "to cause trouble."

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Is Free Speech in Jeopardy at the Democratic Convention?

2008-08-30T10:52:07Z

More at www.theuptake.org.

After the site and interior of the secret detention center in Denver, developed in anticipation of the DNC, was exposed, the Sheriff's Office decided they may as well give the media a tour to reassure public sentiment. Undersheriff Bill Lovingier showed TV, newspaper, radio, and new media around the facility, walking through the process a detainee would face.

One change made to the facility because of the media coverage and resulting community outrage is the removal of razor wire on the interior holding pens.

Lovingier explains the change and why the extra security is needed within the facility not just to prevent people from escaping, but also to prevent protest and counter-protest groups from clashing violently while being held.

The ACLU has raised a concern about the process, saying Colorado law requires lawyers to meet with their clients within the detention center. Lovingier sidestepped a question about this, saying only "you're correct, that is what the ACLU has said."

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China Squashes Olympic Protests

2008-09-03T18:57:42Z

Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com

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The Wrongful Imprisonment of an Activist Indian Filmmaker

2008-08-09T23:46:01Z

Three months ago, Indian authorities arrested Ajay TG, the 35-year-old activist filmmaker who created films like this one entitled Aisa Kyon? (or Why?), on trumped up charges. The police held Ajay prisoner in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh, claiming he had violated the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA). This anti-terrorism law, which went into effect in 2006 and bears a resemblance to our country's Patriot Act, criminalized political beliefs and associating with "banned" organizations. But what exactly was Ajay's crime?

Ajay inadvertently carried a Swiss Army pocket knife in his backpack when he attended the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen, a well-known doctor and social worker in Chattisgargh. Police on security detail apprehended Ajay and campaigned in the media that he was a terrorist threat. They further claimed Ajay had made "unlawful contact" with a Maoist organization, alleging Ajay wrote to the group asking them to return his camera after they robbed him years before.

Both the knife and the letter appear to have been red herrings. They provided Indian police with more concrete grounds to arrest Ajay when what they were really concerned with was his affiliation with Dr. Sen. Prior to his arrest, Ajay had been working on a documentary called
Anjam, which portrayed Dr. Sen's life, work, and subsequent arrest. Police had arrested Dr. Sen in May 2007 under suspicion of being a Naxalite, or armed communist.

Dr. Sen had worked for decades treating the adivasis, a term used to describe "the first people" or poor indigenous tribes of India. He was the Chattisgarh general secretary of the India's human rights organization the People's Union for Civil Liberties (of which Ajay was also a member), but was accused of being linked to members of a banned Maoist group, primarily because Dr. Sen had publicly criticized the State's creation of armed vigilante groups to combat Maoists. What Dr. Sen had actually done was call attention to the police involvement in the killings of 12 adivasis earlier that year and had opposed a State-sponsored vigilante army that had resulted in the killings of many innocents.

Pat Robertson Claims We're Trying to Censor Him

2008-10-08T02:30:33Z

http://www.rightwingwatch.org

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Episode 30: What price free speech? (7/10/08)

2008-10-08T02:20:24Z

You want some free speech,eh? Fine, but it'll cost ya.

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RNC Protesters Take Their Fight to Court

2008-08-27T00:23:19Z

The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War filed an injunction against the City of St. Paul in federal court over the time and route of their Sept 1 march. We hear some arguments from both sides, and from a couple of nuns who just want to be heard, not hidden away.

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Pealitical Protest

2008-08-27T00:23:19Z

This was the shot from The UpTake's camera vantage as a group, complete with costumes and signs, took their message to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Plaza, where supporters were lining up for a town hall meeting with John McCain.

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McCain: Speech 05/27/08

2008-06-30T23:38:34Z

John McCain
Speech
Denver, CO

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: "So many hands and the hands of countries large and small. Stable and unstable."

[McCain is interrupted a fourth time by protesters]

PROTESTERS: "End this war. End this War. End this War."

[Protesters are prevented from raising their banner and are removed}

MCCAIN: "You know it's not too important, but I have town hall meetings all the time. I'll be having one tomorrow were people are allowed to come and state their views and we exchange them. And one thing we don't do is interfere with other peoples right to free speech, but that doesn't seem to be the case with these people. But anyway, if I could get back to Jack Kennedy. "

LABEL: JM CO 5-27 (GR#85) UABC - Clip B

To download a high res version of this clip, VISIT: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/f094c3y808
To download the full campaign event, VISIT: https://issuealliance.box.net/shared/ahhkrm9wko

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Tolerance for Islamic Radicalism

2008-07-09T11:08:18Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Author and former Dutch Parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that political tolerance of radical Islam threatens the security of liberal, secular values in the Netherlands and other European countries.

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Seeking a New Global Order: The Viability of Hope featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali in conversation with David A. Harris.

Former Dutch Member of Parliament and author of Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a conversation with American Jewish Committee Executive Director David A. Harris about her life's journey from being raised a devout Muslim to leaving her religion and seeking asylum in the Netherlands.

They cover issues of tolerance, freedom of expression, and how Muslim immigrants integrate into western culture.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an outspoken defender of women's rights in Islamic societies, Ms. Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She escaped an arranged marriage by immigrating to the Netherlands in 1992, and served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003 to 2006.

In parliament, she worked on furthering the integration of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society, and on defending the rights of women in Dutch muslim society. In 2004, together with director Theo van Gogh, she made Submission, a film about the oppression of women in conservative Islamic cultures.

David Harris is executive director of the American Jewish Committee, a leading global advocacy organization. Harris is a widely recognized and quoted specialist on international affairs. The author of six books, Harris has written scores of articles in leading newspapers and magazines, has a weekly commentary on the CBS radio network, and is a frequent contributor to the Jerusalem Post blog. He has been honored by the Bulgarian, French, German, Latvian and Polish governments.

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Political Correctness - A God That Failed?

2008-06-30T18:41:03Z

Complete vide foratvo at: fora.tv

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses problems he believes have risen from the advent of political correctness in the university.

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Victor Davis Hanson discusses The Gods that Failed: Where the University Went Wrong.

This event was part of the Hoover Institution's Spring Retreat 2008.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor emeritus at California University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.
He was a full-time farmer before joining CSU Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991, he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992-93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991-92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002).

He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002-3). He received the Manhattan Institute's Wriston Lectureship in 2004, and the 2006 Nimitz Lectureship in Military History at UC Berkeley in 2006.

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Supporting Free Speech at Universities - Dennis Hayes

2008-06-30T12:43:15Z

Complete video at: fora.tv

Dennis Hayes defends his belief that all views, no matter how offensive or irrational, should be allowed expression in academic settings. Hayes claims that only complete freedom of speech can create a complete freedom of thought.

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You Can't Say That with Dennis Hayes, co-founder of Academics for Academic Freedom.

The first of a two part series exploring academic freedom - with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Dr Dennis Hayes is based at the Urban Learning Foundation in East London, where he is researching and developing innovative approaches to further education teacher training. He is the joint president of the University and College Union (UCU), the largest tertiary-education union in the world, and the national co-ordinator of the Institute of Ideas' Education Forum. He also writes a 'Backchat' column for 'FE Focus' in The Times Educational Supplement.

He is the author of many other best-selling books including: Defending Higher Education: the Crisis of Confidence in the Academy (2005), The Routledge Falmer Guide to Key Debates in Education (2004), Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education (2003), Working in Post-Compulsory Education (2003), and The McDonaldization of Higher Education (2002). Forthcoming publications include The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (2007, co-authored with Kathryn Ecclestone) and A Lecturer's Guide to Further Education (co-editor, 2007).

Dr Hayes is currently the Head of the Centre for Professional Learning (CPL) at Canterbury Christ Church University, and previous to that, head of the Department of Post-Compulsory Education. A trained philosopher, he has taught in secondary and special schools as well as in further and higher education.

Dr Dennis Hayes is one of the founders of Academics for Academic Freedom. He is currently researching the state of academic freedom in new (post-1992) and old universities.

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Journalist Fired for Criticizing O’Reilly Speaks

2008-07-09T13:15:29Z

Did you know that criticizing a serial liar, sexual harasser, homophobe, and all-around prick like Bill O’Reilly could get you fired? Well, obviously not from my job, but it happened to veteran TV newsman Barry Nolan after he decided to protest a New England media association’s decision to give Bill O’Reilly the Governors Award, its highest honor, at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony. Nolan explained his decision in a guest blog on ThinkProgress:

O’Reilly was an appalling choice, not because of his political views, but because he simply gets the facts wrong, abuses his guests and the powerless in general, is delusional, and, well, you might want to Google: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Plus there was that whole sexual harassment thing – the lawsuit he settled for an estimated $10 million. Not the kind of guy you normally think of when it comes time to pass out honors.

I found that most of my colleagues felt the same way. So, on May 10th at the Emmy Awards dinner, I quietly passed out a document that contained – not my opinion – but O’Reilly’s own words and quotes from his sexual harassment lawsuit. And that is what got me fired. I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people. -snip-

And it all got me to thinking about the myth of free speech. In today’s America, speech is only “free” when you are talking down to someone less powerful that you. Speak “up” – and look out.

CN8, the company that employed Nolan, had no comment on why Nolan was fired. CN8 is owned by Comcast.

Since when is correctly identifying BOR for what he is, using his own words and actions, an offense that could cost you your job? Nolan wasn’t on the air when he did it, nor was his quiet protest in violation of any law or company policy.

Now I’m sure some might say, “Well, the company has a right to fire whoever they want for whatever reason.” To which I’d say, “Why?” Why do companies have rights to do anything? A company is a legal construct, not a person. Do the “rights” of a non-human legal construct somehow trump the rights of an actual person who was engaging in activities explicitly protected and encouraged by the Constitution, the foundation upon which this country was built? Americans like Nolan need their rights protected, not corporations.

Memorial Day Free Speech Victory!

2008-06-07T09:36:51Z

As a member of the board of the Sacramento County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), I was honored to help bring about the Memorial Day VICTORY for free speech on the Capitol Mall medians that I describe in this video.

You can find more information about the Iraq Body Count flag display pictured in this video at: www.iraqbodycountexhibit.org

You can find more details about the Sacramento Coalition to End the War's fight to put up that flag display (and some still photos I used in my video) at: www.indybay.org

You can find video of the two sessions of the Sacramento City Council from which I took clips for my video at: sacramento.granicus.com

And at: sacramento.granicus.com

You can find the local CBS news affiliate story on the flag display from which I took a short clip for my video at: cbs13.com

And, finally, you can find more information about the Sacramento County Chapter of the ACLU at www.aclusac.org

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Episode 13: Speaking Freely (1211/07)

2008-10-08T02:20:25Z

Orwell is back on the radio with a brief history lesson and a word about freedom of speech.

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Issue Video - Free Speech

2008-10-08T02:39:04Z

Will freedom of speech be crushed under the Neck Presidency? It most certainly will not! There ain't nothing more anti-American that stifling free speech!

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Is Yale Too Juicy?

2008-06-18T09:37:38Z

The school has threatened to block it and Connecticut is ready to sue it. Whatever it is, it must be good. Lindsay hits the Ivy League to find out what's up with Juicy Campus.

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Condoleeza Rice & CODEPINK faceoff in Senate!

2008-06-15T21:29:47Z

Here is more footage from CODEPINK's experience at the Senate Appropriations hearing in which Condoleeza Rice testified Thursday May 10th.

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Torchbearer Removed for Carrying Tibetan Flag

2008-06-13T21:31:13Z

Watch as Olympic torchbearer Majora Carter is physically removed from carrying the torch after she pulls out a small Tibetan flag and runs with it.

Where are our freedoms and free speech headed?

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Walocaust, Wal-Qaeda, and the Ensuing Suits

2008-08-15T09:06:47Z

[Charlie Smith has battled Wal-Mart for the last few years, in and out of court. Below is his account of confronting Wal-Mart's mighty legal clout over free speech issues.]

I'm not the first person to call Wal-Mart "Nazis."

In December 2004 while reading a book detailing the history of the rise of the Nazis and their attempt to take over the world, I came to a part that described how union leaders and liberals were among the first groups persecuted by the Nazis. Upon learning that, I thought, whoa! Taking over the world? Union bashing? Sounds like Wal-Mart.

I have always been interested in the idea of progress causing destruction or as the phrase proclaims, "creative destruction," a process in which the old ways of doing things are destroyed and replaced by new ways. The term was coined by Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter believed that the success of capitalism would lead to a form of corporatism, a political system dominated by corporations.

To that extent, the misery caused by people losing jobs through downsizing, outsourcing, and misguided economic policies are harsh realities that I felt needed a stronger designation. And so, I invented the parody term “walocaust.” The purpose of the portmanteau is to call to mind the name “Wal-Mart” while at the same time expressing strong opposition to Wal-Mart and what the “Wal-Mart effect” truly represents.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH? PART 99

2008-06-11T21:29:40Z

Is this Freedom of Speech? How far do our free speech rights go?

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The Violating Termite

2008-06-12T09:31:25Z

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