Media Watch

If you want to know in as few words as possible how to avoid common mistakes when shooting video, try these 5 quick & dirty ideas. Buy a $50 mic/recorder and learn how to use it Terrible sounding audio will destroy an otherwise amazing video. On-camera (built-in) microphones are almost always too far from the subjects you’re recording and end up “hearing” too much environmental noise and “room bounce” reverberating throughout a speech. For the kind of up-close presence heard from radio & television presenters, you’ll need your microphone set a few inches from the mouth. Because it’s just not that feasible to hold your camera 3-10 inches from subjects’ mouths, I recommend lavalier and handheld microphones priced between $30 and $50 as a starting point. Budget mic reviews are plastered all over the internet, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble identifying a few suitable candidates for your purpose. Also, use headphones (or earbuds if you must) to identify & mitigate wi...

For those who say the United States is not the same country they grew up in, I agree. In addition to the peaceful transfer of power, the government is impacted significantly on an ongoing basis that can only be described as a subtle, morphing style coup d'etat perpetrated by groups of privileged. But the best -- or most dramatic -- is yet to come, and will be the greatest shift of power the country has ever experienced. Money is the root of all evil and the same can be said about a new cryptocurrency-driven economy. Bitcoin and its ilk are being leveraged to undermine the dollar, along with the full faith and credit of the United States government, effectively sliding wealth quietly out from under unsuspecting capitalists. But at the end of the day all forms of money are just stand-ins for privilege, which is the boiled-down meaning of wealth and greed. The privileged class makes policy as it always had, and keeps the dangerous class -- those who might threaten to dethrone them -- ...

  On May 9, 2021 a sergeant with the University City, Missouri Police Dept. detained and demanded the identification of a man after receiving a middle-finger salute. Sgt. Larry Becton approached the man and accused him of "aimlessly walking around" and insisted that he provide ID. "Do you live over here," Becton asked. "It's not an option. Right now you're being detained ... for suspicious activity," the officer said. "I will take you to the station and get your ID," Becton repeated. The suspect, who asked to remain anonymous, asked,  "Is this because I flicked you off?" As Becton demanded the man stand up, presenting his handcuffs, said, "I'm going to put you in handcuffs right now. Go ahead and resist if you want to." He then reached into the man's pocket and fished out his wallet. "For future reference, young man, you don't disrespect the police like that" the police sergeant said. Sgt. Becton ...

Back in May of 2020 a group of men in a plain white van drove through the streets of Minneapolis shooting at people, injuring several. One man, Jaleel Stallings of St. Paul, who was struck by one of the bullets, returned fire in self defense. For that, the men then climbed out of the van and proceeded to beat Stallings, calling him a "worthless piece of shit." These are undisputed facts. But there's so much more to the story. The militants in the van were actually Minneapolis police officers who were enforcing a nighttime curfew in the days after the George Floyd murder, committed by officers of the same police force. For daring to defend himself, police arrested Stallings for attempted murder and assault -- charges which prosecutors had the nerve to pursue. But thankfully jury sided with the victim and acquitted him . Police will tell you that they used "less-lethal" bullets, but in video footage recently released by Stallings' attorney, distinguishing rub...

Most cable-TV and satellite customers experience local TV black-outs from time to time because of breakdowns of contract negotiations between their providers and the local television stations carried on pay-TV channel lineups. To be clear, the blackouts are the direct result of a deliberate choice. Viewers and advertisers are made to suffer. The rhetoric you see is often along the lines of "(insert name cable or satellite provider) is taking away your access to your favorite (network) programming," as though the it's all the provider's fault. But here's the truth. Broadcasters always have the option of carriage on cable & satellite systems The FCC instructs broadcast television station owners to assert carriage election status every 3 years. Their choices are either Consent Agreement or Must-Carry. If the station elects for Must-Carry status, the cable & satellite providers are forced by the FCC to carry that station on the channel lineups. On the other h...

I'm old. I bought a lot of software before my 30-year-old son was 10 and I still use most of it. I bought programs. That's what we called apps back then. They were discounted because I'm too cheap to pay full price. I have Paintshop Pro Anniversary Edition for less than $100. Cool Edit 2000 was another bargain at $99.95. One of my newer programs is MS Office 2013 and that was offered through an employee purchase program for $19.95. Before that I was using Office 2003. Today I noticed a popup notification on my Windows 10 machine that said "We recommend Editor." I had to google that. "Editor" turns out to be a spell & grammar checker. I think I'll pass, though. They want to charge me by the month for the privilege of keeping it at the ready, and I figured out that if I keep it for 9 years, like I have Office 2013, it'll cost me $754.92. I'm way too cheap for that!

I want to tell a story of a police encounter I had almost 3 years ago in which was arrested and that shook me to the core of my beliefs about the institution police in America. But I think I should start with a little background into freedom & liberty as I see it in my state. I was in the military and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, very similar to a police officer's oath of office. My basic understanding of the Bill of Rights then was something that protected people on US soil so we are free to live and conduct ourselves as we see fit, generally unhampered by government intrusion. Taxes and speed limits aside, I can do what I want, where ever I please, and in the manner I choose. I don't have that feeling, that sense of liberty anymore. I've learned firsthand that even when we conduct ourselves within the contours of the legal system, you and your property can still be taken and held by government actors for doing things that make some officials f...