Media Watch

  This morning I received an email from Google advising me that I had been welcomed into the Bard research project, so I started asking questions. Here's one question I asked, followed by Bard's response. Question: "In the Iowa Supreme Court case STATE V. SMITHSON, the court ruled that Iowa Code 719.1 interference with official acts only applies in the case of active interference, and not for merely refusing to cooperate. Based on that ruling, would refusing to identify to a police officer be considered active interference?" Answer: "No, refusing to identify to a police officer would not be considered active interference under the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling in State v. Smithson. In that case, the court ruled that Iowa Code 719.1 interference with official acts only applies in the case of active interference, and not for merely refusing to cooperate. The court defined active interference as "an act that obstructs or impedes the officer's ability to c...

If I can boil it down to the brass tax, my wrongful-arrest case against Des Moines officers is a case where city hall would rather go to extraordinary lengths to put one of its residents in the dangerous predator bucket than to admit its own wrongdoing. Quick background. I grew up in a small, rural town in Iowa. I earned an AAs in broadcasting and broadcast engineering and have since been a member of the broadcast media in this state for four decades. I worked as a radio news director, meeting regularly with community & civic leaders. I volunteered as a board member, as well as 2-term president, for my neighborhood association. I’ve been a communications volunteer for the county’s Emergency Management, and the state, as a member of the A.R.R.L. (Amateur Radio Relay League). I served as a communications N.C.O. in the Iowa National Guard, 194 th Field Artillery, with an honorable discharge. I was raised around people who honorably served in the police profession. My grand dad wa...

 The laws & institutions that are insensitive to or cause of fatherlessness can do more to address violent outcomes than all the mental health programs and gun laws on the planet.  What Representing Men in Divorce Taught Me About Fatherhood The Crisis of Fatherless Shooters Mike Lee Wonders If ‘Fatherlessness’ Is Behind Mass Shootings

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...