newsroom s03e03
untouched dialogues
new investor vs ACN News division director (aka the voice of conscience/grumpy old man)
—————-
– Why one channel? Why not 500? With no cost for content.
– No cost for content on the other 499 ??
– I’m not talking about guys with head-cams in Syria. I don’t know. Maybe I am.
A disaster channel. A stalker channel. I just did three. Now you.
– A channel where professionals investigate and report the news.
– Danny Glover just came to mind. We could have a channel devoted to people who are stalking Danny Glover. You think I’m kidding.
– No, I don’t.
———–
no need to go to syria either finally 🙂

Posted by: zingaro | Dec 3 2014 17:55 utc | 4

Will the cameras record them in the restroom? This will be the new defense. “I was in the restroom”.

Posted by: L Bean | Dec 3 2014 19:47 utc | 6

Voyeurs will no doubt flock to this new programming, as Mr. V.O. Yeur, the FOX news
veep anticipates.
Captain Cook

Posted by: Captain Cook | Dec 3 2014 21:26 utc | 8

It’s a measure of our abject prostration beneath the totalitarian machine that people are taking the FOX news item as actual. ‘Yeah, that seems real.’

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 3 2014 22:53 utc | 10

Lucas already covered this in his first movie “THX1138″. A remake might be titled ” ISIL meets Ferguson”.

Posted by: Curtis | Dec 4 2014 0:19 utc | 12

Every time one of our dear leaders utters the word “reform,” I shudder and brace for the worst.
The least Obama could have done was to mandate, as a condition of receiving used military equipment, training on how avoid and calm confrontations, alternatives to using lethal force, and how to use those alternatives. Also, police forces that use violence against their own unarmed citizens should have their supply of toys cut off.
Instead, BO’s standard response is to throw more money at security industry suppliers.
Why not provide every American with a body camera, starting with minority populations in big cities?

Posted by: JohnH | Dec 4 2014 0:52 utc | 14

If you are on the receiving end of unchecked police brutality, you might be willing to exchange further loss of data protection for a more transparent accounting of police behavior.
This is not about terrorism, where an unknown scare is used to rob your of your rights. Police brutality and the use of excessive force happens every day.
The media are on it now, for the remainder of two weeks. Afterwards, people will be mistreated, abused and killed once more as if nothing happened.
If the outcome is that police officers will be forced to wear cameras, then I would chalk it up as a “win” for normal citizens. Because, if you are not scared of the police, especially in the US, consider yourself lucky.
What is entirely irrelevant is whether you are innocent of any crime, or not.
At the end of an era, be it the American empire, the oil-based society or the crumbling of the Roman Empire, the outcome is always the same. The enforcers of the Status Quo become evermore aggressive and ever more deadly to suppress the stirrings of a restless populace.
Body cams are for YOUR protection, even if some aspect might become abused. One day, after an encounter with a police officer in the US, the body cam might be on your side. If you are still living, that is.

Posted by: HnH | Dec 4 2014 8:54 utc | 16

@ndcenter
The state *really* does not need body cams to single out certain innocent individuals. They have the NSA and their wholesale surveillance, public cameras, traffic surveillance cameras, cameras in all varieties of public transport, etc., etc.
The body cams by police officers would be of minuscule added benefit.
If you are on their radar they will get you, with or without body cams.

Posted by: HnH | Dec 4 2014 9:39 utc | 18

Anyone who imagines bodycams are for citizen protection simply hasn’t been paying attention. I cannot think of a single ‘reform’ to law enforcement methods and strategies that has resulted in citizens having greater rights to self protection than previously well not over the last 40 years.
Every change I have observed has resulted in a loss of citizen protection and less accountability for the jack booted ones – this will not be any different.
Lets just pretend that the body cams do result in police being held accountable for their illegal aggressive tactics. Some prosecutor grabs a vid of police violence against citizens & so drags a bullyboy from the coalface of the corporate capitalism protection squad in front of a grand jury.
The other 49,999 assholes would immediately refuse to turn their cameras on unless the charges were dropped and agreement reached that no such thing would recur.
There is a huge amnesia around the fact that law enforcement is the only industry still extant where unions can organise, run secondary boycotts, work to rule, and the myriad other tools from the old trade union arsenals which once ensured most people got a fair shake of the stick.
Those methods have been purloined by police forcing the elite to create a special privileged class of thugs in return for police protection of elites’ interests.
This is the price the greedies pay to ensure the citizen-funded militia of oppression which law enforcement has become, stands with the rich against the ordinary citizens whose taxes fund police wages and equipment.
The biggest issue of Ferguson is that 150 years after emancipation, the keen efforts of amerikan law enforcement are still keeping the racism pot bubbling, in that way ensuring that citizens remain divided against each other and not united against those who reap the benefits of an unjust unequal society.
The whole corrupt mess thrives unquestioned primarily because police are the biggest source of the sort of news and programming which gets citizens reading and/or watching media products.
The media outlets cast law enforcement in the role of hero rather than bully in return for saleable distortions about the activities of so-called criminals.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 4 2014 10:12 utc | 20

11
Sarcasm in the face of Gog Magog Much Death Many Kill is a natural human reaction.
‘Gallows humor,’ last cigarette before the blindfold. Do you have any last words?
The opening comedy act, before the US RINO-RINO Corp-Congress of a Thousand Years.
These police cammies aren’t Hero3’s. At $5,250 apiece, they should be cinema quality.
They’re not. They’re just cheesy, jumpy, low-rez, somebody-made-a-fat-IDIQNB bonanza.
There’s no blue-tooth, no live streaming, so no voyeuristic You Tube nightly dramas.
Just upload to secure police evidence drive, after erasing anything that seems at
all questionable per to City Prosecutor’s daily all-squad Parade Room briefing.
Be safe out there, guys. Shoot the shoplifters. Strangle the cigarette tax dodgers.
Meanwhile, Orion is taking one small step for mankind, one giant leap for Corporate,
a $4 TRILLION slam to US’ national budget, courtesy of Mil.Gov.Sci.Edu pensionistas.
On to Phobos~! On to Deimos~! The Velvet Glove slips from the Iron Claw of κακός~!

Posted by: ChipNikh | Dec 4 2014 11:14 utc | 22

“…Of course, the system needs to be set up in such a way that the police officers have no way to tamper with the video feed. A remote storage location and an automated “on” switch after officers leave the precinct might work.
Nevertheless, a significant contribution for US citizens particularly the black ones, could be made…”
Posted by: HnH | Dec 4, 2014 6:05:57 AM | 21
You truly are extremely naive or a menial cog in the bowels of the empire’s security apparatus.

Posted by: ndcenter | Dec 4 2014 11:55 utc | 24

@ ndcenter
Do you anything substantive to add aside from ad hominem invectives?
Sure does not seem that way.
Ranting against the empire? Very mature. Clearly, you have no understanding whatsoever about human nature, systems complexity, finite limits and sociological realities.
Otherwise you would know that human societies, other than Hunter-Gatherer communities, always bring about hierarchical setups. You would also know that empires are just an higher level expression of a hierarchical setup. You would then know that any empire did everything in its power to stay at the top of the heap. You would then understand that an American empire is no better or worse than a Russian, a Chinese, a Roman, an Incan, a Persian, a British, a Dutch, an Ottoman, or a Sumeran one. That clearly also applies to internal threats from revolutions or disaffected and disenfranchised citizens.
A hunger for a revolution demonstrates that you have no clue about historical outcomes of previous ones. A revolution *never* changed things for the better for the masses. Things *always* got worse. Destroying an old system and replacing it with a new one that has yet to be figured out is very bloody business. Especially when it comes with toppling the old empire. Major wars follow as a general rule.
You would then understand that ranting against it is the recourse of the powerless ones, which ultimately changes nothing, contributes nothing, and is conducive for smarter people to use you as cannon fodder to achieve their wishes.
In order to make the system work for you, you might need to understand what can change, how change is brought about, and who is benefiting from said change. You clearly do not.
Never mind. Rant away.
The American empire, and indeed our oil based society is on its very last legs. Let’s see how much you’ll like what follows. I very much doubt that you will, despite the very obvious flaws in our current system.

Posted by: HnH | Dec 4 2014 12:59 utc | 26

A mask and a little spray paint might take care of this multimillion buck “reform.”
Yeah, masks like the pussy, scumbag rioters/looters in Ferguson were wearing. Stand tall and proud, or you’re not standing at all. MLK & Crew weren’t wearing masks. Masks are for cowardly provocateurs. Anyone advocating masks and spray paint is a police state provocateur. This space is crawling with such creeps. Youse guys are so obvious.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Dec 4 2014 13:22 utc | 28

There is no way to stop 24/7 surveillance everywhere. It’s coming and it’s not waiting on you and your objections. The younger generations are born into it, so it’s not an issue for them. It’s what they’ve always known and what they’ll always know. Look at the Google glasses camera. It’s new technology, and it hasn’t caught on yet, but give it a few years and it will be ubiquitous in one form or another. The police cameras are unnecessary and a boondoggle. Within a decade or two, most people in America and The West will be walking, talking cameras, so the police wearing these expensive devices will be superfluous and irrelevant.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Dec 4 2014 13:29 utc | 30

remains me of ROBOCOP!

Posted by: Nini | Dec 4 2014 15:20 utc | 32

Now on to serious matters. In my opinion I would be very concerned if I were currently or formerly employed by any police agency or government alphabet intelligence agency.

what’s the problem? they move onto even greener pastures as a government contractor! unless they go rogue, snowden-style, that is. then, it’s off with their naughty bits!
seriously, with the amount of seriously slimy business the government engages in, it’s amazing that there aren’t more tattletales out there, but the fact that there aren’t should suggest some fairly chilling suppositions as to what happens to those who betray the oligarchy.

Posted by: Hugo First | Dec 4 2014 19:22 utc | 34

Chase Madar, a very good journalist who wrote the definitive book on Chelsea Manning’s torture and trial, has written a great piece on police unaccountability: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40380.htm
Whatever the facts of the Brown case – some people seem to want to focus on the minutiae of it as if such a narrow focus somehow will mask the endless waves of police/injustice system excesses that occur daily in this country – the fact is that American police are out of control and becoming ever more so. Whatever Brown did as an unarmed young man, the fact is that his case is just one small example of what occurs all across America. And the police are never held accountable.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 4 2014 23:26 utc | 36

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 4, 2014 6:26:29 PM | 36
When’s the last time you punched a cop in the face and went for his gun while he was still in his/her car? That’s right, there wasn’t a last time. And why would that be? Michael Brown committed suicide. He was an idiot. His parents should be ashamed but instead they’re angry — at everyone else, especially White people. It’s their birthright apparently — to be angry. It’s culturally ingrained. Nothing will change for those who are culturally perpetually angry until they address this very basic fact.
You Commies would like to get a race war on in America, but it ain’t gonna happen. Football, and other sundry Breads & Circuses keep the peace and all that’s going strong with no signs of abating any time soon so you might want to take your ball and go home now.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Dec 4 2014 23:53 utc | 38

Holefield is the type who prefers bread and circuses if it keeps the Russophobic,
warring for Israel Empire churning.

Posted by: truthbetold | Dec 5 2014 1:19 utc | 40

@ 41: IMO, there are no Liberals in charge in DC, they’re Corporatists.
Liberal Definition
dictionary.search.yahoo.com
adj. adjective
Favoring reform, open to new ideas, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; not bound by traditional thinking; broad-minded.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.
Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Posted by: ben | Dec 5 2014 1:41 utc | 42

Good to see most posters choose to ignore the current resident troll.
The only point of interest the revolving door of apologists for oppression that drop by here ever create is the question of whether they are paid liars working for some deniable 3rd party ‘think-tank’ or whether they are dipshits who actually believe the facile balderdash they attempt to promote.
I do hafta say that blaming humanists for promoting the racial division which the amerikan elites have kept simmering over the centuries, does indicate the former rather than the latter.
No one could sensibly conclude the aggressive and deliberate violation of african americans rights as citizens in amerika. These have taken a myriad of shapes and a zillion humiliations from petty to vast in scope, from police tactics such as the Brown murder, to employment discrimination by major corporations such as Walmart, or to major banks defrauding african americans of their savings via sub-prime mortgages.
How could these acts have been promulgated by anyone other than amerika’s ruling elite?
Surely not all those scumbags are closet “commies” lol.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 5 2014 2:24 utc | 44

oddly I find myself a bit closer on this issue to the troll as opposed to Debs is dead. I believe it is missing the point to think that police brutality is directed toward black people and that it is mainly a race issue. I doubt you could be further from reality and you really would have to visit the US to see for yourself that it has become a police state. Most citizens have come to love big brother and have fear and respect for the police. Other policemen in Europe (Italy and Germany are two that I am familiar with) wish they had the power to act the way the US cops do.
Some people cite the high number of black men on death row as evidence of racism yet when you poll blacks they are overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty. The only thing that changes police attitude as well as the legal system (sometimes referred to in newspeak as the justice system) toward you is the size of your wallet. It has always been this way in the US from when the police were happily crushing skulls of workmen who foolishly hoped to get a decent wage all the way up to the last Occupy movement where they were busting heads of those who dared speak openly of the power of the onepercenters.
We believe in this shit, everyone admires the little guy who goes after bad people and kills them. From Sheriff Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, to Dirty Harry and the various characters played by Charles Bronson and the endless cop shows on teevee where the pretty female cops push people around and are very disrespectful toward people we already know are the dregs of society…so it is ok. We all know that when a cop pulls you over you treat them very nicely, always yes sir no sir three bags full always aware that they can do whatever they want with you with absolute impunity. we all know it, some resent it, some think it is pretty cool, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
and that really sucks

Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 5 2014 3:16 utc | 46

The security-milit.-State continues to grow and shunt money to some players, those who produce tech products, crappy analysis, fake advisory moves, ponderous power-points, etc.
If social control (includes the public), institutional control, and surveillance control of a state-funded and organised body like the Police has to pass through button-cams, the society is doomed.
It won’t help, just another step into a dystopian techno-future, with ppl turned into robots (and thus wanting to escape that status, which they will do with a vengeance, easily, specially the police, expect more violence), more power to those at the top, etc.
Internal US policy has become a mirror of foreign policy.
After the Iraq invasion, 2003, there was still some pretense that USA citizens were ‘free’ — and ‘rich’, if only with Chinese clobber and unpayable debt — many ppl like myself warned US citizens about such moves coming home, they didn’t listen, were incredulous and yelled, in caps, vicious ripostes.
US imperialism seeks not to benefit it’s own ppl, only a tiny class, even that is very confused. It isn’t old-style imperialism, but merely the killing off, decimating, controlling, of potential rivals (cf. the Mafia.)
The Police has been militarised to control the population through force and arms. Why or what for is not stated. (Obviously there is the prison industry, etc. but even that is not of prime importance.)
Nobody explained why ordinary Iraqi citizens had to be bombed, invaded, their houses broken into if they weren’t destroyed, their daughters raped, their agri thrashed, the electricity cut off, their close doctors / clinics destroyed, the schools closed (for safety!), sons to be imprisoned, etc.
Nobody will explain it to US citizens either.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 5 2014 15:48 utc | 48

@ 49: Don’t be sorry, you’re absolutely right.

Posted by: ben | Dec 5 2014 16:44 utc | 50

from mcculloch’s press conference announcing the non-indictment:

mcculloch: (00:33:10) “You could certainly take out a witness here and there, umm, and, and come to a different conclusion.”

– – –
democracynow: Was Key Grand Jury Witness in Michael Brown Case a Racist, Mentally Ill, Lying Ex-Felon?

new questions are being raised about the grand jury that failed to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting Brown. Many questions center on a woman identified in the grand jury documents simply as “Witness 40.” She told the grand jury that Brown charged at Wilson “like a football player.” Earlier this week, the website TheSmokingGun.com identified Witness 40 as Sandra McElroy. The website described her as a “bipolar Missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another high-profile St. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a ‘complete fabrication.'” It now appears McElroy may have lied about witnessing the shooting…

Posted by: b real | Dec 17 2014 17:19 utc | 52