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Feminist Frequency
A 20-minute video identifying the use of damsel in distress imagery in video games. Great for schools or the young girl in your life.
Category Archives: Accountability and Representation
When the media does us wrong and community accountability
Unfairness Is Universal
Posted by Frans De Waals on
Ted Talks
This delightful video shows Capuchin monkeys reacting to unfairness and inequity when one gets compensated with cucumber bits for doing a task and another with the much better pay rate of a grape. We can all relate.
From a TED Talk by scientist Frans De Waals:
Communications Safety Net: Lifeline
Posted by on September 13th, 2013
New America Foundation
Often disparaged as “Obamaphones”, the Lifeline program (which was actually started during the Reagan administration) provides subsidized communication services to low-income people, enabling critical safety, health and job search services.
This DC panel (heavily populated by Californians, including Sacramento congresswoman Doris Matsui and CA Public Utility Commissioner Catherine Sandoval), deconstructs the myths about Lifeline and defines why we all need to care about affordable communications for all.
Here in California, the Public Utilies Commission is overseeing Lifeline modernization and recently fought off an attempt from legislators in Sacramento to gut the Lifeline update.
FCC Commissioner Pai Stands With ALEC
Posted by Ajit Pai on December 20th, 2013
Federal Communications Commission
In case anybody was wondering, new Republican FCC commissioner Ajit Pai had astonishingly warm words for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) duringa meeting with their telecom task force.
Pai began his effusive greeting with “I am honored to be with you today to give the keynote address at this meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Task Force on Communications and Technology. It isn’t every day that a group comes to Washington, DC to advocate for a vibrant free market, limited government, and
federalism. In fact, it’s kind of like the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling coming to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. But I am proud to stand beside you in fighting for these cherished principles”.
In truth, it’s not at all like the Coalition Against Legalized Gambling coming to Las Vegas, but if you’d like to read the rest of Pai’s comments, they can be found here.
For more on ALEC, listen to this NPR discussion on documents recently leaked to the UK Guardian.
A Tale Of Two Prisoners
Posted by Tracy Rosenberg on January 10th, 2014
Huffington Post
Meet Prisoner A: Incarcerated at Soledad Prison in California for a botched armed robbery committed in the thrall of an expensive drug addiction, Prisoner A is 3 years into a 10-year sentence. Committed to rehab and clean and sober for two years, A tries to keep in regular touch by telephone with two people: the aunt who raised him from a toddler in Oakland, CA and his 8-year old son, who has relocated with his ex-wife and her new husband to Oregon.
Calling his aunt, thanks to 2008 CA legislation, is free of commissions (often called kickbacks). A monthly 15-minute call to keep in touch is affordable, even for a financially-challenged senior, at a price of about $7 per call. Continue reading A Tale Of Two Prisoners
What’s Up At Comic-Con?
Posted by Tracy Rosenberg on August 16th, 2014
It’s not life and death, but the distribution of press passes from the White House to the floors of major industry conventions, has long been a fraught process that can confer, or by contrast, remove “credibility” from sectors of the journalistic community. There have been long successive battles about whether citizen journalists are journalists, whether bloggers should get press passes, and about diversity in newsrooms, both ethnic and gender diversity and also viewpoint diversity.
It looks like these battles are far from over. Continue reading What’s Up At Comic-Con?
Ferguson Is An Indictment
Posted by Tracy Rosenberg on December 1, 2014
The fake conversation about Ferguson goes like this: The grand jury heard the evidence. They declined to indict. The riots are happening because some people don’t like the result.
That’s not what happened in Missouri. Continue reading Ferguson Is An Indictment
More Reform On Prison Phone Rates
Originally posted January 2 2015
UCC OC Inc., Center for Media Justice and MAGNet teamed up with religious organizations, civil rights groups, labor and many others to submit a letter today supporting further reforms to end predatory prison phone rates. The letter supported the FCC’s proposal to end “kick-back” payments, known as commissions from phone companies to prisons, jails and detention centers. The letter also urged the FCC to cap local rates and to block unfair fees, to build on the FCC’s historic decision to cap long-distance rates in 2014. We also urged the FCC to take rapid action to protect people with disabilities, and to investigate unscrupulous rates for email and video visitation. Continue reading More Reform On Prison Phone Rates