Saturday, April 12, 2014

Seeking Photo or Video Documentation

The image below is a screenshot of a blog titled ACTIVE RVA. You can't read the text at this resolution but I have copied it below the image (or you can read it at the Active RVA blog).

The article says, in part: 
Anti-Confederate’s Amp Destroyed by Klansman Virginia Flagger

This past weekend, a man on a motorcycle destroyed an amp belonging to Goad Gatsby, by kicking it. After he did so, he rode away. Gatsby was taking part in the weekly anti-Confederate Rap Battle counterdemonstration against our local white supremacists, the Virginia Flaggers.

The incident was caught on camera, and there were many witnesses. A police report has been filed, and the man’s license plate number is known.
 This does not specify what kind of camera caught the incident -- still or video -- but I am interested in seeing the images or video, if anyone can supply them, or a link to them. 

It's interesting that whoever wrote the article starts out with fairly decent journalism, written in the active voice, although it is blatantly biased and untruthful. Still, it answers, sort of, the old journalistic standard questions -- who, what, where, when.

But the second paragraph lapses into the passive voice, and when that happens, I always get very suspicious. The passive voice can be used, and often is used, to withhold pertinent information.  A more journalistic account would read: "Many people in the area witnessed the incident, and Bob Smith caught it on camera. Gatsby wrote the man's license plate number and filed a police report."

As it is written, we don't know who caught the incident on camera, we don't know how many witnesses there were, and who they were, and how they came to be in the area where the incident occurred. And we don't know who filed the police report and who knows the license plate number.

Speaking of which, the funniest thing about this passive-voice passage is "the man's license plate number is known." What a surprise, huh....  ALL license plate number are known ... by somebody ... somewhere.

I am assuming this stellar piece of journalism was written by the blogger, who is identified only as Kat.  The Who Runs This Blog? page contains this information:
Hi, I’m Kat. I run this blog, and I started Active-RVA in March of 2012. ... I want to be up front about who I am and what you can expect from me: I’m a white, cisgender woman attending Virginia Commonwealth University; I got my undergrad degree there in English in 2013, and am currently working toward a grad degree through the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. I’m a socialist.
A socialist. What a surprise.

I had never encountered the term "cisgender" before now, so I googled it, and best I can tell, it's a newfangled word for normal heterosexual.

Whatever.

Anyway, if anyone who reads my blog happens to run across images or video of Gatsby's amp being destroyed, please send it to me, or send me a link. Thanks.

2 comments :

  1. It seems the Boom Box Basher has been identified and has been named --
    I'm waiting to see if charges will be filed !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol...Waa, Waa, waaa, he broke my boom-box. Man up, you sniveling little bed-wetter.

    ReplyDelete

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