Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mdestape — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:32:55 -0000

who cares what you think?

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mturro — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:22:06 -0000

I need to correct myself a bit - Feldman did NOT botch his execution - he did exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to be seen as a racist and he has been. Of course he isn't one (at least he doesn't seem to be one - I don't know him personally). He wanted to make a racist video and he did. Interesting guy.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mturro — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:18:24 -0000

Not sure where you're getting that 99.9% figure, but I would bet that it's probably not quite accurate. In fact I would go so far as to say that the bulk of revenue that the "gangster rap" genre generates comes from suburban white boys. Take a stroll through the halls of almost any American high school and you will get a good look at the color of "gangster culture."

As for whether "TechNigga" is racist - maybe, maybe not - but it does display an arrogant amount of racial insensitivity that could very easily be perceived as latent racism. As I said above, he used a negative cultural stereotype to describe "black guys" (his words) - not gangsters. He was effectively calling all black people gangsters.

Whether or not Feldman feels this way is largely irrelevant - I would tend to think he does NOT. The point is he tried to be controversial (perhaps in the vein of Lenny Bruce) - and because he botched his execution he simply came across as ignorant. And usually ignorance will get you fired - unless you are running for office.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Nicki — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:55:59 -0000

No that is NOT racism. Racism is when an entire race is discriminated against based on there race. 99.9% of all so called Gangster-rapper is black. The whole gangster culture is predominated by black males and females. It might be incentive but it is suddenly not racist. So no he is only describing the predominant perception of that stereotype, and if that happens to be a black man, well how can that be racist??

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mturro — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:45:51 -0000

censorship is when they throw your ass in prison, or flog you, or kill your family for the stuff you say. getting dropped from a fat sponsorship deal is more like just desserts.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mturro — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:42:58 -0000

Ummm... how about the fact that the whole frame of the joke was "what if BLACK guys" ran TechCrucnch - NOT "what if GANGSTAS ran TechCrunch." He very clearly ascribed a cultural stereotype to an entire race. That is racist, stupid, insensitive, offensive, and radically unfunny.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Mi5 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:57:23 -0000

Free speech over a telecom's private network services? Just because your Mom if great at cutting your hair, does that make it a "free speech" issue that she wasn't allowed on Sheer Genius on Bravo?
You're just a scumbag offering apologies for some semi-notable Jew racist.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Nicki — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:14:17 -0000

I am not normally a fan Loren Feldman. I just don’t think he is that funny, but in this case I did think he had it going for him. It is Humour/comedy and that have a tendency to push the limits, and I am sure that it where what Loren indented here.

And as he himself is saying: ” It’s not insulting an ETHNIC group, but a SOCIAL group, in this case: rappers/ganstas.” I am in a complete agreement with him here, and have a hard time understanding where the racism comes in, or is it just the fact that a white man used the ”N-Word” and that where not social accepted? Well if that is the case then we are not talking about racism but just different standards of what people is ”Allowed” by the social norms to do, and as I said before it is the comedians job to push the limited of that social norm.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Jasonp107 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:20:00 -0000

Well said. I think that free speech issues are going to start cropping up left and right as two things happen simultaneously:

a) bazillions of people start, for the first time since towns were small enough that everyone knew and could talk to everyone, really *using* their right to free speech on the internet and on future systems of digital distribution.

b) companies and services that have scale and built in audiences (and therefore are focal points for free speech) realize how much leeway they have, and consequently how carefully they have to tread, with what goes up on their services.

At the end of the day, I agree that free speech has to be free speech whether you think it's funny/agree with it/or hate it, but Shey is right in his comment that Verizon isn't obligated to broadcast something they disagree with.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mathewi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:28:07 -0000

But Mark, they and everyone protesting are making their decision based
on a couple of videos from a year ago -- don't you think that's a
little unfair? Aren't there any of your videos that you feel a little
uncomfortable about looking back on them? Would you want to lose your
livelihood because of that? I realize Loren is free to make his
videos, but he's still suffering from a form of censorship I think.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mathewi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:23:11 -0000

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

mathewi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:20:08 -0000

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

markmckay — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:31:48 -0000

I don't think it has anything to do with freedom of speech. Its not like they are censoring him. All they are doing is saying they don't want invest in racist content.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

leigh — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:25:29 -0000

I read Corvida's post and was trying to remember when Loren had been all pissy about a Jewish stereotype. For anyone who is interested in the link:

http://www.1938media.com/guy-kawasaki-is-an-ass...

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Michael_Markman — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:20:27 -0000

Whoa! This is not being denied a "cabaret card" This is just not getting booked at a particular cabaret. A cabaret card was a New York City government-issued license that was required by anyone working in an establishment that served liquor. Many brilliant artists were denied the ability to work in New York because of drug charges or obscenity charges. (Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Lenny Bruce, and Lord Buckley among the most famous).

As you note, Loren still has his freedom of speech. He can make videos. He can post them. We all can view them. You don't need a 'cabaret card' to work the Internet.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Michael_Markman — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:10:29 -0000

This isn't "freedom of speech," which is a Constitutional right, but rather "access to a corporate deal," which has to be earned. It's a business decision by Verizon.

Someone at Verizon thought that having 1938media on the roster would earn money for them. Now someone at Verizon has concluded it would be a net loss. That's business.

Loren's videos are freely accessible on his site and on YouTube. He's still free to make more of them.

Anyone who thinks this is free speech is what Loren would call, "a dope."

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

johnpiercy — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:58:49 -0000

Maybe Don Imus and Kramer can give Loren some advice !

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

ABlogger — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:50:39 -0000

"But does that mean his content shouldn’t be allowed on Verizon’s mobile service? "

The people who found his content unfunny, racist, and inappropriate exercised their free speech rights by letting a corporation know they wouldn't be customers if they disapproved of the content.

Loren Feldman's supporters are free to exercise their free speech rights as well, to contact Verizon and let them know they do want his content. As opposed to just visiting all the blog comment sections and accusing everyone who disagrees with them as being "politically correct" or "humourless".

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

ErikSchwartz — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:11:37 -0000

Loren is getting more press for getting kicked off of verizon than he got for signing up.

Do you that's an accident?

Adding 1938 media was a non-event for Verizon. They do lots of content deals with web video. Verizon media relations only got involved when Loren got booted.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

SG — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:37:09 -0000

Mathew, since you still maintain that this is a freedom of speech issue: White supremecist groups produce lots of videos mocking minorities. If they send them to Verizon for inclusion in the V Cast network, should Verizon feel obligated to make them available? How about neo-nazi groups? NAMBLA?

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

hardaway — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:29:46 -0000

That's right. It's a distribution thing. And Loren isn't being put in jal; he is being denied a "cabaret carfd," which is access to a spcific venue or platfor,. Shelley, you are right. And as for whether Loren is funny. he's really funny some of the time. But he's not a valuable commenter on society like Bruce was, or George Carlin. They excoriated us all, not just one of us.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

n8k99 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:05:51 -0000

nope i was not confusing Stern for Imus. Imus is just plain terrible, Stern is not funny and is sleazy- that was the reaction i had to techn**** at the time and still. the puppets have been just as sleazy. i dislike "comedy" which is mean spirited and makes fun of other people. that's just negative hating designed to pull someone else down, rather than lifting up the audience. if there's anything our culture needs less of, that is negativity.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

MikeonTV — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:44:26 -0000

I think you are mistaking Howard Stern for Don Imus. When Howard uses comedy to exploit current issues he does so not to offend but to pinpoint the errors of a person or group. It is also often quite humorous and intelligent.

Anyone can put on a wig and gold teeth and act out a stereotype. But can you do it an not be offensive? Thats Imus' problem and that was Feldmans problem.

That said I think people are overreacting to the video. Poor taste does not mean poor talent. I enjoy the provocative videos, especially in this web world full of awkward geeks.

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

AGORACOM — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:08:41 -0000

Krishnan, freedom of speech absolutely gives each one of us the right to insult others. We just have to live with the consequences.

In this case (and this video) I think Loren was foolish and out of line - but I fully support his right to do so.

Regards,
George

Re: Protests over Verizon deal with 1938media

Shelley — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:37:31 -0000

Please don't compare what happened with Feldman to Lenny Bruce. There is a difference between losing a corporate contract, and being arrested every time you appear on stage.