Media give the racial inequality story the coverage it deserves in iran and china the demonstrations in the u. S. Have delivered the perfect opportunity for state media and politicians to take some pot shots at america exposed from above drone cameras and how theyre being used in investigations plus a step by step guide on how your privilege sets you up in. Order to your sister. And sets others back. For months here at the listening post weve been asking ourselves what kind of new story will it take to knock over 19 out of the headlines to supplant even temporarily a Global Pandemic as the top news story we now know the answer to that racially charged social unrest sweeping america on a scale not seen in decades showdowns in city after city between demonstrators and police authoritarian noises and tactics coming out of the Trump White House from the phone camera that captured the Police Killing of george floyd to twitter flagging how dangerous this president s tweets can be to all those Video Showing Police attacking journalists and then finally to the lengths that the white house will go to get a photo opportunity there is no shortage of media angles to this story our starting point this week is may 25th 2020 in minneapolis minnesota. Remember the name of a fridge if not for her grief you would have probably never heard the name George Clooney or the perpetrators me you know debra showed. There were other cameras that recorded part of what was unfolding back day in minneapolis but the video the 17 year old frasier shown on her from the angle she captured is the one you know best the one that shocked it was one act of citizen journalism and the country is now dealing with the consequences 1st of all it let us be clear if we had not seen this. Then we wouldnt be talking about it there wouldnt have been any protests so i think it was purely about what we saw the Video Evidence was so shocking woman who took it was very brave to do that it is notable that someone outside of the vision of trumps america was the person to bring to light what trumps america looks like for the rest of us. We need the power of Citizen Media in this moment where a black teenage girl by virtue of a cell phone video was the person that helped open up mainstream medias lead and about the fact that the president is having on the country. America was soon swept with protests flooded with the rich. Demonstrate sin city after city fighting with men in uniform police cars and stations. Dozens of journalists assaulted and arrested by. God. Then came the curfew the mobilizing of the National Guard and the protesters gathered at the gates of the white house where donald trump was in the basement bunker. Not a good look for a would be strong guy no no d lets go so the next day the white house countered with some imagery of its own through a photo opportunity designed to deliver a message to trumps Political Base evangelical American Christians that. If. You had to make some sort of statement so he ordered the police around the white house to use tear gas to see to clear a path he walked just to School Church and then trump stood outside and held a bible in the air a book hes never read the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff the top military officer in the United States accompanied the president og that was he wore his battle uniform his adult fatigues in common flush the fact that he chose to wear what he would wear to battle while he walked through the streets of washington d. C. Is one of the more frightening things i have ever seen in my country was a clear signal to his most steadfast supporter that he is willing to go to any length to see. Support his stay in power so he created this moment. Or a photo opportunity and the most disturbing part about that was he got it because what people will see what they can be people who only focus on one part of the aecl chamber that in this country it is fox news for that proud to look like a win for really represented a middle finger to americans who stand in solidarity with the black people of this country who have been so abused and oppressed and i think his message resonated with his base. Donald trump gets to his base through different information pipelines on the broadcast side he relies on fox news and despite some periodic criticism there such as what he heard this week for not cracking down harder on protestors what the president were seen during on fox still stands by trying. Is the president s social media platform of choice followed by facebook for years their respective c. E. O. Jack dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg have been pressured to block trumps output over in accuracies and works on may 29th when trump tweeted about thugs on the streets saying that when the looting starts the shooting starts twitter intervened in a way it never has before slapping a warning label on the tweet saying that the president of the United States was glorifying violence in this case it wasnt that sweater thought well this is going too far it was the outrage from other twitter users saying look you have the leader of the United States inciting violence here some people get blocked or banned from twitter for much less than that and really what twitter did they still felt a little sore because quite honestly thats what this is that got him banned facebook on the other hand is simply chosen to ignore its own rules and pander to the president Mark Zuckerberg was quoted in the New York Times saying that he distinguishes what trump did from a call for violence because trump was calling for state violence which zuckerberg now says is allowed. Well this is going to be a shock to the. Head of the military junta in myanmar who had his facebook account blocked when he called for state violence against iraq and a minority so facebook is once again deciding to hold trump to a different standard than even the other World Leaders who are engaged in authoritarian violence. This is the new story where Donald Trumps attacks on american journalists all that enemies of the people came home to roost i am right now the thing im down and no. Apparently carrying press credentials or having a camera is no longer enough to shield american reporters and crews from overzealous congress. Good evening we are witnessing a failure of president ial leadership and c. N. N. And m s n b c brand themselves as the Fact Checking truth telling tough on trumped news travels the country needs right now to call them fellow the folks here for the part they leave out is the central role they played in helping him get to the white house in the early stages of the 2016 campaign those networks couldnt get enough of candidate trying a conflict and so did the ratings he delivered and even after he took office and those networks grew more and more critical of the president they remained a commercially addict to the trump story james gray better hope that there are no tapes of our conversation. Before he starts leaking. The press may 12th 2017 is a case in point trump was tweeting that day about his nemesis at the f. B. I. James cone the networks were typically transfixed while another story a significant one for africanamericans was good. In short shrift they were in a tizzy over this piece of information i suppose thats interesting but that very thing they then attorney general Jeff Sessions announced the local prosecutor is an attorney the cross the country could start personally maximum sentences against people just like that be brought back mandatory minimum mandatory minimum sentence merica having this of course an adverse impact on communities of color thats typically black people so this is something that impact the rising majority of this tension but in the media chose to focus on Donald Trumps tweet and thats just a microcosm for how the media often misses the mark what i think the media should do is 1st of all figure out why these people in the governors offices and the like in the president s United States even before trump why have they have not carried out these reforms and why do we keep having the same thing happen over and over and over and they might ask Public Officials what do you intend to do about all of the underlying causes and tensions that are in the society now and about Police Reform what are you guys going to do ask them that weve seen that the Trump Presidency media has essentially game a by Corporate Media in structures its norms and its values one of the core values of Corporate Media is to report on conflict and this is a president who thrives on creating conflict and does that very well and so Corporate Media follows suit by pursuing headlines and any macam or towards this person instead of actually framing the news or the American People old habits are very very hard to abandon but that is the challenge for Corporate Media today. Were joined now by one of our producers we not sure ravi to discuss some of the International Reporting of the story thats still unfolding in the us me now youve been the cross. A lot of media output in both china and iran 2 countries with political axes to grind with washington what have you been saying theres been a lot of finger wagging richard with some shodan freude thrown in especially in the Media Outlets that are state run or state owned and started china during this pandemic tensions are really ratcheted up between beijing and washington d. C. With the white house repeatedly blaming china for the spread of the could on of itis theres been a lot of back and forth on that between Media Outlets in both the u. S. And china and chinas domestic news channel c. C. T. V. Has taken the story of the u. S. Protests and tied it in with the shortcomings in the white house is pandemic response. 30 town to draw me where theyve seen 13 he made one comment below. Leaving or to the sheer bit. That me and me and. All the fail she. Will mean dont see its only that content is for domestic consumption on the International Front you have c. T. M. Which is chinas international t. V. News channel they havent felt the need to vamp up much of their coverage of the us protests the pictures in the facts really do speak for themselves i have seen some clips where comparison is made between what they call legitimate protests in the United States which is whats happening in hong kong where there are demonstrations against beijings control that they call politicized or u. S. Funded moving beyond china what were seeing coming out of iran these days theres a lot to see both in broadcast media and in the tweets of some prominent politicians on press t. V. Which is in an english Language International news channel theres been extensive coverage of the chaos in the United States and the brute force of the troops out on the streets what are statements of fact its just the tone in the framing thats exaggerated whats really caught my eye however has been the political tweets how many times have we seen u. S. Political figures were. It honestly sing demonstrations over economy or political matters tweeting their solidarity towards iranians conveniently leaving out the part about the u. S. Led sanctions that are crippling irans economy now this week weve seen irans foreign minister jadzia beef all over twitter he took a statement that was issued by u. S. Secretary of state mike pompei or back in 2018 relating to underestimate on and he connected all of the text to pleasing iran with america or American People and making a couple of other changes highlighting some flagrant double standards ok thanks man. Sometimes capturing an image or a single video can have a transformative effect George Floyds killing is an example of that because the video speaks for itself thats why it sent so Many Americans out of the streets and anyone contending with state violence whether theyre in minneapolis hong kong or the middle east knows that sometimes all they need to make their case to expose illegality is the right picture its why mobile phone footage is all over the news its also why journalists have turned to images from space satellite pictures to expose chinas secret wigger prison camps but there are some places that satellites and phones cannot go the space between thats where drones coming Television Journalists love drone images for the perspective and scope that they provide advertisers use them for their cinematic quality its effect our consumers but drones are also being used to provide irrefutable photographic evidence of human rights abuses and illegality the listening posts often now on drones and how they are being used in investigations around the world but 1st a word of warning this story includes some disturbing images. When the lockdowns came in much familiar places became unrecognizable. Sure the fiftys and emptied of life. In the late fiftys filled again with the youth demanding justice. The drone can capture images of dark inequality in a place like cape town. They fly close enough that you can see the shadows of children marched through an immigration fence in texas. From a distant. That you get the scale of the destruction wrought on a city like output. Images taken from above can form some of the decisions we make on the ground. Can you hear me ok. Josh lyons works every geospatial on of this he uses drones to gather evidence from the sky josh you recently did the kind of investigation in syria that would have been impossible without the drone walk through how you got started well we have been obviously working on multiple issues in syria since the start of the conflict and one question the 2014 u. N. Colleagues. Showed me a video and asked my advice are in the video was truly horrific. But it captured was a summary execution of 3 men. Trapped in Northern Syria by isis forces and then cut to them dumping their bodies this large natural or such and the immediate question was well how many more people are changed out there how long has isis and using this location. When the British Forces we took that area they opened up the possibility to go and so when we got there it became obvious very quickly that it was contaminated with multiple unexploded munitions to potentially be trapped by isis. We didnt know how deep it was and so this profile from the pressure raises a lot of questions of utilities well the drone even operates in this case beyond our sight immediately the drone was almost destroyed by a flock of birds. And then it lost the g. P. S. Signal antidrug scratched but it did manage to get out and went it showed us was something. We had not expected. To get something for the body theres one. Bodies human remains that were obviously. Fresh in the drums also provided those with heat bits of evidence that we needed to help our you in advance for. Professional forensic examination and then to identify them their human remains and return to the families youre clearly using drones as a force for good but also the ethical issues around using a technology that with developed for surveillance. And there are some that in this case who are advocating for free and unfettered access to all Drone Imagery unconditionally this has led i think to quite a substantial out of the general car when you collect Drone Imagery her very vulnerable communities you can see things in their backyard you can see things about their possessions about their their beliefs about their personal wealth that can be weaponized against them in so many different ways and the application when we correct the street use not to needlessly slash around the World Without 1st taking pretty chilled. And and a sense that the inherent risks. Drones can feet things some would prefer to remain on theme like illegality in the amazon of proud to wear one bug and if using drones to protect the environment. One you know using drones for monitoring deep in the amazon jungle what if they helped you on cover. Yes in the in the remote areas in peru weve got several child. Weve got deforestation weve got there are driving produce. But the main probably though weve got illegal might. Whatever done much we do to that territory by lee our mind in it will stay there for sara 100 years so it turns like a new gun survey these remote illegal mines but they also let you go in under tact it yeah definitely the doing which makes a big difference because it particularly in this remote is an area that conventional medical are using planes or helicopters in the case of peru in our militarys armed forces weve got helicopters but very noisy so when they even start the engine everybody and their uncle knows whats going on but when we use our dongs we can be on the year 2 or 3 hours and then we come on the door everything that they were doing without they even notice so with all this information we go through our story and we show where they were doing not only this week but the previous week the previous month and so on so so thats why combining all these new technologies we may be able to present to you have tori doesnt if we can every. Stop killing matheson works on how the video can be leveraged to protect peoples human rights for its all about how different forms a visual evidence Work Together to corroborate each other kelly what are some of the inventive ways communities a bringing all of these methods together to expose wrongdoing. So i draw my inspiration for combining phone footage shot footage and satellite imagery from this incredible Indigenous Community that is deep in the amazon forest in ecuador. Its the cost of. And the cofan have been indigenous starred theyre out there all the time monitoring their forests and defending their land and they told me the story about a day that when they were out they heard this low hum in the forests. So they flew the truman over the site so they could see what was happening and determine that it was eagle gold mining theyd learned that the ecuadorian government had basically given the headwaters of the of what rico river to the Mining Industry so then they went out and logically collected footage on the grounds of the water the polluted water running into the river of the troops acted soil of the just straight forest then they brought a lawsuit against the ecuadorian government they took the phone footage the drone footage and the satellite imagery brought it into court and it was a robust evidentiary record that no one could dismiss. And the court ended up finding for the clothes on and they set a landmark precedent for Indigenous People all throughout the region the work you do revolves around using Video Evidence will certainly think about the perspective you get from arrow images that is so powerful. From an environmental perspective i think theres a lot of people out there who believe that we as it is he managed he cant. Destroy the worlds we dont have that power the earth is is too powerful and it will bounce back but i think often times when you see that drone footage of the destruction thats happening right before our eyes it allows us to imagine the unimaginable elizas to observe what cant otherwise readily be observed and i think its powerful for us to be able to see how we are destroying the planet and in turn destroying our own chances of survival. And finally if you want to stand what it means to be privileged step up privilege is a word were hearing plenty of these days in fact the Silver Lining of the social unrest now sweeping america maybe that a lot of people now find themselves considering how privileged they really are thinking about it in ways that they hadnt before. Things like walking into a corner store without being racially profiled or having no reason to fear for your life when youre pulled over by the police about a year ago an American ChristianOrganization Called link here produced this video that gives you a step by step illustration of how privilege or the lack of it positions us in the game of life its seeing a resurgence online and were leaving you with an excerpt well see you next time here at the listening post the winner of this race. Will take this. 100. Before i say good. Im going to make a couple of statements. Statements apply to you. I want you to take 2 steps. At those statements dont apply to you. I want you to stay right where you are. To see if you. Can. Take 2 steps forward if you had access to trade you would. Take 2 steps forward if you never knew more about yourself. Take 2 steps and you never had to help mom or dad with the bill. To send. The money because of your magic ability. You dont have to pay for college. I want you guys up here in the front just to look. Every state may not make. Has nothing to do with anything any of you have done and its only because you have become a star that youre possibly going to win this race. Hello im down joan in doha with the top stories here on aljazeera more than 2 weeks after his death george floyd the man whose killing is inspired protests across the u. S. Has been buried in a Funeral Service in houston where he grew up floyd has been rumored as a loved Family Member and mentor as well as a symbol of change. Justice for my brother my big brother. Thats big. Everybody i know