Brad Will (1970-2006) and the 'dirty war' on independent journalism

October 28, 1:12 PMPittsburgh Grassroots ExaminerMike Boda

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Brad Will’s Assassins, Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal

one more death -- one more martyr in a dirty war -- one more time to cry and hurt -- one moretime to know power and its ugly head -- one more bullet cracks the night -- one more night at the barricades -- some keep the fires -- others curl up and sleep -- but all of them are with him as he rests one last night at his watch-Bradley Will's final dispatch 10/16/2006

Despite the fallout of over a decade of media consolidation, Spiro Agnew's paranoid fantasies about a "liberal media" are repeated over and over by prominent members of of the self-same corporate media establishment and the dupes who parrot their ramblings. Does anybody really believe that the board of directors at General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC, have some kind of nefarious "radical left" agenda? How would that help GE's brisk defense contracting business?

US media conglomerates borrow many of the same techniques that are used to maintain the illusion of a two-party political system in the US;  the use of specific emotional keywords, vague stylistic differences, and a focus on individual personalities. Censorship is voluntary; a gift bag and free meal can go a long way to ensure favorable coverage, besides too much criticism can result in loss of access to the elites. As these developments continue to unfold, the role of independent journalists, not  "embedded" in the halls of power or their cushy waiting rooms, who are unconcerned with pleasing the shareholders is more vital than ever. Last month's violent police riots in Oakland, especially those that occurred after the G-20 ministers had already departed Pittsburgh, were it not for independent journalists and the proliferation of digital cameras, would have gone largely unnoticed or justified by the local television stations who had volunteered to function as hand puppets or PR departments for the 40+ agencies who enacted martial law in Pittsburgh, for what was essentially a photo-op for the global elites and a campaign stop for the local ones.

The local authorities had made it abundantly clear even before the summit began, that credentialed journalists would be trapped and arrested with everyone else, like the 42 members of the press who were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. To be fair, the local police did announce their intentions to target journalists in advance. Unlike St. Paul, however, Pittsburgh's legal goon squad found the time to target photographers and destroy as much of their equipment as they could.

Of course, being subjected to a barrage of less lethal munitions, as opposed to the real thing, is one of the privileges of living in a wealthy country like the US that can afford them. The rest of the world is not so lucky, as documented in the horrific images of rape and indiscriminate gunfire in Guinea, a few days after the summit. Getting the truth out, in such situations is difficult, if not impossible and further complicated by the network of bought and paid for correspondents who defend the actions of their governments, people like Rebeca Romero, former AP correspondent for the Mexican state of Oaxaca:

The Associated Press fired Oaxaca state correspondent Rebeca Romero due to pro-government bias in her coverage of a six-month-long protest movement that sought to oust the state governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, according to AP reporters familiar with the agency’s work in Mexico.

Jack Stokes, the Manager of Media Relations for the AP declined to comment.

“We rarely comment on personnel issues, including the comings and goings of our paid-by-the-story freelancers around the world,” Mr. Stokes wrote in an email response to questions.

Ms. Romero violated the AP’s code of ethics by accepting payment from the Oaxaca state government for advertisements posted on her website, according to a January 9, 2007 report by Narco News.

Ms. Romero, a former press secretary for the Mexican federal attorney general, also owns an electronic news agency, ADN Sureste (Southeast Digital News Agency). ADN Sureste ran paid advertisements for the Oaxaca state government while Ms. Romero was reporting on the government’s involvement in the conflict, in violation of the AP’s code of ethics.

According to AP reporters familiar with the agency’s work in Mexico, however, the AP fired Ms. Romero as a result of her coverage of the Oaxaca conflict

On October 27, 2006, while documenting the popular uprising that began in June, following the repressive police overkill against a state-wide teacher's strike in Oaxaca, Mexico, independent journalist Bradley Will and two others were shot to death by local officials, members of a paramilitary group loyal to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Aside from the obvious comparison to our  plainclothes cops, working off the clock, imagine if the Tea Partiers systematically assaulted enemies of the health insurers and the GOP instead of agreeing with the radio and emailing racist jokes to each other and then you have the PRI paramilitaries or PRIistas.

Will captured his own murder on video, as he was gunned down while filming the PRIista assault on the people maintaining one of the barricades that have traditionally defended rebels throughout the world from the violence of the elites  Much like in  Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, as in rest of the world, the legal system does all that it can to defend the violent thugs who exist above the laws they enforce to ensure that the rich are free to get richer. While the obvious gunmen were arrested, they were quickly released and the authorities later charged Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, a participant in the popular uprising. This accusation, bolstered by Canadian police consultants contradicts the Mexican State's own forensic evidence, according to the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Human Rights:

From the documentation we recently received from the PGR, it is clear that there is no intention to allow forensic science to factor into the investigation of the case,”"says Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR's International Forensic Program. "I see nothing in the scientific evidence that would indicate that Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, who is accused of having stood in Brad Will's vicinity and shot him, could have physically done so. In misrepresenting the facts, the PGR is clearly intent on making Will's death look like a singular homicide and refraining from looking at the possibility that it might be linked to the clear pattern of unsolved gunshot-related deaths that happened at the time in Oaxaca

While Will was only one of 20 people gunned down during the uprising in Oaxaca, the death of a US citizen began to focus international attention on the situation, prompting Vincente Fox to utilize the full force of the Mexican state to overwhelm the rebels. The sloppy frame-up of APPO supporter, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno has created a justifiable unwillingness to discuss the incident among those who were in Oaxaca at the time. An individual willing only speak under a condition of anonymity who was in the area at the time describes Brad Will and his role in this popular struggle in Oaxaca as such:

As was no doubt the case here in the states, I think a lot of Oxacanos knew him and his efforts more in death than in life. But, as was the case in the states, his life also had an impact on people. When I first met him he was covering a march, APPO press badge and all. The next time I saw him he was working on and moving a makeshift editing station (a computer and a bunch of cables) in an anarchist squat a couple hundred feet from where he would later be shot.

I definitely think he was shot for two basic reasons. 1) He was filming PRIistas and more than that, he was filming them shooting at people. 2) He was a gringo. The PRIistas had actually been talking on their radio station about how "foreign terrorists" were in Oaxaca bringing money and supplies to the movement. Can't imagine who they might have been talking about.
 

It seems likely that the elites and their goons will continue to resort to violence as a solution to the proliferation of technologies which allow for effective citizen journalism. Ironically, as wealthy countries like the US increase their surveillance capabilities for use against their citizens, police, such as here in Pittsburgh are making arrests for merely documenting their activities.

As they and their apologists often tell privacy advocates and other critics of Big Brother-like intrusions into our lives, "If you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Officer"