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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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This content has been restored and your account has been reinstated.
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Harry The YouTube Team
Our YouTube account has been restored and I am happy to report that all 507 of our videos are back online.
It was two weeks ago that KSDK Channel 5 filed two bogus copyright infringement claims against us with YouTube claiming we unfairly used segments from their news broadcasts in our media watch reports.
We maintained our usage of KSDK's video falls under the "Fair Use" provision in copyright law and filed a counter-notification with YouTube.
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
Our win against KSDK, though it will likely go completely underreported locally (like far too many significant events — which is, of course, why PubDef exists and KSDK is threatened by us), is huge in this new media vs. old media revolution which we are proudly engaged in.
One small step for PubDef; one giant leap for St. Louis independent media!
We're happy to announce a couple of great new features! First, we now have continuous play on PubDef.TV, meaning you just go to the site and videos start playing automatically, one after the other — just like real TV, but on-demand!
We've also made it easy for you to sign up to receive breaking news updates from PubDef right in your email inbox, Blackberry, or (coming June 29) iPhone. Look to the left side of the page to add your email address to our mailing list.
Be the first to know what happened! Sign up today for PubDef.net Alerts.
YouTube, which PubDef.net uses to post and play our videos, has just added a cool new scroll-through feature on its player that shows related videos.
It's fun to play with and lets you discover new, related videos without leaving our site. Just hover over the video after pressing "play" and watch the magic unfold. Here, try it with our most popular video ever...
And by clicking the "menu" button, you can easily access the code to embed our videos on your own site or the URL to link directly to it.
The field is narrowing and time is running out for area college students interested in being an intern with PubDef.net this summer.
The names of the two people selected for the 8-week guided tour through the world of St. Louis politics will be announced on Friday. Yes, applications are still being accepted, but get them in soon!
Email resumes and cover letters to editor@pubdef.net. Click here to learn more about this exciting opportunity.
Following the release of the groundbreaking AppleTV, allowing us to watch video podcasts on our television — further eliminating the need to ever watch broadcast TV — we'll be updating our own podcast much more regularly. So subscribe today to have our new vids automatically download to iTunes on your computer and AppleTV in your living room.
And yes, it's free... But I think now is a great time to remind you about the costs associated with producing this site and these videos (video tapes, microphones, computer upgrades, gas – Oy vey!), and to remind you about that little "Make a Donation" button over there to the left. Hint-hint.
Since PubDef.net started 18 months ago, it has basically been a one man operation. The facts you read are as I know them to be true. The opinions expressed here have been my own.
But starting next week, the reports, opinions and views of a few new contributors will be added to the mix.
These invited guests will bring their own unique perspectives to this expanding discussion of local (and soon national) politics, media, education, race, economics, and much more — all while maintaining Pub Def's reputation for accuracy, honesty, speed, and relevancy.
I'm scheduled to be a guest on "Collateral Damage" tonight with hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel and Steve Patterson of Urban Review STL. The show starts at 7:00 and can be heard on KDHX 88.1 FM or online at www.kdhx.org.
Topics likely to be discussed: Darlene Green and Jim Shrewsbury killing the BJC expansion deal, the race for Aldermanic President, and will there be a takeover of SLPS?
For the benefit of the general public and the members of the State Board of Education, PubDef.TV has been updated with videos from Tuesday's hearing on the future of St. Louis Public Schools.
Thanks to the engineers at Google and Blogger, PubDef now has labels!
From now on, each post will be categorized for easy reference. Just click on the label (such as "schools") and all the stories related to that topic will come up on one page.
Now, we've got hundreds and hundreds of old posts to go through, so give us a while to label all the old stuff. But all new posts will be labeled.
Looking for a story from last week, last month, or even last year? Look to the left side of the page in the Pub Def Archives.
To keep the page relatively quick to download (I know, even now it's a beast for slower Internet connections), we only keep the last few days of news on the front page. If you want all the recent stuff, go to the January 2007 archive and get everything from this month on one page.
Missouri Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Action Seminar Today
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 9:18 AM
Have YouTube, Blogs, and electronic information changed how campaigns are won and lost? That's the question fellow blogger John Combest and I will be discussing today at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Action Seminar at the Chase Park Plaza. Roy Temple, of FiredUpMissouri.com, may also join us.
Our panel is scheduled to begin at 11:00.
Other discussions will include a look at the state's new campaign finance regulations and lobbying laws (featuring Joe Carroll and Liz Ziegler from the Missouri Ethics Commission) and Missouri's political landscape "as viewed by the pen and the pad" (featuring Jo Mannies, Post-Dispatch; and Dave Drebes, Arch City Chronicle).
Missouri Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Action Seminar This Week
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, November 13, 2006 at 9:09 AM
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be holding their Legislative Action Seminar on Thursday at the Chase Park Plaza. There will be several panel discussions on economic development, politics and technology featuring state and local government and media people. Click here for a full schedule.
We'd like to call your attention to the 11:00 discussion on technology's impact on the political process: "Have YouTube, Blogs, and electronic information changed how campaigns are won and lost?" This panel will include Antonio French (www.pubdef.net), John Combest (www.johncombest.com), and Roy Temple (www.firedupmissouri.com).
Other discussions will look at the state's new campaign finance regulations and lobbying laws (featuring Joe Carroll and Liz Ziegler from the Missouri Ethics Commission) and Missouri's political landscape "as viewed by the pen and the pad" (featuring Jo Mannies, Post-Dispatch; and Dave Drebes, Arch City Chronicle).
I'm scheduled to be a guest this morning on The Freeman Bosley, Jr. Show around 9:00 a.m. on 100.3 The Beat - KATZ FM. We'll be talking about the results from Tuesday's elections.
I'm scheduled to be a guest on "Collateral Damage" tonight discussing tomorrow's elections with hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel. The show starts at 7:00 and can be heard on KDHX 88.1 FM or online at www.kdhx.org.
I'm scheduled to be a guest next Sunday morning, Nov. 12, on the Freeman Bosley, Jr. Show around 9:00 a.m. on KATZ 100.3 FM. We'll be talking about the results from Tuesday's elections.
We hope you enjoy our new "mini theater" on the left side of the page. Now you can play several of PUB DEF's most recent interviews and exclusive videos from any page on the site.
You can even create "remixes" on the fly by playing two videos at once. To enlarge the video, simply click on the YouTube logo. Enjoy.
I'll be a guest on "Collateral Damage" tonight discussing the various amendments and propositions on next week's ballot with Dave Drebes of the Arch City Chronicle and hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel. The show starts at 7:00 and can be heard on KDHX 88.1 FM or online at www.kdhx.org.
UPDATE: Oops, it seems Fred and I got our wires crossed. I'll be on next week. KWMU's Tom Weber joined Drebes tonight.
Cable news network Fox News has picked up on the controversy surrounding ACORN's GOTV and voter registration campaigns. Reporter Jeff Goldblatt is in Kansas City today reporting on ACORN's troubles there.
His story, to run during the 6:00 hour at 5:30, will feature PUB DEF's video report on allegations made by several St. Louis ACORN workers about being trained to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill while registering voters on behalf of Proposition B, the proposal to raise the state's minimum wage.
UPDATE: Here's the Fox News report, which also features St. Louis City's Republican Elections Director, Scott Leiendecker...
I was a guest yesterday on NPR's "Open Source with Christopher Lydon" discussing the Missouri Senate race, the Stem Cell initiative, and other topics related to the Nov. 7 election.
The other guests were Prof. George Connor, Missouri State University; author Jonathan Frazen ("The Corrections" and "The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History"); and conservative Kansas City blogger Dee Vantuyl of The Chatterbox Chronicles.
At the end of the show, they played a short pre-recorded interview with our friend Steve Patterson of UrbanReviewSTL.com.
I'll be a guest tomorrow on NPR's "Open Source with Christopher Lydon" discussing the Missouri Senate race, the Stem Cell initiative, and other topics related to the Nov. 7 election.
The show airs live at 6:00 p.m. in many places including New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Austin, TX -- but not in St. Louis. You can listen online via one of these streams or wait until Wednesday for the link to the podcast.
I was a guest yesterday on "Ascent Perspectives", the podcast of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver.
Click here to listen to the interview. And go to BlackPolicy.org to learn more about the CAAP and view a map of current statewide and federal races with African-American candidates.
Radio talk show host Lizz Brown and her co-host, former Ald. Irene J. Smith, took some time between paid ads for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill to attack PUB DEF for our coverage of the senate campaign. Brown and Smith claimed that the $900 ad that McCaskill's opponent, Sen. Jim Talent, bought on this site was influencing our stories.
"When you look at some of the things that [Antonio French] is doing... and it's not balanced, you wonder whether or not the fact that Jim Talent has an ad on his website -- It's like I bought me some good coverage," said Smith.
In the three-minute video, which features numerous shots of McCaskill interacting with elderly voters, is a brief shot of a senior pulling out an absentee ballot and McCaskill looking at it with her.
The story was actually intended to be a positive piece. We didn't mention anything about the incident in our story. Nor was it highlighted in any way in the video. But several conservative blogs reposted the video with headlines such as "Voter Fraud Caught on Tape".
We have disabled the video's embedding feature on YouTube so no other sites can repost the video with that false characterization.
And speaking of false characterizations, Brown claimed we deleted a comment back in August that spoke negatively about Talent -- presumably to save embarrassment for someone who might one day be an advertiser on this site.
Those that spend any amount of time in the comments section know the only comments we ever delete are vulgar and slanderous ones (and sometimes -- if they're really clever ones -- we even leave those up).
Look, for those that define "fair and balanced" as one explosive story deserves another, then we can see how you think PUB DEF has been harder on the McCaskill campaign. All we can say to you is: Help us out.
We are always looking for news. It's true we have been very successful in breaking news relating to Claire McCaskill's campaign recently. But we can't take all the credit. A steady stream of tips have been coming in from Democratic sources about their senate candidate.
We have repeatedly asked them and other sources for tips about the Republican candidate. But nothing has come in (yet). So should we hold the next McCaskill story until an equal or greater Talent story comes about? That's not how we work.
And so now we ask Lizz Brown, Irene J. Smith, and anyone else who thinks PUB DEF has been bought for $900 and a pat on the head: What are we not reporting on Jim Talent? Where should we be looking for the next big story?
As always, email us at editor@pubdef.net or call our 24-hour Tip Line at (314) 518-2364. All tips are 100% confidential.
U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill visited a northside senior center tonight to talk health care.
The Democrat was joined by Comptroller Darlene Green and soon-to-be State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, who hosted the event at the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community in the Ville neighborhood.
Several dozen elderly African-American men and women listened as McCaskill talked about the shortcomings of the Medicare Part D program, the voting record of her opponent, Sen. Jim Talent, and the overall state of healthcare in America.
UPDATE: This video had been reposted on several conservative websites claiming it shows some kind of fraudulent behavior relating to an absentee ballot. That allegation was not made in the video, in our story that accompanied the video, or by any person in the room at the time the video was shot. Simply, that is not what happened.
For that reason, we've disabled the embedding feature on YouTube, meaning it can no longer be reposted on other sites. You can now only see this video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cida3VwmCG0
In recent days, these campaigns have been doing more than their fair share of mudslinging. We ask that both sides refrain from trying to turn our reports into more mud.
Instead of asking the questions, a diverse group of local journalists answered them last Sunday at a student workshop in north St. Louis.
Twenty area high school students, participating in a year-long cultural leadership program, came to Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church to ask questions of those that write history's "first draft".
Post-Dispatch writers Sylvester Brown and Jake Wagman, the St. Louis American's Chris King, and PUB DEF's Antonio French answered questions from the group of 10 African-American and 10 Jewish teens.
The program, sponsored by the non-profit Cultural Leadership, hosts a series of weekend experiences over the course of year teaching students about each other's cultural history. At the end of the program, the group travels across the nation to major black and Jewish historical sites.
The St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will be hosting a luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 10, at Bar Napoli in Clayton. The topic of discussion will be corporate media ownership.
Panelists include Jeff Gordon, president of the St. Louis Newspaper Guild; Dave Ervin, vice president/general manager, KMOX 1120; William A. Lanesey, vice president/general manager, KPLR-TV Channel 11 CW; Alvin Reid, city editor, St. Louis American; Ed Bishop, editor/general manager, St. Louis Journalism Review; and Antonio D. French, PubDef.net.
Bar Napoli is located at 7754 Forsyth Blvd. The discussion starts at 11:30 a.m.
Okay, let's round out the Thursday morning bitching with a complaint about an article in the St. Charles Journal (man, with all this whining this site's going to start reading like a -- a blog).
Now granted it's St. Charles, but considering this reporter used to write for the Suburban Journals, it kind of hurts that we weren't included in their story on political blogging, which mostly talked about partisan blogs Fired Up Missouri and The Source, and a local site called St. Chuck Watch. But no Pub Def Weekly. [Insert sad face]
Oh well, no more whining. Let the haters hate. We've got important work to do...
From today's "Political Eye" column in the St. Louis American: "...several other African-American businessmen announced Monday that they are backing Talent and gave his Democratic opponent Claire McCaskill an 'F' on the issues."
Now how would they know about that report card? There was no American reporter in the room -- or any other reporter except PUB DEF's -- but no mention of our exclusive report or photos.
It is very tiring to have to fight over and over for the same basic courtesy that any other reporter would get. A little appreciation for making it so easy for these larger news organizations to simply copy-and-paste their stories would be nice.
The addition of the new video player in our banner now presents an opportunity for campaigns and businesses to run their television commercials on our site (That's a big "hint-hint" to Ms. McCaskill, Thomas and Montee; Mr. Talent; all you Stem Cell supporters and opponents; and all the folks against the tobacco tax and in favor of it).
We've obviously made some changes around here. As we approach our One Year Anniversary on October 16, we're updating the site a bit. Let us know what you think.
