Dada in Federal Court 7/17 .... leads to 4 days in jail

[error]

I have unused server space and bandwidth that can be used in the event of a real emergency. I also keep full off-site backups, so even if the federal morons were to seize the computer, I can be back up and running elsewhere in a VERY short time.

Thanks for the offer.  I hope Kat decides to take you or Crucial Servers up on your hosting offers:  http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=3010.msg93276#msg93276

Kat: still waiting for your comments on the Crucial Servers offer.

If you can, give me a day or two of prior notice, if you want things like a control panel with pretty widgets to click on and manage your site. Since I'm the only person using it right now, I dispensed with it as completely unnecessary.

[Michael Fisher]

What's kind of surprising to me is that Son was apparently unable to get verifications but was still willing to run the story.  I guess it's a good sign if the media trusts us that much.  It's too bad NH reporters have such a high rate of departure from the state; we do seem to have establihed good relations with so many reporters but then they leave.  I guess we need to figure out a way to get more of the the higher ups at some of the papers to feel more friendly, but hopefully this will happen through the reporters to some extent.

Russell was commenting that the newness of so many reporters does also work to our advantage in that none of them bat an eye at the fact that so many of us are recent NH immigrants.  Many of the people telling our story have been here even less than we have.

New reporters are an excellent resource if someone is willing to sit down and "show them the ropes," if you will. Spending an hour on the phone with a new reporter can make a friend out of her. You can explain the recent history of the liberty movement, how it has been reported in the press, vocabulary, pitfalls to avoid (like referring to the FSP imperfectly, unless she wants to be attacked by ravenous dogs ), and many other concepts about politics in the state that she might not yet understand.

There are many facets to our movement that a reporter in this state needs to understand, and she will not connect the dots, without spending many hours researching our movement, unless someone sits down and explains it to her.

This is what a professional publicist does, and we should all understand this and do our best to foster good relations with reporters. Write a follow-up letter to, or call, a friendly reporter when she writes an excellent piece, even if it's not related to our movement. Give her all the information she needs on our activities.

IMO, there are five basic categories of media power for a publicist. This is very similar to basic sociology and I've adapted the concept from a very good book on business branding strategies of which I cannot remember the name, possibly "Marketing: Concepts and Strategies" by Dibb, Simkin, Pride, and Ferrell.

1. Reward Power: Reporters receive rewards from reporting on us. This is lame and a conflict of interests.
2. Expert Power: We are experts on a topic, send out press releases, sometimes gain publicity, and sometimes receive calls about a topic.
3. Referent Power: They defer to us (like the Associated Press) as a highly-regarded, objective information source on a specific topic or set of topics.
4. Legitimate Power: One of us actually own the newspaper. (Like the KFP. )
5. Coercive Power: We are the government, and we threaten them to print what we want, or else!

Ideally, the KFP would become statewide.

We are primarily at step 2, expert power, in most markets in New Hampshire, but we can become a referent power in other markets by becoming more like the Associated Press, where we cut deals with various news organizations to write a primarily objective news story and sell or trade it with them on a regular basis, gaining an increased level of trust over time.

We still have much territory to cover in solidifying our place as an expert power to the statewide media, but we must report on more topics, and we need more and more people writing primarily objective news stories that we can continuously feed to statewide news organizations. Unfortuantely, to accomplish this, we may need to write about news other than liberty most of the time.

[Michael Fisher]

Dealing with the press is also similar to selling. These benefits of collaboration, which relate to a publicist's job as much as an entrepreneur's, is quoted and adapted from the book, "Trust-based Selling," by Charles H. Green. I highly recommend it.

Benefits of Collaboration: (stuff in parentheses are my comments)

1. Shared perspectives. (We can find points that we agree on with a reporter.)
2. Enhanced creativity.
3. Efficiency through division of labor. (We can make her job easier.)
4. Efficiency through enhanced communication.
5. Efficiency through shortcutting where mutually agreeable. (Not too applicable to a publicist's job.)
6. More buy-in on the part of the customer. (We can get our point across to her more easily while helping her write a news story.)
7. Fewer misunderstandings. (i.e. the FSP's mission)
8. Less elapsed time.
9. Greater honesty. (We should be completely open and honest on the opinions of both sides of an event.)
10. Better working relationships.
11. Improved understanding of each others' business. (Our usefulness to her is made clear.)
12. Greater understanding of motives behind words and actions. ("Yes, we are biased, but here are both sides of the story, and here are the people you can talk to on the other side.")
13. Staff development on the part of buyer and seller. (Not too applicable with us... yet.)

Things to avoid: codependency; loss of perspective; and conflicts of interest, or the appearance thereof.

[Braddogg]

represent the keene free press as a journalist and then maybe you can audio tape even if they do object....supposedly journalists are excempt from some of the wiretap laws.

 

I have a KFP press pass but haven't used it yet; done anyone know for sure what distinctions this pass allows? Does it give us carte blanch permission to videotape and/or audiotape? Does it get us past security or in to events that we wouldn't otherwise be able to attend?

I'm not sure how the legality of it works, but this is my experience as a college-level journalist: If you call ahead to an event, you can probably get press passes to an event.  For example, I wanted to go to a reading and speech by author and historian David McCullough, but the event was sold out.  I put on my press hat and called back and wondered if they would grant a reporter access to the event, which they would, free of charge.  So, call ahead if you want to attend an event as a reporter.  Be sure to ask who you should contact once you arrive at the event, or if there is a press access area.  A courtesy I usually do is send the press agent a clipping of my article for their records once it goes to print.  As for audiotaping, I generally inform my interviewees that they are being audiotaped, out of courtesy.  I won't speak to the legality of the matter.

[Dave Ridley]

Welcome to "freenh.com", brock LOL

[Kat Kanning]

Looks like the Nashua Telegraph never did an article.

[Dave Ridley]

any improvement suggestions before I send this... ?

---
Dear folks at the Union Leader:

Thanks for drawing attention to my run-in with Homeland Security. As Son Hoang reported, they wish to cite me after I petitioned the government for a redress of grievances.  Basically I went into the Nashua IRS office in mid-September, silently handed two leaflets to workers and held a sign reading: "Is it right to work 4 IRS?"  Then I left, with no plans to return.

The heavy-handed Federal treatment of N.H. residents Ed Brown and Russell Kanning inspired this protest. Normally I only do this stuff at state/local offices.  Folks there are usually just amused.   Only Feds react with such fear and defensiveness, something that simply generates more news coverage.

They're right, though...it's time to stop this petitioning and demonstrating around N.H. Federal offices.  The Feds can't do that through punishment.  But they *can* do it by rethinking their priorities in New Hampshire, attacking only those who force harm or danger upon others.  If they do this, they'll find the state united behind them.

Dave Ridley
NHfree.com
Keene

[David]

I liked the loyal opposition part.   
And you are right, every time the gov't attacks someone, they create allies for us.  This movement is a response to gov't first strike force and threats of force.  So it is natural (and too bad  ) that we have our greatest growth through persucution.  This is especially true when the gov't goes after a clear peacefull underdog. 

[d_goddard]

Dave,

Please do me one favor:
If you have not yet retained a lawyer, please do so RIGHT NOW.

They've attempted to give you a citation. As I see it, that changes the entire dynamic of the situation.
Proceeding any further without consulting a lawyer is like driving your car and wondering if you need to worry about the "check oil" light on the dashboard.

I'm not a lawyer and have no legal training, but I know enough to know when the legal equivalent of the "check oil" light is flashing...

[Dave Ridley]

My gut instinct before they cited me was that they would cite me.

My gut insinct now is that they may try something surprising now that our guard is back down.   That should keep things interesting in these parts at least.   

[Kat Kanning]

Dave,

Please do me one favor:
If you have not yet retained a lawyer, please do so RIGHT NOW.

[John]

Give her all the information she needs on our activities.

I think our openness has proven to be a very strong plus.
Some of the "political types" worry way too much about comunication "stratteigery."
I find - and I think reporters do as well - that full and complete openness works for everyone.

The truth rocks!

[Russell Kanning]

any improvement suggestions before I send this... ?

They're right, though...it's time to stop this petitioning and demonstrating around N.H. Federal offices.  The Feds can't do that through punishment.  But they *can* do it by rethinking their priorities in New Hampshire, attacking only those who force harm or danger upon others.  If they do this, they'll find the state united behind them.

This last part is confusing to me.

[Russell Kanning]

I feel a great responsibility at this moment to remind you Dave ..... that this is a "Federal" offense you are looking at.



You cannot handle this alone .... you will need competent council.

We have an anarchist planning meeting this Tuesday ... you can ask some of our underage drinkin' campus radicals what to do in this delicate situation.

[Lex]

We have an anarchist planning meeting this Tuesday ...

Planning the unplanning.