Corporate media is advocating tuning out regular people, but listening to Buffalo last night shows why they are being dangerously selfish
There are bills in New York State legislation pending delivery and possible signature by the governor that will guarantee access to encrypted police radio traffic (not currently a problem in Buffalo for most agencies, but since it is a trend, will be whenever the radio system upgrades) by what the bills attempt to define as professional newsgatherers. Without such a bill, public safety agencies would likely encrypt their radio traffic 100 percent (not just actually sensitive channels). Big media is making a play to preserve *their* access and by extension save their diminishing relevance in their life-and-death struggle against your friendly neighborhood Facebook page or whatever.
But -- look at last night. The city was in absolute chaos. An as-of-yet innumerable number of shootings and related chaos that these Facebook scanner news and information pages like Cheektowaga Scanner, Amherst Scanner, Buffalo 716 Street News, etc. all kept citizens updated in real-time and with far more coverage than the so-called professional newsgatherers as the New York State government would describe them, did.
I am using last night as part of the campaign to raise everyone's awareness about these bills, A11199A and S10079, and to refute their premise. I for one am not even saying don't let them pass because I also happen to believe that anyone having access to encrypted radio traffic is better than no-one, but the fight now or later needs to be to keep this access PUBLIC, period. As it is these bills are selfishly written by big for-profit media on the lie that "big media does it better with your best interest at heart", when, last night we see by the dedication and spread of random people on the ground like you and me, did it BETTER.