Visu.News Podcast

This week on the VisuNews podcast I speak with Robin Marty, author of “A Handbook for a Post-Roe America” and operations director of the West Alabama’s Women’s Center. I called her to talk about the state of abortion access in Alabama and the recent announcement from the states Attorney General that he would be looking at potentially prosecuting women for trying to receive abortion pills under a chemical endangerment law that’s already on the books.

From a January 11th Washington Post article on the subject: “Alabama’s attorney general (Steve Marshall) became the most prominent Republican official yet to suggest that pregnant women could be prosecuted for taking abortion pills, saying in recent days that a state ban targeting those who facilitate abortions does not preclude the state from seeking to penalize women under other existing laws.

Since that was saying the quiet part a bit too loud for the more mainstream anti-choice activists in the country - his office has since backed off saying to the Washington Post that he will be focusing his ire at the pharmaceutical companies that are distributing them. Quote: “The Attorney General’s beef is with illegal providers, not women,” said Cameron Mixon, Marshall’s deputy communications director.

That was about a month ago, since then Alabama and 19 other states attorney general’s have sent letters to CVS and Walgreens to not send mifepristone, an abortion drug to their states threatening legal action. Saying: “We emphasize that it is our responsibility as State Attorneys General to uphold the law and protect the health, safety, and well-being of women and unborn children in our states,” the attorneys general said in letters to the nation’s two largest drugstore chains Wednesday.

To quote CNBC: The Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago as a safe and effective way to terminate an early pregnancy. The FDA says scientific and real-world evidence demonstrate that the pill is safer than surgical abortion and childbirth.

This isn’t the only threat to abortion access currently in the works by conservative states trying to effectively prevent women across the country from receiving health care. In Texas there is a case in front of a Federal Judge brought by Alliance Defending Freedom along with the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS, CHRISTIAN MEDICAL & DENTAL ASSOCIATIONS they seek to pull the Food and Drug Administrations clearance of the abortion pill, mifepristone. The groups went judge shopping in their case and got exactly what they were looking for. Quoting an excellent article in Bloomberg law that I’ll link in the show notes - “The ADF filed its complaint in federal court in Amarillo, where the only district judge is Matthew Kacsmaryk, who’s written critically of the constitutional right to same-sex marriage and whose past rulings included one rejecting explicit health protections for LGBTQ people.”

The route to the US Supreme Court for this case could be quick, but in the meantime the ADF has asked for the use of the drugs to be enjoined while the case has been heard.

I’ll be covering the fight for abortion access quite a bit this year - so I’ll be returning to these stories when news breaks. Until then here’s my conversation with Robin Marty, recorded in January before many of these stories broke.

Donate to the West Alabama Women's Center here: https://action.yellowhammerfund.org/a/wawc 

Robin Marty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinmarty 

West Alabama Women's Center on twitter: https://twitter.com/alabama_west 

LINKS:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/gop-attorneys-general-warn-cvs-walgreens-against-mailing-abortion-pill-in-their-states.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/11/alabama-abortion-pills-prosecution/

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153593174/mifepristone-abortion-pill-federal-texas-lawsuit-restrict-access-nationwide

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/abortio

Portions of this interview were published in this months issue of The Progressive - which I recommend picking up - it's in stores now! It's about 2000 words of a 7500 interview I did with Alex Winter... one that I managed to never ask him a question about Bill & Ted as I am a serious adult journalist and not a fan boy. (It was really really tough). The video version of this interview will be posted soon here - assuming I can post such a long video, I haven't tried yet. 

This is our first episode of the New Year and we’re opening with a big one. I interviewed actor and documentary filmmaker Alex Winter - who you of course will know as Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. For nearly as long as he’s been acting, he’s been directing - doing everything from TV shows like Ben 10 to documentaries like the incredible Panama Papers.

Winter’s latest documentary film, The YouTube Effect, delves into how YouTube, its parent company, Google, and the public need to come to terms with its far-reaching influence on society. It does this quite subtly by speaking with the people who know the site best—its founders and content creators. Winter told me that he did not want anyone on camera that “wasn’t embedded in the YouTube machine somehow.”

Winter speaks to content creators who have achieved Hollywood-level stardom—although you may not know them unless you are in their demographic. Ryan Kaji, of Ryan’s World fame, is an eleven-year-old with 33.6 million YouTube subscribers. Anthony Padilla was the co-creator of the Smosh channel, which had twenty-five million subscribers and over ten billion video views.

The influence and reach of these channels, especially with kids and young adults, is undeniable. But even as someone who covers online content for a living, I had never heard of them. Both are noncontroversial figures in the YouTube world, but there are many more on the site that create edgy content for views—and millions of dollars in advertising revenue. For some creators, that means becoming a gateway to the alt-right pipeline.

For years, YouTube’s algorithm pushed videos to viewers that it believed they would like, based on videos they had previously watched, which usually meant ones with a large amount of interaction and controversy. This would lead people from Joe Rogan to Jordan Peterson, for example, and then to someone like white supremacist Stefan Molyneux.

The film speaks to the wider issue of online polarization and the effect of social media on all of us.

YouTube is here to stay, so we will have to figure out how to deal with it. The YouTube Effect is an important documentary about a problem that so many of us seem to hope will resolve on its own. Spoiler alert: It won’t.

Get Andy's book here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/andy-campbell/we-are-proud-boys/9780306827464/

 

Welcome to the Visu.news podcast, I’m Zach D Roberts and this week I’m chatting with Huffington Post reporter and author of a new book on the proud boys - Andy Campbell. 

Much of the American public first learned of rightwing hate gang the Proud Boys after the infamous presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in which Trump ordered them to “stand back and stand by.” But they were terrorizing communities for years before that. Andy Campbell is one of the few reporters who have been covering the Proud Boys from day one. In his superb new book, We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism, Campbell lays out everything you need to know about the gang that helped organize a coup attempt in Washington, D.C. on January 6.

 

Campbell started out at Huffington Post as a crime reporter. He moved to politics in 2016 and, as with many journalists covering Trump, his job shifted into covering far-right extremism. “The Proud Boys stuck out right from the beginning as something more concerning than the other guys,” Campbell told me when I interviewed him for the article below. He was right, of course, and unlike a lot of the media in those days, he covered them with the skepticism that they deserved. 

Generous media profiles of the Proud Boys’ cool hipster co-founder Gavin McInnes, who also  co-founded Vice magazine, made the rounds on the Internet. Many journalists allowed him to promote the gang on their airwaves and websites as a “drinking club with a patriotism problem.” Unfortunately for the nation, these profiles ignored his regular calls for violence along the way, something that We Are Proud Boys documents extensively. 

The story of the Proud Boys wouldn’t be complete without discussing Trump’s boogeyman: antifa. Campbell’s book, in chronicling the far right, also features interviews with some of the people who investigated and infiltrated the organization at a time when law enforcement was defending them at Black Lives Matter protests. 

We Are Proud Boys does the tough job of delving into the origins and myths that bolstered the gang, including the odd and cruel story behind the source of its name (it’s from the Aladdin musical, but you’ll need to read the book for the messed up part). Even if you’re already familiar with the Proud Boys, this book is a riveting read that reminds you of all the times that we could have stopped them. 

Read the interview at https://progressive.org/

This is Zach D Roberts, I'm an investigative photojournalist and cofounder of Visu.News. This is the Visu.News Podcast - Isolated Incidents edition. Each month I interview an expert in the world of extremism on a topic in the news - this month I'm speaking with Alisa Mahjoub. They are an independent researcher of the relationship between the Unification Church cult group and United States imperialism/fascism.

This month the former prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe was assassinated - this was because of Abe's connections with the Unification Church. I’ll post more info in the show notes on this but I figured this was a good reason to have Alisa on to discuss their leaving the church and what this somewhat mysterious organization is like.

My real introduction to the Unification Church was covering the ‘gun cult’ in Northern Pennsylvania led by Pastor Sean Moon - the son of the founder of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun Myung Moon for The Progressive Magazine. There is a much larger Unification church that is thriving around the world - especially in South Korea, Japan, and the US. Sean Moon’s Rod of Iron Ministries is just a small part of it.

 

About Alisa:

Alisa Mahjoub (they/them), is an independent researcher of the relationship between the Unification Church cult group and United States imperialism/fascism. Having grown up in the UC, Alisa is now part of a yet unnamed collective of ex UC members who are actively working to expose the church's various state sanctioned human rights abuses, provide relevant information to the public, and offer support and resources on deradicalization to those who have exited or are interested in exiting the cult. You can find Alisa on twitter at

Follow Alisa on Twitter at @alisa_mahjoub 

Support their work at patreon.com/AlisaMahjoub

 

Links:

Articles on shooting motivation: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/07/15/national/crime-legal/yamagami-abe-shooting-motivation/ 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/world/asia/japan-unification-church-lawsuits.html 

My photo-essay on the Rod of Iron Festival https://progressive.org/latest/love-guns-god-and-donald-trump-roberts-211018/

Support our work at Patreon.com/zdroberts - you get early access to podcasts, supporter exclusive photoessay's and much more. 

 

This episode of the Visu.News podcast - I speak with author Dr. Reece Jones who has a new book out this week, titled Nobody is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States 

The book is the untold story of how, through a series of landmark but largely unknown decisions, the Supreme Court has dramatically curtailed the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution in service of policing borders. The Border Patrol exercises exceptional powers to conduct warrantless stops and interrogations within one hundred miles of land borders or coastlines, an area that includes nine of the ten largest cities and two thirds of the American population.

Dr. Reece Jones is also the author of White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall - a Guggenheim fellow and a professor and the chair of the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai'i.

We're back! In this podcast Zach talks to Aaron about covering the March for Life and the Anti-Vaxx/Mandate... and then proceeds to rant a bit about where the masses are that took to the streets during the Trump Presidency. 

 

Must-reads: 

Patriot Front is outed...

https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/patriot-front-fascist-leak-exposes-nationwide-racist-campaigns/

Matt Gaetz is going to have some problems...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/witness-can-confirm-matt-gaetz-was-told-he-had-sex-with-a-minor

Alex Jones Pleads the 5th...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/far-right-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-pleaded-the-5th-amendment-almost-100-times-before-the-january-6-committee/ar-AAT83Iv?li=BBnbcA1

And then spilled on his show...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alex-jones-pleaded-the-fifth-to-jan-6-probe-then-spilled-on-his-radio-show?ref=home

Fascism and the right to life are a Venn diagram circle... 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/patriot-front-s-anti-abortion-advocacy-march-life-sends-clear-ncna1287952

Police Union defending cop that choked another cop on camera... 

https://www.rawstory.com/christopher-pullease/

Hi, this is Zach D Roberts with a special episode of the Visu.News podcast AND the Around the Lens podcast. For those who are new to the pod - Around the Lens is a visual imaging show that I used to do regularly with David J Murphy. Well, we're bringing it back and trying out a bunch of new ideas - expanding out beyond just visual journalism with more reviews and interviews from people outside my usual field. 

 

One feature that we're working on is bringing you interviews like the one here with Times Reporter photojournalist Andrew Dolph that focuses on getting the "director's commentary" of a photo story. Basically the 'behind the scenes' tale of how and why they got the shots. 

 

Dover's Mayor Homrighausen went on a firing spree today. He is embattled, and under investigation. We received a tip, followed it, and documented the firings of three staff members as he moved from building to building. This is why #journalismmatters https://t.co/2y00kpV9AX pic.twitter.com/BPPzwUcoKx

— Andrew Dolph | Photojournalist (@andrewdolph) December 22, 2021

 

 

I'm friends with Andrew so I saw these images posted on his Twitter (@andrewdolph) a couple of days ago and I knew I had to talk with him about them. Andrew's paper, the Times Reporter is a daily paper based out of New Philadelphia, Ohio which is on the map between Columbus, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. 

 

So without further ado - here's my conversation with Andrew Dolph. 

 

Andrew Dolph Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dolphphoto/

This is the first ever episode of the Isolated Incidents podcast. A monthly dive into the stories that journalists have put out covering the world of far-right and the grifters that inhabit it. When I first came up with the idea it was before the pandemic so I didn’t think to necessarily cover the anti-vax devotees but as the worlds of right-wing grifters, politicians and radio hosts expands we'll cover those too. 

 

First a little bit about me. I’m Zach D Roberts an investigative journalist and photographer who has been covering the far right for over a decade. I followed Trump and his MAGA caravan on the 2016 campaign trail which then slid into the far-right rallies like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, my photos helped get some of the violent white supremacists thrown in jail, and since then I’ve been going to MAGA rallies, fascist marches, and white supremacist clusterfucks. Now as the movements have evolved and after January 6th they’ve somewhat gone into hiding its anti-mandate’ anti-vaxx and mask rallies that I cover - which are really just the new MAGA rally… with a lot of new faces. 

 

As this is the first episode of Isolated Incidents we’re focusing on the OG conspiracy broadcaster - Alex Jones. Well, actually that would probably be either Art Bell or Bill Cooper or even some John Birch Society connected loon … I’m sure we’ll talk about them in the future. 

Last month I spoke to journalist Brooke Binkowski who has been tracking Jones for a while now, delving into his coverage of the Sandy Hook mass killing in 2012 for the Texas defamation lawsuit brought by family of the murdered children. His refusal to provide the requested information to the multiple lawsuits against him by the parents of the murdered Sandy Hook children saw default judgments in Texas and Connecticut. He’s currently attempting to raise $2 million to save his disinformation empire, he’s even talking about selling his tank. 

Right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones is once again, in legal trouble. 

Last week, the January 6th Commission has subpoenaed him. A letter from the Commission, signed by Congressman Bennie Thompson has called on Jones to provide documents pertaining to his part in the organization of the rally and the subsequent march that he participated in to the Capitol. The Commission cites his “facilitating a donation to provide what he described as “eighty percent” of the funding.”

Jones used his megaphone and live broadcast to call on people during the allegedly impromptu Jan 6th march to head in the direction of InfoWars guest, Ali Alexander’s permitted rally location on the East side of the Capitol. The Commission does not seem to be claiming that he was part of a planned attack on the Capitol but was part of the larger move on the day to march to the building. On January 6th, the broadcaster repeatedly told his listeners that Trump personally ordered him to lead such a march. 

The subpoena sites multiple instances on his broadcasts in the leadup to January 6th that the rally was going to be something bigger than a goodbye to the one-term President. The rallying cry of 1776 Former President Trump tweeted out “Big Protest on January 6th, Be there will be wild!” - in response, the loudest cheerleader for MAGA responded:

But finally Trump has done the right thing. .. . He is now calling on We the People to take action and to show our numbers. . . . This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776. The time for games is over. The time for action is now. Where were you when history called? Where were you when you and your children's destiny and future was [sic] on the line? I've been on the air 27 years, and I've never reported on anything that comes as close to being this huge. This is seismic. • • • And if you allow this multinational consortium to steal our election, you have committed not just us, but yourselves, to a living hell. . . . Trump is trying to do a lot of g

Zach D Roberts and Aaron Cynic are back with a conversation about Occupy Wall Street, which turns 10 years old on Friday, September 17th.

No OWS hasn't been occupying Zuccotti Square for 10 years but the legacy OWS lives on in many forms. There's no Bernie presidential run without OWS, there's no conversation about the 99% without OWS - we could go on - but that's why we recorded this podcast!

Zach was in NYC for the occupation at Zuccotti aka Liberty and Aaron was in Chicago's financial district and Grant Park.

 

READ THIS:

This is a great piece in The Indypendent on how 9/11 set back the anti-globalization/pro-worker movement. 

https://indypendent.org/2021/09/9-11-and-never-forgetting/

Lessons from OWS in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/15/occupy-wall-street-10-year-anniversary-lessons

Occupy Wall Street Did More Than You Think in The Atlantic by the co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street Journal

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/how-occupy-wall-street-reshaped-america/620064/

I was beaten several times and arrested at OWS #D17 along with hundreds of other journalists and activists. This is an excellent report detailing some of them. (The Global Justice Clinic (NYU School of Law) and the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice (Fordham Law School)

https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/suppressingprotest.pdf

Photojournalists on the Unite the Right Rally 3 Years on and more...

 

This is a special crossover episode of the Visu.News and Around the Lens podcasts. We’re recording this on the third anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the death of Heather Heyer and severe injuries to dozens more. 

I’m here with a handful of photojournalists who were there that day discussing what has and hasn’t changed since then. Our conversation starts with the tiki torch march then on to the next day - the Unite the Right rally, August 12th. We then drift into chatting about how covering the far right has changed and discussed some of the new risks of working as a photojournalist covering protests. 

I apologize that I did not have each person do a proper intro of themselves, so I will list who is on the call in the order in which they spoke. You can find their socials and websites in the show notes.

Sandi Bachom is a freelance video journalist based in New York City with Getty and NowThisNews (Sandibachom.com). You can find her on Twitter and Instagram. 

John Rudoff is a freelance photojournalist with SIPA-USA and based in Portland (Rudoffphoto.com) You can find him Twitter and Instagram. 

Ford Fischer is an independent video journalist and co-founder of News2Share.com based in Washington DC. You can find him on Twitter and YouTube.

Emily Molli is a video and still journalist and founder of SCNR.com follow her work on Twitter and Instagram 

Michael Nigro is a freelance photojournalist and film director based in New York City. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram and his portfolio site here. 

And I’m Zach D Roberts a freelance photojournalist co-founder of Visu.News and AroundTheLens.com.  You can find me on Twitter and Instagram.