The Corporate Censorship of Gawker and Why Its Bad for Filmmakers

[Ed_David]

So Gawker melted down - I followed it - the biggest thing that was really behind it wasn't what was on the surface - that poor story about the conde nast exec - it was corporate management taking over editorial - and well it was secretly really about this article - http://gawker.com/brands-are-not-your-friend-1684232182 - why brands aren't your friends.

In their meeting they talked about firing the author -Sam Briddle - as Gawker starts to care more about making money. Some say growing up - but there is nothing wrong with this article - it's not offensive to a person, it doesn't destroy someone - it's purely truth to power.

And they wanted to fire the writer - and that's not good to admit publically.

But why should we care - we are filmmakers?  Because all film is politcal.  We are a wing of journalism even if you are a VFX artist on Michael Bay films -that's political - it's your choice to support this modern blockbuster world - and you are making something seen by many.

You can't escape the politics.

And part of why I got banned from 2 other forums is because I started to show the truth behind the corporate control of those sites - almost the same reason they wanted to fire Sam - and I thought that corporate control of a forum to advance the discussion and science of filmmaking was harmful to the online principle.  It was so nice of the admin to create this site.

But see this is the thing - I work for advertising and I love them and the people I work for - they are all great people - we all are good people - we just know that corporations exist except for b corporations to solely make money.  Everything else is secondary.  So I have no ethical quandry being a counter to some of these measures especially since I believe in environmental and economic sustainability, just like the Pope, and that puts us in conflict.  This doesn't mean I don't like working on commercials - I actually love it because it gives me the free time to do my own work to try to help the world out - I couldn't do that if I was working for little to no pay on a doc that would take 70 hours of my week away.  I love advertisers - but there has to be boundaries.  Or soceity will continue to fade more and more into environmental and social decay.

There is a reason the press exists - it's a fundemental part of freedom and democracy.  When the press starts to cowtow to corporate interests anymore than it already has, it gets weak.  And then the bad will continue, more and more.  And this isn't fun to watch.