Drone Hysteria! Gullible Media Organizations have Been Hoodwinked Big Time by the FAA and DOT

Washington, D.C.—We have a full-blown crisis!  We are being told that government must suddenly regulate and register the well over two million drones used by hobbyists, photographers, filmmakers and other ordinary civilians.

For over two years now we’ve heard the media tell us how these little pesky devices will bring down airliners, invade privacy and destroy our way of life.  Pulling the puppet strings of the media has been the FAA and DOT. 

Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Emanuel said it best back when he was Obama’s Chief of Staff, “Never let a good crisis go to waste!”  This drone crisis is nothing more that a manufactured one.

The FAA has showered the media with their “facts” in that they claim there are well over 700 cases of near misses with airliners and other conventional aircraft.

Missing from these statistics are a single fatality, serious injury or even a report of notable property damage.  Because drones have driven news stories like wildfire a child needing a Band-Aid on his nose from a drone propeller is automatically a national news story. 

I guess nobody in the media noticed that there is not a single incident where a multi-rotor camera drone every touched any conventional aircraft, ever.

More importantly there is not a single identified suspect, prosecution, captured drone, video or even a photograph involving these near miss reports!  Nearly everyone has a video camera in their pockets today but not a single image exists of drone misconduct? 

Now there is a sudden rush to regulate and register every little drone in America!  We are being told that this is being done in the name of public safety.  Is it about safety or just a case of government selling us on more government?  As you read this you know the answer, we’ve been had!

The reason for the sudden rush is simple.   As each year drags on and there are no significant accidents to report or legitimate cases of privacy invasions discovered the need for regulation is non-existent.  The taxpayers can’t then be fleeced over this manufactured impending doom.

Imagine the number of FAA and DOT agents that will be needed to register and inspect every drone in America?  Politicians will be putting their relatives, friends and supporters in well paying government drone chasing jobs! 

Then they will all take credit for the fact that there are no deaths, injuries or property damage as a result of their comprehensive drone enforcement activities!  That’s how our government works!

In the meantime the morons in suits running our shrinking news organizations that helped to create this Drone Hysteria must continue spending millions leasing helicopters and crews to get images.   Using drones would only cost a tiny percentage of what they pay now.

Conventional pilots run the FAA.  They are all aware that drones will be eliminating a significant percentage of their jobs.  They have an obvious conflict of interest here.  It’s in their interest to slow the drone technology down as much as they can.

FAA regulations were all written in blood.  They are based on actual deadly aircraft accidents.  When it came to our little drones the FAA departed from reactive regulation to one of prior restraint.  That’s un-American!  So is the FAA stranglehold on the commercial use of a drone. 

Will we wake up in time to keep the FAA in check?  I doubt it.  

Drones, Southern California Wildfires and Hysterical Chicken Little Propaganda

Cajon Pass, CA—For the last several brushfires that plagued this severely water parched area, claims were made that drone sightings delayed firefighting efforts.

Like so many reports by conventional pilots there’s never a shred of independent evidence such as videos, photos or the drones themselves.

The overblown and sensational claims of delayed response threatening lives and property are beyond outrageous.

Let me say that everyone is aware that conventional firefighting aircraft must fly well below the minimum airspace altitude. 

Camera drones could conceivably collide with conventional aircraft within nearby airspace.  That could be dangerous. 

Drone operators don’t want their drones destroyed, nor do they want their drones to be responsible for any kind of mishap.  

Drone technology is evolving faster than any wildfire and drones will soon replace conventional aircraft for these sometimes-risky firefighting missions.

Are pilots making up these stories to inhibit and delay drone integration into the airspace? 

Considering that despite numerous of reports of near misses there’s still never been a single collision, video, photo or recovered drone produced.  

News reports of these near misses are sensationally hysterical and terribly misleading. 

The nearly two million multi-rotor camera drones in civilian hands still have a perfect safety record.  No deaths, serious injuries or notable property damage. 

I’m not suggesting that a collision between a civilian drone and conventional aircraft could never happen. 

If the FAA declares wildfire scenes to be No Fly Zones for drones that are not directly involved in firefighting or rescue efforts that would be certainly reasonable.  

Accordingly, seeing a drone operator severely punished by the FAA for knowingly entering the airspace near a wildfire would not offend any reasonable person.

We could however do without the government manipulated, hyped, Chicken Little media reports on this issue. 

Expect More Surprises in The Jodi Arias Case

Phoenix, AZ—The second attempt to get a verdict in the penalty phase of the Jodi Arias murder trial is about be get underway before Judge Sherry Stephens. Will it be death, life without parole or a 25 calendar year sentence?   Arias would get full credit for her years in pretrial custody. 

Arias is understandably and desperately seeking some control over her defense and public relations matters.  The problem is that she’s woefully unqualified to make any of those decisions.

The lawyers assigned to defend Arias are not exactly heavy hitters.  They are lightweights with limited skills and resources.  

Arias has been widely criticized for her missteps at every turn.  This young woman is fighting for her life while dealing with complicated issues few of us will ever have to face. For her there are no right answers.  Whatever she does turns out wrong. 

The only thing I know about Arias for sure is she has given substantially different versions of whatever happened in that Mesa, AZ home. I’ve learned long ago that people that use legitimate and lawful deadly force in self-defense far too often lie to authorities because they think it’s somehow necessary.  

The simple truth is if Arias had invoked her right to remain silent and simply refused to answer police questions she would have probably never been arrested.  In any event she’d be a free woman today.  

People that have never walked in this Arias’ shoes are the first to castigate her.  

Judge Stephens wisely booted the Media’s cameras out of the courtroom for the second penalty phase.  The actual murder trial that ended in conviction was as ugly as any court/media circus in American history. Perhaps this time the jury can do their jobs with less outside influence.

Protecting un-sequestered jurors from published material and videos is absolutely impossible in this day and age.  Judges have to take special precautions to prevent the court’s evidence from being co-mingled with Internet gossip.

Frankly the courts have been incredibly negligent beyond giving jurors redundant but meaningless admonishments to avoid such material. 

Under the media's radar, this case has had lawyers arguing and litigating under court seal since this sensational trial ended.  In my decades of courtroom and criminal justice experience I’ve seen nothing like this. 

My trusted Phoenix court sources have told me the protracted secret fight is over a “new” witness and evidence that was not considered at the first trial. This has nothing to do with the penalty phase but in fact what may actually lead to a new trial that may yet clear Arias.

This case has drawn an astronomical number of vocal trolls that have consistently spread anti-Arias hate and venom.  These trolls all claim to have watched the whole trial and know everything.

What these trolls are clueless about are the hours of the trial that they have never seen!  That was the numerous fights over evidence and admissibility in Judge Stephens’ chambers where the press, their cameras and public was excluded.

I hear the trolls say, "But she stabbed him so many times!"  What people don't realize is that few of these wounds were mortal.  The human body is so amazing that it will continue to fight to survive.  

A somewhat frail woman realistically would have to stab a stronger male numerous tines before he would begin to weaken or expire. Superficial wounds inflicted by a weaker female would do little but invite more aggression from a stronger male. 

The Arias case is sure to take many more surprising turns before it is over. 

I’m convinced that ultimately there may be enough prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in the Arias case to reverse any conviction and prevent a retrial.  I would not count out the real possibility that Arias may be freed before the litigation is over.

Police, Media Relations and Disinformation

Phoenix, AZ—Politicians and their appointed police chiefs across this nation demand nearly total control of police related information.

It’s epidemic in the larger cities controlled by Democratic Party mayors.  They see the value of leaving their citizens with a false sense of security and public safety as they spin any and all information accordingly.

Police business was once considered just that.  Certain information was kept away from all but sworn police officers.  That’s not the case because the local politicians have demanded and unlawfully obtained access to sensitive police data nearly everywhere.

Politicians also demand the ability to influence arrests and prosecutions of friends, relatives and of course their campaign contributors.  Illicit influence is used to both free the guilty and even jail the innocent.  Cops and prosecutors have no choice but to look the other way.  Whistle blowing in law enforcement circles simply does not exist. 

Our cops are considered expendable so reality dictates that the bosses find a sacrificial lamb or two to frame, fire and destroy their reputations.  This creates the appearance of avoiding corruption by eating a few of their own.

If you think things are operating by the book anywhere, you’re dead wrong.  Of course the actual Obstruction of Justice must be subtle and well below media radar. 

Controlling the cops is somewhat easy for politicians because they control the lives of officers through their jobs, working assignments and pensions.

Because of political corruption the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports system is almost totally unreliable because of local politicians and their police chiefs. 

They have learned that they can skew statistics to get additional federal funding or to hide things like murders from the public.  They’ve found creative ways of making crime statistics appear almost anyway they want.  

I’ve been both a cop and an investigative TV news producer over the last four decades and have seen this all-first hand. 

The police agencies have learned that they can control information by the use of Public Information Officers.   These are the kind of people that know how to do exactly what they’re told by superiors. 

PIO’s are not there to disseminate information but to protect and hide it.  They provide not a single syllable beyond what the public record demands.  They do this with a broad smile and appearance of cooperation. 

PIO’s know how to arrange a live news conference on an important crime story.  They love the captive audience that live TV gives them.  The PIO’s dutifully subvert the news conference purpose and instead use it for face time of the local politicians that have absolutely nothing to do with the story. 

Then they all brag about the “great work” they are doing for the taxpayers until the mass nausea sets in.  Only after that they will say a few words about the story involved. 

Today’s local news is troubled in a big way.  Lost audience and revenue has eliminated any challenges to the PIO’s disinformation.  The PIO’s and their bosses love this and know the stories will spin they way they want them.

As an investigative TV news producer I’ve made it personal policy to purposely avoid the PIO’s and not waste my time with them.  

Instead I locate and contact the witnesses, victims and property owners for the real story.  Instead of waiting for the cops to tell me about the backgrounds I investigate the newsmakers myself. 

If news organizations like allowing the PIO’s to tell their audiences what the news is, reporters and producers are not necessary.  Let the PIO’s Skype in their sound! 

No police department, politician or other obstructionist is going to prevent me from digging and learning the truth about a story I’m working.  Getting a news director to authorize my time these days is the real challenge. 

I’ve always watched the lamest of reporters suck up to the PIO’s thinking they will somehow get something extra.  The PIO’s are enemies of the truth and exist only to demolish or derail anything that might show government ineffectiveness or questionable motivation. 

Reporters should simply refuse to deal with the PIO’s.  If the cop or a low level supervisor like a sergeant or detective handling the story you're working has been muzzled that all the more reason to skip wasting time with the PIO’s. 

At a minimum no sound bites, name recognition belongs in print or on video of any police PIO. 

Every journalist that covers crime and courts should know this. 

The truth is that many reporters these days only want to get their minute-thirty second package up or six-inch print story without any effort.  What a sad existence.  I say do it right or don’t do it at all. 

Traditional Media Can’t Seem To Reinvent Itself For Survival

Newark, New Jersey-- New Jersey’s biggest newspaper, The Star-Ledger of Newark that also boasted being one of the nation’s largest is preparing to jettison 167 workers including 40 newsroom staffers. 

This paper attempted to transition into the Internet age with a website and addition of video reports. Obviously the problems with the newspaper’s bottom line were not cured. 

Traditional media as we knew it is on life support everywhere in the world.  Broadcasters and newspapers have billions invested in presses and broadcasting equipment that has become a stone around their necks.  Anyone can acquire adequate equipment for a few thousand dollars to send quality pre-packaged or live video around the world. 

Our new large television screens are rapidly making the transition to bring us web content along with traditional broadcast equipment.  It’s only a matter of time before TV broadcasting towers come down everywhere.  Cable providers are rapidly losing out to wireless providers. 

There are still those people to ignorant or otherwise trapped in a technology bubble, that rejects or otherwise has no access to computers.  Those that can read newspapers, listen to radio or watch television.  Those offline folk’s numbers are shrinking every day and soon they will have t accept the changes.   Internet navigation has never been easier and is getting simpler every day.

Broadband his improved and reaches nearly everyone.  A large segment of the population is satisfied to get their news on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.   They have abandoned the traditional sources.

The most difficult part of this media meltdown is the derailed careers, missed house payments and divorces ahead for unemployed journalists.  How do people that invested more than ten years in a career deal with an industry depression?  Those that are lucky to remain employed have shrinking paychecks and benefits.  

Twenty or more years ago the people unable thrive in a newsroom went to work for government agencies as public information officers.   Now solid reporters and TV anchors are begging for those PIO positions. 

The only good news here is that the singular Leftist lockstep slant of mainstream media is dying too.  News and opinion has become democratized by technology.  The problem is most of the bloggers are working for free or next to nothing.

Matt Drudge the granddaddy of bloggers made millions by aggregating news from multiple sources.  He created a single one-stop international news page with a Conservative flavor.  

Some bloggers have found lucrative careers like Alex Jones by over-sensationalizing every conspiracy theory to a hungry audience of believers.  Others that cater to a specific audience like firearm aficionados have built audiences and appropriate advertisers.

The greatest journalist in the world won’t succeed on the Internet with out learning web promotion as they navigate in a world of catchy buzzwords and meta tags. 

Who will pay for hard-hitting investigative news exposés of corruption, fraud and conspiracies?  Correspondents must travel, stay in hotels to get interviews and gather records and information for stories that sometimes just don’t develop. 

Breaking a huge news story is a waste if you don’t have an audience to appreciate it.  As other news providers learn of a big scoop they will plagiarize it and make it their own.  Copyrights are almost impossible to enforce on the Internet when the offenders are either off shore or don’t have deep pockets. 

The whole media thing will somehow shake out but where it ultimately goes is anyone’s guess.