Eric Byler and Annabel Park on CNN

By: Lowell
Published On: 5/1/2008 9:25:27 PM

This evening, CNN aired a segment about the 9500 Liberty "Interactive Documentary" video project and also about the site's creators, Annabel Park and Eric Byler.  According the CNN  print article:

Byler and Park say they decided to document the strife in [Prince William] county, near where Byler grew up, after seeing articles about the debate and attending civic meetings. They originally planned to release a feature-length documentary but shifted gears after attending a meeting of a group favoring the county's crackdown.

"What we saw there, it is very hard for newspaper reporters to report," Park said.

Newspapers are reluctant to report on the racial composition of members of a crowd, or to characterize their demeanor, she said, "but with one pan of our camera, people got so much visual information about what the group was like, and so then we decided there was a need for us to do this."

So Byler and Park posted a Web page at www.YouTube.com/9500Liberty, to counter what they call "an epidemic of misinformation" about the consequences of illegal immigration.

No question, Eric and Annabel have made a difference, even if there's still a lot of misinformation out there.  I am very much looking forward to their future videos as well as to their feature film on all this. To view the 9500 Liberty videos or leave a comment, click here.

Comments



Great journalists, too! (LonewackoDotCom - 5/2/2008 12:12:29 AM)
Two of their recent videos featured someone identified only as a college professor. Turns out he's also chief economist of a local bank and that bank sponsors one of his programs. Thus, he presumably has a financial stake in the matter. He's basically just a shill, but 9500 Liberty didn't tell their viewers that. That's even worse than their habit of re-re-repurposing footage in order to racially demagogue this issue.


In the Anti-BVBL, kill the resolution camp (citizenindy - 5/2/2008 9:32:26 AM)
They are providing just as much misinformation as anyone else in this


Specifically? (Lowell - 5/2/2008 10:31:17 AM)
n/t


Like most producers (citizenindy - 5/2/2008 12:15:31 PM)
They have repackaged and changed the order around on several of their videos

Specifically the Greg Letique one and at least one with Corey  



But what's "misinformation?" (Lowell - 5/2/2008 12:22:27 PM)
n/t


I would also like to know (Barbara - 5/2/2008 5:25:21 PM)
I see them filming at many Board meetings and what I've seen posted on YouTube is exactly what I have seen take place.


when information is the enemy... (EricByler - 5/3/2008 3:20:15 AM)
When the events we shoot are made available to the public, often the new information they provide does not comply with certain predetermined ideologies.  The popular reaction has been to blame the camera operator.

I've noticed our videos create a problem for those who rely on and exploit misinformation.  Misinformation has always had a difficult time competing with actual events, and propaganda written anonymously on a virtual bathroom wall is often less convincing than real people willing to go on record and be held accountable for what they say.  

I find the attacks on Dr. Fuller equally puzzling.  Economic data contradicts their preconceived notions, so, rather than reconsidering those notions, they attack the guy who presented the data.

Often when someone writes to complain about a video, I write back asking, "What part of the video do you think did not happen?"  I almost never hear back.



Courage in the Commonwealth (Kindler - 5/3/2008 7:44:14 PM)
These two young folks have shown enormous leadership and grit in taking on some of the scariest people this side of the Appalachians.  They've proven that regular folks can make a difference.  Their talent may be in filmmaking, but we all have our own talents we can use to stand up against society's bullies.

Annabel and Eric, please ignore the goons trying to tear you down, and keep up the good work.