Up to 21 people were arrested during a peaceful prayer service.
North Dakota police with military-style equipment surrounded Native Americans gathered in prayer against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday, disrupting their plan to cross sacred and treaty-protected land in protest of a project they fear will destroy their livelihood.
“ND authorities deploy armed personnel with shotguns and assault rifles, military vehicles, and aerial spray on peaceful Water Protectors gathered in prayer,” wrote the Sacred Stone Camp, in a Facebook post.
Officers with military-style armored vehicles and shotguns threatened the protesters, who call themselves “water protectors” for defending the Missouri River from imminent pollution, reported Unicorn Riot. Up to 21 were arrested, the channel reported.
Witnesses filmed the crackdown but said their access their Facebook was blocked. One participant, Thomas H. Joseph II, posted a chilling video narrating the mobilization and his getaway. Helicopters are heard as he says that tear gas is being dropped, and an officer loads his gun as protesters, some on horseback, chant, "We have no guns."
In the video, Joseph said that “one guy’s about ready to blast us” but later added that no fires were shot.
“We gathered in prayer un-armed, prayed, sang songs, and attempted to leave," he later wrote in a Facebook post. "No threats, No vandalism, No violence was taken on our part.”
Police and private security personnel have been more aggressively cracking down on actions against the pipeline since the governor declared a state of emergency. The state is currently investigating an incident in which contracted private security film Frost Kennels unleashed dogs during a nonviolent direct action, ending with six bitten, including a pregnant woman and a child, according to organizers at the action.
“We will not let them stop our mission to amplify the voices of people who might otherwise go unheard, and broadcast the stories that might otherwise go untold,“ they told RT.
The pipeline, expected to transport over half a million barrels of oil a day through four states, has united over 300 tribes in resistance. Several lawsuits are pending against the company, which has retaliated with restraining orders. The White House halted construction on federal land, which makes up three percent of the pipeline's path, but has not issued any other statement against the pipeline—motivating Facebook users to demand a response after Wednesday's crackdown.
President Barack Obama met with tribal representatives on Monday but only made an indirect reference to the historic native gathering: “I know that many of you have come together across tribes and across the country to support the community at Standing Rock,“ he said. “And together, you’re making your voices heard.“
Percent Of TV Channels Viewed Drops To Single Digits, Nielsen Attributes Digital Choices
he hyper-fragmentation of consumer choice across all screens is reducing the share of choices they make to watch a TV channel. That’s among the top findings coming out of the latest edition of Nielsen’s “Total Audience Report.”
The report, which was released to clients Thursday, is the first to publish shares of channels received and viewed by the average American household in a while.
It shows the average number viewed has fallen to less than 10% of the channels they receive.
That’s down dramatically from the last time Nielsen published such data, which showed the average was still in the double digits.
Moreover, the number of channels available to the average TV household has exploded to 205.9, but they only “view” 19.8 of them on average. The last time Nielsen provided data to Media Daily News, was for 2014, when the average number viewed was 21.0. Nielsen did not disclose the number of households receivable, or the percentage of those channels viewed at that time.
The reason for the decline: Despite increases in the number of choices the average TV household now has from television, it is choosing to spend increasingly more of their time choosing to view things that are not on television.
“Average television channels viewed has flattened or decreased slightly from prior years,” Nielsen explains in the report, noting: “This suggests a change in choice order as channels that were once viewed are being replaced by other sources.”
The report, including an introductory note from Nielsen SVP, Audience Insights Glenn Enoch, says the average number of channels available has actually started to decline “as multichannel penetration decreases and cord shaving increases,” but the report does not provide the actual trend numbers associated with that.
in additiion, the report documents how the number of viewing options available to the average U.S. household continues to explode from other platforms, including mobile, desktop, etc.
While the average number of TV channels viewed is 19.8, the average number of Internet sites visited monthly is now 55, while the average number of mobile phone apps used monthly is now 28.
On Sunday at a 9/11 ceremony marking 15 years since the attacks, Hillary Clinton wasn't feeling well to the point she had to make an early exit. Her handlers obviously knew what such an exit would do: Feed the narrative — irresponsibly called conspiracy theory at that point by too many posing as objective journalists — that there really was something more than allergies surrounding the Democratic presidential nominee's health.
So Clinton was whisked away. Reporters embedded in her campaign were left in the dark for 90 minutes as to her whereabouts while the escape from New York was concocted.
And she almost got away without any video footage via news crews showing it.
But as Clinton approached her van, a 50-year-old man by the name of Zdenek Gazda filmed her with his smartphone. Gazda is a Czech immigrant, Clinton supporter, and to my pleasant surprise, a huge New Jersey Devils fan.
He proceeded to upload the video onto his Twitter feed, which can serve as everyone's own newsroom. As of Tuesday, more than 11 million people have viewed his Tweet, and at least hundreds of millions more worldwide have seen the video via broadcast outlets and other forms of social media such as YouTube and Facebook.
Gazda joins the growing list of citizen journalists armed with a camera and his or her own broadcast station via Twitter, YouTube, Facebook or all of the above. And if he wasn't there at that moment, you can rest assured Clinton's communication team would have been spinning the "nothing-to-see-here" line and most of the media would be spinning along a much different, muted tune.
Without video evidence, some conservative outlets may have raised questions about Clinton leaving such a solemn and sacred event early. But those questions and scrutiny would have stayed in that bubble, called crazy and conspiracy and therefore out of traditional media. As a result, 9/11 retrospectives and some political talk from the Sunday talk shows would have dominated the headlines instead.
For Team Clinton, it would have been mission accomplished. No need to share the diagnoses of pneumonia for Clinton or for anyone on the campaign staff. Even Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) could have kept his own spell with the disease under wraps instead of suddenly sharing that little piece of information yesterday in an effort to attempt to portray it as a downright epidemic.
Instead, Clinton is finally forced to share her prognosis of pneumonia — if that's all this is, which some top doctors are questioning — and will release more of her medical records this week, as will Trump, on "Dr. Oz."
But the Clinton campaign tried to keep Americans in the dark once again. There's a reason nearly 70 percent of the country in poll after poll finds her to be not honest and trustworthy.
"She entered the van on her own accord," deputy press secretary Brian Fallon had the audacity to say to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Monday despite Gazda's video clearly showing three people helping a fallen Clinton get in.
"We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about [Hillary Rodham Clinton] than any other candidate in history."
Yup — which is why more medical records need to be released next week. The hubris of the defeated is dumbfounding sometimes.
But it never should have come to this: Both Trump and Clinton should — being elderly at 70 and almost 69, respectively, while seeking arguably the most stressful and grueling job in the world — be examined by independent doctors and have those findings released to the public in full.
Given the stakes, is that really such an outlandish request?
The Gazda video serves a powerful and potentially devastating image the Clinton campaign will have to answer to for the remainder of the campaign with every cough and other health oddity on the campaign trail.
If Clinton misses one event or even leaves before she was scheduled to, fairly or not, the health issue again becomes a question. And if she falls again in public the way she did Sunday, you could be seeing her running mate, Tim Kaine, replace her at the top of the ticket.
If Team Clinton thinks keeping the press at bay means others aren't watching, aren't filming, aren't recording, they might want to talk to Mitt Romney at some point about the way his 47 percent comment went down.
Citizen journalism. It's changing the way campaigns and the media do business as usual forever.
