Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC

Journalist and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was arrested earlier today at the Republican National Convention. Apparently she was arrested while attempting to assist her colleagues who were themselves being arrested while covering protests at the convention. She and Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar are now in the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul. There's more info and how to help free Goodman and her colleagues here, and a video of Goodman's arrest here.

Goodman was obviously not causing any sort of disruption. The fact that she, a journalist, was arrested while covering the protest is not only a disservice to her but an attack on the free press. Citizens have a right to know that protests like this are going on and hear what their fellow Americans have to say. It is enraging and scary that this can happen so easily.

Major feminist blog off the air over plagiarism issues

I almost feel like I shouldn't comment on this at all given my relative unfamiliarity with the feminist blogosphere. From what I've been able to piece together (Thanks Bitch, Feministe, and Alas! among others), feminist powerhouse Brownfemipower (BFP) has pulled her blog off the web. Apparently BFP's extensive work on racism and sexism in immigration was blatantly plagiarized in an article by Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon. As Marcotte is white and BFP a woman of color, the incident raises plenty of questions beyond 'why didn't you cite your sources?'

Even without all the racist implications of a white woman writing about racial and sexual oppression but ignoring the work of a fellow feminist blogger and woman of color, you gotta cite your sources. It's not ok to exclude the hard work of others. No one is isolated from the influence of other writers, no idea is completely original, and you've gotta give credit where credit is due. This is basic research paper stuff and Marcotte should know that. At the same time, I think Holly and Amp are right, playing the blame game won't solve anything. We live in a racist society and we're not immune to its influence. We can never really quantitate how it effects us the same way we don't always now what influences our ideas.

My apologies, this is a bit of a fluff post without much original content. But I would like to say that this incident has taught me a lot, as a student journalist and writer. Also, I really hope to see BFP come back. Everyone who has written about her obviously has a great amount of respect for her and naturally I'm itching to see her work now. Hopefully she'll see how many people are behind her and revive the blog but that's a decision only she can make.

JK Rowling reveals she considered suicide, student journalist breaks story

Like, many I was moved by JK Rowling's admission that she considered suicide as a poor single mom. It makes her rags to riches story all the more inspiring. Granted, not all suicidal stories end as happily, but it's definitely a lesson in the value of suicide prevention.

My personal favorite detail of the story however: it was broken by a student journalist! Way to go Adeel Amini of Edinburgh University! I've been trying to find the name of the publication he writes for but the big news sources don't seem to consider that an important detail. Oh well, congrats Adeel!

I'm really torn about the court battle between JK Rowling and Steve Vander Ark of the Harry Potter Lexicon. Vander Ark's website is a popular fan encyclopedia for those not in the know. It's very complete and has been used by makers of the HP films to check facts and even Rowling herself when the latter books were being written. Vander Ark now wants to turn the website into a published book. Rowling is contesting that a free website is ok but a book would infringe on her rights, and her own planned encyclopedia.

I've seen fan encyclopedias before, they're relatively common. It may not be fair to Rowling, but is it illegal? At the same time, I feel like the last call should belong to Jo.