A Comcast VP immediately fired off an email saying the company was cutting off $18,000 in funding it had pledged for a summer camp teaching filmmaking, editing and screenwriting. Without those funds, the Reel Grrls camp won’t happen.

We need to stand up to Comcast’s censors – and show these young media justice activists we’ve got their backs.

Can you give $25 to Reel Grrls to keep their summer camp going without Comcast’s cash?

Reel Grrls didn’t back down or delete their tweet. They didn’t let Comcast silence them. Instead, they called their allies and alerted the media.

And once the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Associated Press got hold of the story, Comcast suddenly changed its tune. It claimed the threats were “unauthorized” and said it wouldn’t yank the funds.

But Reel Grrls are sticking to their principles. They’re telling Comcast to keep its money if it’s going to try to censor what they say.

It’s not easy for any nonprofit to turn down $18,000. That’s why Free Press and the Center for Media Justice are asking our supporters to chip in and make sure the Reel Grrls summer camp stays open.

Show your support – help our allies stand up to Comcast’s censors

Reel Grrls are training the next generation of media makers and activists. Their brave and inspiring response under pressure should be a lesson to all of us in how to defend free speech and stand up to bullies like Comcast.

Now it’s our turn to show them that their allies in the movement for better media won’t let them down. Please visit the Reel Grrls site and give as much as you can.

In solidarity,

Craig Aaron
Free Press

Malkia Cyril
Center for Media Justice

P.S. Check out this fabulous video the Reel Grrls made telling their side of the story bit.ly/kM4Wnw.

1. Washington Post, “Tweet about FCC member’s new job at Comcast sets off firestorm,” May 19, 2011: washingtonpost.com/business/economy/tweet-about-fcc-members-new-job-at-comcast-sets-off-firestorm/2011/05/19/AFZNiP7G_story.html

2. The Street, “Comcast’s Revenge for Tweet: Today’s Outrage,” May 20, 2011: thestreet.com/story/11126955/1/comcasts-revenge-for-tweet-todays-outrage.html

ABC-TV
May 24, 2010
By RAY SANCHEZ and STEVEN PORTNOY

As a small Arkansas town buried two officers gunned down during a traffic stop, new details emerged today about the father and son whose strident anti-government views led them to kill the officers and later die in a gun battle with police.

West Memphis Police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Officer Bill Evans, 38, were shot to death during a traffic stop, prompting a manhunt that ended with Jerry R. Kane Jr., 45, and son Joseph, 16, dead in a hail of gunfire in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Sheriff Dick Busby of Crittenden County and his chief deputy, W. A. Wren, were wounded. Hundreds of mourners paid their respect to the fallen police officers. Family members, neighbors and law enforcement officers filled the West Memphis High School gym to remember Paudert, 39, whose casket was draped in an American flag. He is the son of West Memphis Police Chief Robert Paudert. Evans funeral was to be held later Monday.     more …

With millions of jobs lost and major industries on the ropes, America’s array of government aid — including unemployment insurance, food stamps and cash welfare — is being tested as never before. This series examines how the safety net is holding up under the worst economic crisis in decades.

Now, as she papers the county with résumés and girds herself for rejection, she is supporting two daughters on an income that inspires a double take: zero dollars in monthly cash and a few hundred dollars in food stamps.

With food-stamp use at a record high and surging by the day, Ms. Bermudez belongs to an overlooked subgroup that is growing especially fast: recipients with no cash income.

About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times. In declarations that states verify and the federal government audits, they described themselves as unemployed and receiving no cash aid — no welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay.

Their numbers were rising before the recession as tougher welfare laws made it harder for poor people to get cash aid, but they have soared by about 50 percent over the past two years. About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card.     more …

msnbc.com
December 30, 2009

WASHINGTON – For all their differences, Americans largely agree on two things: 2009 was a lousy year for the nation, and 2010 is likely to be better. Nearly three-fourths of Americans think 2009 was a bad year for the country, which was rocked by job losses, home foreclosures and economic sickness. Forty-two percent rated it “very bad,” according to the latest AP-GfK poll.

That’s clearly worse than in 2006, the last time a similar poll was taken. The survey that year found that 58 percent of Americans felt the nation had suffered a bad year, and 39 percent considered it a good year.

Fewer than half as many people, 16 percent, said their family had a “very good year” in 2009 as said that in 2006.
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Behind the gloominess, however, are more hopeful views that seem to reflect Americans’ traditional optimism or, perhaps, wishful thinking.    more …

ABC-TV
Dec. 23, 2009
By JEFFREY KOFMAN, SONIA GALLEGO and MARK MOONEY

A Brazilian court today took another step toward returning nine-year-old Sean Goldman to the arms of his father, David. The court ordered that Sean be reunited with David Goldman by 9 a.m., 6 a.m. EST, Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

The boy’s Brazilian family decided to give up its fight for custody of Sean and will not appeal the court’s decision the family’s lawyer, Sergio Tostes, confirmed in an e-mail, bringing a five-year custody battle to an end.

Sean’s maternal grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, told ABC News that her grandson does not want to leave Brazil.

“He said he is very sad because he does not want to, and he is very sad because he had, he has the right to speak and to explain himself, but the judge here cut his right,” Bianchi said.     more …

ABC-TV News
Dec. 22, 2009
By MARK MOONEY and SONIA GALLEGO

New Jersey dad David Goldman won a court fight today when the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that the Brazilian family of his deceased ex-wife must hand over custody of his 9-year-old son.
Brazil Expected to Rule Today in Goldman Custody Case
David Goldman, shown with son Sean, is hoping that a ruling by the Brazilian Supreme Court, giving him custody of Sean, ends a five-year legal battle for the boy.
(ABC News)

The court ruled that the boy “be handed over to his father and should be returned to the United States.”

It is unclear, however, whether the court’s ruling will end the five-year custody battle over Sean Goldman. His Brazilian family has threatened to appeal the court’s ruling.

When the ruling is issued, “we will read it carefully and consider the legal remedies available, if needed,” Sergio Tostes, a lawyer for the Brazilian family, said in an e-mailed statement while waiting for the court’s ruling. “All necessary action will be taken.”

The family could take the case to Brazil’s top appeals court, but some have doubted whether that court would be willing to review the case if the Supreme Court backs a lower federal court ruling awarding custody to Goldman.     more …

Tseng is only 25 but he is wheelchair-bound and in the terminal stage of a genetic muscular disease that has paralysed him since childhood, with no known cure.

“I don’t know how many days I have left so I want to hold a ‘living funeral’ for myself, to announce my last wish of donating my body for medical studies,” Tseng said.

In Taiwan, “living funerals” have been embraced by a growing number of people with terminal diseases.

Tseng, a native of south Taiwan’s Kaohsiung city, bade farewell to his family and a group of about 100 doctors and students late September at a local medical school which will receive his body when the day comes.

“I may not live a long life but I have the company of my family and many people who care for me. I finished college and wrote a book… I didn’t live in vain,” Tseng told the audience as his mother wiped away her tears.

“I think what matters in life is its value, not how long it is, so we should cherish the time we have and do something good,” he said.    more …

ABC News
Oct. 16, 2009
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and SARAH NETTER

Police have asked child protective services to investigate the Colorado family of a boy who was believed to have been aboard a runaway homemade flying saucer, but was later found to be hiding in his family’s garage.  Richard, Mayumi and their sons explain what happened with the helium balloon.

Amid mounting public suspicion that the parents of Falcon Heene, 6, intentionally released the 20-foot balloon in an effort to garner publicity, the Larimer County Sherriff said police and child-services professionals would interview the boy and his parents.  Sheriff Jim Alderden said Child protective Services would “probably open an investigation,” but asked that they wait until law enforcement officials had an opportunity to question the family Saturday.  Alderden said he believed the boy had hid in the rafters and fell asleep there because he thought he was responsible for untethering the aluminum-foil balloon.  He said he further believed that the parents were legitimately worried about their son’s well being and that it did not appear to be a hoax or publicity stunt.    more …

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
October 15, 2009

FORT COLLINS. Colo. – Authorities were trying to determine Thursday how to safely bring down a 6-year-old boy who reportedly clambered into his family’s experimental balloon aircraft and floated away from home, sheriff’s officials said.

The bizarre scene played out live on television and prompted fears that the mushroom-shaped balloon would crash. The balloon rotated slowly in the wind, tipping precariously at times.   more …