Chicago, IL—Chicago’s FOP got smart when they hired Pat
Camden after his career as a cop and department spokesman. Camden can now actually say what Chicago cops
can’t without facing discipline. His
retired status gives him a First Amendment right that is now controlled by the
FOP. Okay he does not get to tell us how
he really feels but at least the department cannot muzzle him. If they were a
little smarter the FOP would make a real reporter out of him.
Of course the FOP and the City of Chicago politicians seem
to get along entirely too well.
Seemingly they have little in common but when it comes to voicing what’s
on the minds of their membership the FOP fails big time. I can’t help but fault the FOP for the CPD’s manpower
shortages, failures to demand better in-service survival training and firearms needed
to challenge the thousands of organized and armed street thugs.
Technology has given the FOP or anyone the ability to reach
their membership with inexpensive but superior video communication tools. The effectiveness of the FOP’s YouTube reach
can be seen in the paltry amount of views their videos have received. They have
only double-digit views on most of their videos and their most viewed posting
is just past the 400 mark. The
production value of the videos seems to be okay but they’re completely void of any passion
for the working cop or for that matter anyone. They all fail.
Here I have to ring the bell of Second City Cop and True
News for sharing the candor, concerns and needs of the working cops via their
blogs. They each get at minimum 10,000
hits per day. Frankly these bloggers
represent the membership of the FOP far better then their actual union
representatives. This seems terribly
wrong. Actually the taxpayers are being
well served by SCC’s existence too. However, something’s missing here.
If the person behind Second City Cop were on a Union ballot
there’d be no question who’d win the membership’s votes. SCC has no funding, no TV production skills
or equipment. SCC does not have a
YouTube Channel. If SCC had a video reporter or two to cover events near and
dear to cops they’d get better viewership than most of Chicago’s local TV news
organizations. The reporters and
producers of SCC would have to be retired cops or civilians. I can’t help but see a serious potential for
profit here.
I’m taking the liberty to create a fictitious new contender
for TV news about crime, cops, courts and corruption in the Windy City. It will be of course, web based.
The local media has been pandering to Chicago’s politicians
since there was media. News provided to
Chicagoans is first put through a filter that protects political corruption and
every opportunity. Unfortunately through
extortion city officials threaten businesses that would sponsor real news. Chicago’s news organizations are all too
aware and pull their punches as a result. SCC on the other hand has only one master, the
men and women of the department.
Let’s say that SCC-TV is born. It would have a single purpose to report
crime, courts and corruption news. Weather and sports are sometimes important
to cover as they impact crime and cops.
One thing for sure such a media organization would get zero
cooperation from the CPD management. Of course
the street cops would pour in information along with lots of smartphone video
shot in the field.
The SCC-TV reporters and producers must be pros that
understand television, promotion, story telling, production and beating the
local news competition. Journalistic
standards and credibility must be part of such an endeavor.
Chicago has a real need for a SCC style TV news on the web
startup. Rather than to rely on
business sponsors this could be offered to views via paid subscriptions of
perhaps $10.00 per month. The website
would have some free postings and tease stories that require a subscription to
watch. Frankly subscribed 10,000 viewers would float this boat in a hurry. But depending on the quality of the content
that audience could grow exponentially.
Here’s a video I put up about simple TV production for the
Internet. You need to know all my great equipment
only cost me around $7,000.00 :
Here is a report I did for WND when Conservative blogger
Andrew Brietbart died:
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