Self-righteous protesters kill video blogger's deal with Verizon

Jordan Golson — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:57:11 -0700

1938 Media -- AKA video blogger Loren Feldman -- has lost its distribution deal with Verizon's VCast service in the wake of some ridiculous protests about a video that made the rounds more than a year ago.

The Verizon deal was formed at the end of June and put Some of Feldman's videos in front of Verizon's VCast users and Fios internet customers through video-on-demand. Now, the deal has been ripped up.

Loren Feldman, who does one-man monologues on whatever strikes his fancy and, more recently, has been interviewing big names in the tech scene with puppets to make fun of social media consultant Shel Israel. Some of his videos are actually very funny -- to some people -- just like any comedy.

The video at the forefront of this drama was filmed in August 2007 and made quite a splash at the time. (view it here) Some were offended by the tone of the video which asked "Where are the black tech bloggers?" Feldman wondered, "where is the black TechCrunch?" or "black Scoble?" Feldman went on to dress up in a do-rag and gold chain necklace and parody a "stereotypical" black tech website called TechNigga.com. He "reviewed" a Google Maps mashup that allowed you to keep track of your "hos" through GPS technology. Pay attention VC's: there's an untapped market segment there.

I thought it was mildly amusing in the way that over-the-top stereotyped satire usually is, but knew that much of the tech blogosphere would have an anti-Loren knee-jerk reaction to it. A former co-worker of mine at Valleywag, Nick Douglas, called Feldman the "Don Imus" of Silicon Valley. That actually fits pretty well. I'm a big fan of both Imus and Loren Feldman. I think they both have a sharp wit and a knack for pointing out hypocrisy in society that others would prefer be left alone.

The video in question was never scheduled to be shown on Verizon. A "news" story on African-American music enthusiasts website HipHopDX wrote up the story and listed a number of professional protesters like Al Sharpton's National Action Network and a group called Project Islamic Hope that were calling on Verizon to drop the deal.

I really doubt that one video from one sort-of well-known video blogger is going to change anyone's mind towards black people in a bad way. In fact, for me, it did the opposite. I did wonder where the black minds in tech are. Sure, there are a few, but they aren't very prominent. From my (very white) point-of-view, there are more blacks in Conservative politics (Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, etc) than there are in high-profile tech-circles.

Whether you found it amusing or not, I think Feldman has a point and his argument that it is satire, not racism, is well-founded. However, as one black tech blogger put it, "As a customer of Verizon, I don’t want to contribute to Feldman’s bank account and I don’t want Verizon to do so either." She is perfectly welcome to voice that concern to Verizon, and I support putting your money where your views are.

What I don't support is professional agitators like the National Action Network stirring up trouble over a year-old video that was commenting on an industry that the NAN has no business commenting on.

When reached for comment by local Bay Area TV-station KNBC, Feldman said "I’m a professional comedian... I know parts [of my work] are over the line, or in poor taste, created by my company 1938 Media."

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