Ok, I have to get this off my chest…
Over the past weeks, like many, I have followed what happened in Toronto during the G20 & it’s aftermath. I’ve read numerous news stories on CBC, on rabble.ca & have followed trusted citizen journalists on Twitter.

This was posted by CBCNews on Twitter last week…Most wanted list from G20 protest released. My question is how did police get pictures & video with this much detail w/out agent provocateurs?

Then, I watched Clay Shirky’s TED talk on How Social Media Can Make History. He demonstrated the power of citizen journalism (via tools like Twitter & YouTube) by explaining how China was forced to admit to the devastating earthquake of 2008 BECAUSE citizen journalists had reported it first. How could it be covered up when the story is out there in the social media universe for millions of hungry readers?

That point in and of itself is fine. But, something didn’t sit right with me as I continued to listen to his talk. He started to talk about how great America is & how this would never happen in America. After all, we have freedom of the press and all that. I would like to hear his analysis of North America’s fabled freedom of the press post-G20 where both citizen journalism and control of mainstream media played key roles.