I’m sorry about last night.
Not that any of my actions require an apology. I have tenure at one of the finest and most adaptive institutions for new media education in the country, but you already knew that. Some people say the intellectual heft here at CUNY surpasses that of Columbia once you cut through the baby blue fog of faux prestige, and I believe them. Our roster of Nobel laureates speaks for itself.
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As a J-School (Journalism) professor, it goes without saying that I support freedom of speech. For example, I recently had the First Amendment inscribed on the back of my new 32GB Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, powered by Exynos 8890. The Founding Fathers would be in awe of this neat little device that now sits comfortably in my pocket. Did the founders have pockets? We may never know. They were too busy writing the code for what would become the most disruptive innovation of the last millennia.
Freedom.
The internet age has thrust itself upon us in a rage of ecstasy and terror. Tweeting has become easier than thinking, and (often) more profoundly original. This constantly evolving landscape has been a driver of innovation across all sectors in the global economy. It poses a real challenge, but also an exciting opportunity for journalists, and especially for Journalists.
Yesterday a disreputable blogger sought to take my name in vain, to plagiarize the vitality of my vision in defiance of the Law of the Jungle (I mean the Internet. Ha ha! Like Kipling, I feel the White Man’s Burden).
It was with heavy heart that I had to use my personal connections (we used to call it a “rolodex,” before the web transformed the human experience) and call the Hearst Tower, that modern-day San Simeon, and force that squalid little blogger to heel. I am, after all, supremely connected, unlike the poor schmucks at Columbia.
Information is power, and I will never shy from wielding it in defense of virtue. I could cast my blog’s withering eye on the journalistic standards of Hearst’s Cosmopolitan, or even Elle Decor. I could ask Sergei and Larry to demote them in Google search. And so Hearst yielded to me like the receding sea. King Canute I am not.
“Freedom.” — Prof. Jeff Jarvis
That is also why I fear for my #profession. Not all media elites (yes, I went there) will find themselves as fortunate as I have been. Not everyone will have the freedom—nay, the luxury—to forego a subsidized Greenwich Village townhouse like those schmuck J-school professors at NYU enjoy. Not everyone will become successful enough to enrage the hounds of jealousy, or inspire talentless morons to tweet false wisdom in their names and call it “satire.”
Why did that “satire” outrage me? Forsooth! It was barely satire! OF COURSE I was inspired by Jim VandeHei’s brave and provocative declaration that Silicon Valley’s army of entrepreneurs can lead where Washington and the Pentagon’s army of soldiers cannot. (Or will not?) Of course I believe that Atherton is a new beacon of civility and grace. Jim has stuck it to those Murdstones at Albritton, and now forges forth with a new and unexplained venture, impossible to define because he is refusing to be caged by definition. He knows that Silicon Valley—the Great Emancipator of the 21st century and beyond—will be there for him. And he’s there for them.
What enraged me was that @profjeffjarvis lacks the deference to my role in the #zeitgeist, to my fierce brand of independent thinking. What’s truly unique cannot be parodied in any meaningful sense of the word. You won’t find that in the Bill of Rights, but it’s coded into the digital fabric of our thought-based ecosystem. Free speech doesn’t mean that you, @profjeffjarvis (that’s my name!) can be a cyberbully.
Your bullying is triggering my agita, hurting my health, and souring my intellectual milieu. And Google’s longevity fix isn’t ready yet. Not yet …
It is often said that “to teach is to try.” Can freedom of speech be taught? Can it be tried? Can it even be Googled? Not in the literal sense, obviously. What I mean is, free speech is not a search term. Is it algorithmic? Sure. Is it optimized? Hardly.
Google me, I dare you. I’ve got nothing to hide (that hasn’t already been stashed in the cloud for safekeeping—ha!). I’m feeling lucky. What’s said is said. What’s public is owned by the public. Medium is my medium, and freedom is my meme. Put that in your stupid beer helmet, haters, and take a nice long swig.
Jeff Jarvis is a blogger and influential critic. His work has appeared as in TV Guide and People magazine. He did not write this column, he merely inspired it.
