| Subject: Re: Excerpt - Hot, Fat, and Clouded - Barrett Brown |
| From: "Bates, Eric" <Eric.Bates@rollingstone.com> |
| Date: 6/22/10, 12:55 |
| To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
Eric-
I'm trying to get in touch with Hastings, whom I understand is now in Kandahar. He's a friend of mine, blurbed my new book, last got in touch by e-mail last week. Vanity Fair wants me to do a piece on his background and the fallout from the story, so if you have a means of getting me in touch with him soon, please let me know.
On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Bates, Eric <Eric.Bates@rollingstone.com> wrote:
Hey Barrett --
Thanks for thinking us, but we can't use the story. We're running very few pieces by freelancers these days -- mainly relying on our regular contributors.
Best,
Eric
-----Original Message-----
From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Tue 3/16/2010 7:36 PM
To: Bates, Eric
Subject: Re: Excerpt - Hot, Fat, and Clouded - Barrett Brown
Eric-
Thanks for getting back to me on that. I also wanted to see if you'd be
interested in something else.
I'm not sure if you've seen this
<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/anonymous-unfurls-operation-titstorm/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29 <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/anonymous-unfurls-operation-titstorm/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29> >or
if you recall the similar campaign against the Church of
Scientology<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chanology>that began
in 2008 and has gone on to a lesser extent since, but essentially
an internet-based group called Anonymous recently engaged in a continual
denial of service attack coupled with a campaign of general harassment
focused on the Australian government in general and its online
infrastructure in particular, with this being in retaliation for that
state's increasing efforts to censor the content delivered via the internet,
video games, and more traditional media. I've been studying Anonymous and
associated groups for about four years now, and what I've observed leads me
to believe that the group and its interlocking directorate constitutes an
extraordinarily important development in human affairs; this is a system
of corroboration that both allows and encourages like-minded individuals
from across the globe to coordinate, say, against a shared enemy, which is
of course how early forms of government got their start thousands of years
back. The difference is that the nation-state and its predecessors came into
being due to the circumstances of an earlier age, one in which proximity,
politics, and linguistics determined one's ability to ally with others (a
resident of China could hardly team up with an Irishman in any era before
our own), whereas the online associations that are now coming into existence
are organized around the structures of the information age, and thus nowhere
near obsolescence. By the same token, the nation-state and the
proximity-based structure of the world in general is already being
undermined by the ability of any individual to coordinate with any other
individual in a manner that would have been severely limited by the
realities of geography and politics up until this century.
I did a brief introductory
piece<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barrett-brown/anonymous-australia-and-t_b_457776.html>
on
the Australia/Anonymous conflict for The Huffington Post a few weeks back
and ended by noting that I'd soon be making the case that this general
phenomenon is not only proving a demonstrable challenge to the authority and
relevance of the nation-state, but will someday almost certainly form a
significant alternative to such institutions, perhaps even co-opting some of
their functions and even their relevance and de facto power; again, this has
already begun and is now most obviously visible in nations wherein media is
dominated by the state and in which online associations and communicational
structures are of particular significance, as well as particular potential
to evolve into a viable "shadow government."
I'm also now in contact with the most influential member of Anonymous, the
fellow who essentially started the Scientology attack by way of a YouTube
video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ> he created which received
several million hits and thus basically set out the agenda in that
particular instance; this person is also very active in organizing and
perpetuating the portions of the Scientology campaign that are still ongoing
by way of a couple of websites that serve as clearinghouses for information,
discussions on tactics, etc. This person e-mailed me last month after having
apparently been pleased with the relative accuracy of what I'd written about
Anonymous (the character of the group is notoriously misunderstood, being
amorphous and otherwise confusing to those who have not spent some great
amount of time on certain websites). I've already interviewed this person
via e-mail to some extent.
Let me know if you'd be interested in a piece along these lines or if you'd
be interested in receiving other queries from me.
Thanks,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302
On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Bates, Eric <Eric.Bates@rollingstone.com>wrote:
> Hey Barrett --
>
> Thanks for the offer, but we rarely run excerpts beyond the occasional
> music memoir.
>
> Best,
> Eric
>
>
>
>
> On 3/5/10 6:05 PM, "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi, Eric-
>
> I wanted to check and see if you might be interested in taking a look at a
> few excerpts from my upcoming second book, *Hot, Fat, and Clouded
> <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982139144/ref=s9_simi_gw_s0_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1Z0RYG59CYBZAVNP0E6T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982139144/ref=s9_simi_gw_s0_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1Z0RYG59CYBZAVNP0E6T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846> ><http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982139144/ref=s9_simi_gw_s0_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1Z0RYG59CYBZAVNP0E6T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982139144/ref=s9_simi_gw_s0_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1Z0RYG59CYBZAVNP0E6T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846> >
> *, which concerns the manner in which our nation's most respected
> columnists - Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, and Richard Cohen, for
> instance - have gained and maintained their positions of prominence despite
> having made all sorts of failed predictions, contradicted themselves on
> rather important issues, and otherwise contributed to the general public
> misunderstanding.
>
> I'm a regular contributor to *Vanity Fair*, *The Huffington Post*, *
> Skeptic*, and *True/Slant*, and my other work has appeared in dozens of
> additional publications. My first book, *Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern
> Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny*, was released in
> 2007 to praise from Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School and your own Matt
> Taibbi, among other swell folks.
>
> Let me know if you'd like to see a selection of excerpts for potential
> publication.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Barrett Brown
> Brooklyn, NY
> 512-560-2302
>
>
>
>
>
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