Re: Vanity fair
Subject: Re: Vanity fair
From: John Knefel <johnknefel@gmail.com>
Date: 7/3/10, 09:51
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Barrett,

That is goddamn wild e-mail to receive.  I mean, if the guy is legit and has the kind of fundraising capacity he says he does, that's basically the best news imaginable.  Of course, both Molly and I would like to be involved in any way possible.  What are the immediate next steps to take?  Are there things we can do to make Green's offer more likely to happen? 

As far as the plan itself, it's incredibly ambitious, but I agree with his analysis of the news -- namely that working on the periphery (Current TV, etc) is a losing battle.  Outlets like Democracy Now! are crucial and important, but creating a new model of a major news organization would be huge.

I didn't follow his links or do any research on him, but your folks seem to think he's on the level?

J 

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
John-

Take a look at the below e-mail and give me a ring. I spoke to Green the other night by phone and he's basically offering to raise tens of millions of dollars to establish a new cable news station which will be coupled with my Project PM schematic and then put me in partial charge of running it, in which case I would want you and your sister to be involved as well. Of course, this is all confidential for now. Let me know what you think; I've had my people look into him and this guy really does have the access to funds that he says he does, and seems damned serious about doing what needs to be done.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Green <robertogreen@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Subject: Vanity fair
To: barriticus@gmail.com


Great article about hastings, barrett.

I’m interested in hearing/learning further about project PM.

I’ve got my own nascent project that I’m working on.  I come from a background of production/development/finance in the feature/tv/web world.    I’ve produced a TON of stuff in all different media over the years (bona fides in the signature below, check my imdb page).  I also come from a background of a dad on the board of The Nation, and your basic view of the world that such will engender.

Between these two worlds I’ve reached the following conclusion:

The time is NOW to create/fund/finance a 21st century news media org that takes what you/me/jay rosen/michael hastings/etc. Etc. etc. know—that information isn’t “he said she said”, that information isn’t better with “access”, that information isn’t better with “one consultant from x, and one consultant from y”, that information IS better when transparent, that news should be measured by one analytic and one only—how informed is your audience after hearing/reading it.

Here’s how to do it:

Grab about 1 billion dollars approx (give or take) and create the new CNN.  That’s it.  There’s no other way.  You can’t hope to have any useful impact around the margins.  You can’t hope to do anything important at a Current TV level, or blogging for a magazine as hopelessly addicted to horseshit celebrity as VF, and really change things.  You just can’t.  

I know some people with some real money.  And their hearts are movable to the right place.  The thing is to aggregate all the people who are a)smart b) doing it already c) energetic and put together the plan.

Starting point, and yes, this is a tendentious one:  just say to jon stewart and colbert “what’s your buyout number”, and pay it.  Make them the figureheads.  Figure that’s 50 million right there.

I’m sure you have your own plan, and you don’t know me, so take all this with a grain of salt.  But if you ever do have time to spend 5 minutes discussing this further, please don’t hesitate.  

In the meantime, keep up the great work.

best

Robert Green
Another Green World Productions
310-804-1812 phone
323-446-7639 fax
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1299657/
http://linkedin.com/in/robertogreen
http://twitter.com/robogreen
skype:  monazu1




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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302