Area Man Tells ESPN to Eff Off

Quick point before I get to the humorous content: The "prestige" media has prestige only because people confer that prestige on it. Stop conceding that prestige, and they're not prestigious any longer.

A lot of people take pics and videos and post them. The major networks then ask -- for free -- for rights to republish the photos or videos.

Most say yes, just because it's "prestigious" to have a media company use your work (for free!) so long as they give you some kind of minor credit at the bottom of the page.

Maybe people should start saying "No," or "Yes, if you pay me a lot of money, assholes."

Enter Abdul, who took this amusing photo of a guy trying to rev up the runners at the Boston Marathon:

ESPN immediately begged him to let them use his picture -- for free!, but with attribution.

With a "courtesy"? Oh man. What dicks. They really think The Commoners will just fall over themselves to make ESPN revenue, in exchange for "a courtesy."

Enter Abdul, or as I call him, the Hero of a New Media Age.

He then went on to permit other outlets to use his photo -- just not ESPN.

Then he continued letting people not called "ESPN" use it, but realized he could make demands:

Sports Center did wind up blocking him:

Obviously, this super famous scientist did not tell ESPN to fuck off out of what we'd call a political motive (though he was talking about bias, I guess).

But for whatever reason, he told the Corporate Media that he was not impressed by their prestige, he did not covet their "courtesy," and they could not have an inch of his aid.

And that's good.

posted by Ace at 12:43 PM

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