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Peter Suderman Discusses How the Government Uses Google to Spy on You

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Reason Associate Editor Peter Suderman appeared on Cavuto to discuss Google's announcement that the company has been ordered to give up personal information on users to the American government. Air date: June 18, 2012.

Approximately 4.34 minutes.

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Ben Huh on the Culture, Morals, and Politics of the Internet

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Internet culture is an absolute threat to existing power structures," says Ben Huh, CEO and founder of Cheezburger, the popular web humor brand responsible for I Can Haz Cheezburger, FailBlog, and much more. "Because people are finally realizing that they have power in their voice."

Reason.tv sat down with Huh to talk about internet culture, why the ability of individuals to create their own content is a good thing, the common ideology that should unite all internet users, and why we have to learn to live with internet trolls.

Approximately 4:30 minutes.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller.

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John Stossel on Journalism, How he became Libertarian & his new book "No They Can't"

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Some guy came up to me said, 'Are you John Stossel?...I hope you die soon,'" recounts Fox Business Network host and Reason contributor John Stossel. Thankfully Stossel found a more civil audience when he stopped by Reason's Washington, DC office to promote his new book No, They Can’t: Why Government Fails But Individuals Succeed.

During a lively Q&A session, Stossel took questions from the audience about his book, his time as a consumer reporter, and the power of the internet to communicate libertarian ideas.

About 6.30 minutes. 

Camera by Joshua Swain, Meredith Bragg and Jim Epstein. Edited by Swain.

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Katherine Mangu-Ward Discusses Google Privacy with Cavuto

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 EST

Reason Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward discusses the controversy surrounding Google's new privacy settings and whether the government will take advantage of user information on Cavuto. Airdate: March 1, 2012.

About 2 minutes.

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Mike Riggs Discusses MegaUpload, Niall Ferguson, & Tim Tebow on Alyona's Happy Hour

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

Reason Associate Editor Mike Riggs appeared on the Alyona Show's Happy Hour to discuss the torrent site BTJunkie voluntarily shutting down after learning MegaUpload's fate, genetically modified babies, Niall Ferguson's comments on war with Iran, and Tim Tebow's political side. Airdate: Feb 6, 2012.

8.44 minutes.

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Anthony Randazzo Discusses Warren Buffet, taxes, and SOPA with Judge Napolitano

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

"The whole point [of the internet] is that you have free access," says Reason's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo. Randazzo appeared on Freedom Watch to discuss the consequences of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Warren Buffet's tax fued with GOP member of Congress. Air Date: January 19, 2012.

Approximately 6.36 minutes.

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Mike Riggs Discusses the U.S.'s Hypocrisy with Internet Freedom on RT

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Reason Associate Editor Mike Riggs appeared on RT America to discuss the hypocrisy behind the U.S.'s urge for internet freedom abroad yet increasingly restricts the same freedoms at home. Airdate: December 8, 2011.

7.19 minutes.

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Mike Riggs Joins Alyone's Happy Hour to Discuss Cars 2, a Southwest Pilot, and John Galliano's Rants

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Associate Editor of Reason Magazine Mike Riggs appeared on Russia Today's The Alyona Show to discuss whether Cars 2 is against big oil compaines, a Southwest pilot's sexist rant about Houston's airport, France's problem with John Galliano's free speech and how Facebook helped end a hostage situation. Air Date: June 24, 2011.

Approximately 8 minutes.

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Bitcoin & The End of State-Controlled Money: Q&A with Jerry Brito

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Bitcoin is the world's first fully decentralized, peer-to-peer (p2p) virtual currency. It allows users to make anonymous and untraceable cash transactions anywhere in the world without any sort of real-world intermediary. So unlike PayPal and other online services, it can't be squeezed in the same way by governments or other control agents.

Created in 2009 by a shadowy figure who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, there are currently about 6 million bitcoins in circulation. That number will eventually rise, in regular intervals, to a total of 21 million by 2033. A money system without any sort of central bank? A currency whose supply increases at a steady and predictable rate according to a concept elucidated by the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman?

Just how revolutionary is Bitcoin?

Reason.tv sat down with Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Jerry Brito to learn how Bitcoin operates and what the implications are for traditional state-based fiat currencies. “Whether Bitcoin succeeds or fails is neither here nor there,” says Brito, who predicts that currencies in the future will almost certainly be deregulated and decentralized - with or without governments’ consent.

Read Brito on Bitcoin here and here. For responses to his critics and more info on Bitcoin, go here.

About 2.30 minutes.

Interview by Nick Gillespie; shot and edited by Joshua Swain.

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Are Dems More Thin-Skinned than Reps? Comedian Sam Tripoli on PC, Ron Paul, and Naughtiness

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 EDT

"I find that, in L.A. at least, opinions hurt your career," says comedian Sam Tripoli.

Tripoli, a national headliner who runs the Naughty Comedy Show at the Hollywood Improv and also hosts the Naughty Show Podcast, is fed up with political correctness in comedy, and his targets include Bill Maher, beer commercials, and easily offended audiences.

Tripoli, a self-proclaimed libertarian, sat down with Reason.tv's Ted Balaker to discuss the state of stand-up, why he digs Ron Paul, and the difference between performing in Blue States versus Red States.

This video contains explicit content, and viewer discretion is advised.

Camera by Zach Weissmueller, Paul Detrick, and Hawk Jensen. Edited by Weissmueller.

Approximately 9 minutes.

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Peter Suderman Discusses Net Neutrality with Stossel

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

Reason Associate Editor Peter Suderman appeared on Fox Business Network's Stossel to talk about the FCC's new net neutrality rules. Airdate: February 17, 2011.

Approximately 4.06 minutes.

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Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST

Advocates say that "Net Neutrality" will "save the Internet."

But does the Internet need saving?

Net Neutrality is a proposed set of regulatory powers that would grant the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to control how Internet service providers (ISPs) package their services. Proponents argue that such rules are necessary to ensure that ISPs treat all data on the Internet equally and don't slow or even restrict access to various websites and other parts of the Internet.

However well-intentioned, the practical effect will be to limit consumer choice and grant the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet, all in the name of fixing a problem that doesn't exist in any meaningful way . Indeed, examples of the behavior that Net Neutrality will combat are few and far between.

Approximately 4 minutes. Produced and animated by Austin Bragg. Written by Zach Weissmueller.

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Michael Moynihan Discusses Time's Person of the Year Mark Zuckerberg on CBC

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Reason Senior Editor Michael Moynihan discusses Time Magazine's Person of the Year Award 2010 winner Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and alternative choices such as Twitter or Julian Assange on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Airdate: December 15, 2010.

Approximately 3.50 minutes.

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Katherine Mangu-Ward Discusses Wikileaks and Assange with Judge Napolitano

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 EST

Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward debates Leslie Marshall on the case for Wikileaks, Assange, and the cost for government transparency with Judge Napolitano substituting for Glenn Beck on Fox News. Airdate: December 16, 2010.

About 6.30 minutes.

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Nick Gillespie on FOX News' Red Eye discussing 10:10, Rick Sanchez, and Violence Motivated by Internet Comments

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EDT

Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com, appeared on FOX News' Red Eye. Air date: Oct. 2, 2010.

Approximately 40 minutes.

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The Reason iPhone App

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EDT

If you want to watch the inevitable trainwreck that is politics unfold, there's an app for that.

If you like your acerbic political commentary with a touch of '70s rock nostalgia, there's an app for that.

If you want to email your disaffected congressional leaders, there's an app for that.

And if you want to find out whose ass to kick...there's an app for that.

Free Minds and Free Markets. Free in the App Store now.

The Reason iPhone App keeps you up to date with the latest news and views from the Reason staff wherever you are.

Compatible with the iPhone, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch, the Reason App downloads and syncs Reason's content to your device in real time.

The Reason app is free and available at iTunes. Download it now!

Features include:

Access to fresh content from Hit & Run, Reason.com (including Brickbats), Reason.tv, and Reason.org;
Simple Save and Share functionality for all text and video content;
Smooth navigation between and within sections;
Secure Donations page.

Video produced by Austin Bragg.

3 Reasons The FCC Shouldn't Touch The Internets!

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:00:00 EDT

The FCC has just taken initial steps to regulate the Internet service providers the same way it regulates telephone companies. Although Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he would use any regulatory powers with a "light touch," having the FCC control any aspect of the Internet is a really bad idea for at least three reasons.

Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie (who also hosts). Approximately 2.15 minutes.

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FCC Commissioner Copps "Would Love to Have Jurisdiction Over Everything."

Tue, 25 May 2010 12:00:00 EDT

What's the proper role of the FCC? According to Jennifer Schneider, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps' Legal Adviser, her boss would "love to have jurisdiction over everything." She let the cat out of the bag at the NCTA's 2010 Cable Show last week:

Here's the transcript, lightly edited for clarity:

"Well, I think Commissioner Copps would love to have jurisdiction over everything (laughter)....but he knows that's not really what the FCC is here for. Right now we're focusing on this Title I/Title II issue. When it comes to the Internet, and what rides over the Internet, we understand that it's still young. The industry is still trying to find business models that work. And we certainly don't want to interfere with that. Ultimately, though, the concern is with the consumer, so if/when things move along and there are issues, which I can't imagine happening anytime soon, someone will have to step in and I guess we'll have to wait and see if [it's] the FCC or some other agency or who knows..."

Visit Reason.com for more information.

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Approx. 75 seconds

Net Neutrality for Dummies

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST

Al Gore says that legislation ensuring "net neutrality" is "needed for the revitalization of American democracy." Techno-vegan Moby says without it, the "egalitarian" Internet would disappear. Even Mallory from Family Ties, Justine Bateman, thinks "the freedom to access the site of any organization from Planned Parenthood to the Christian Coalition is going to end."

But just what the hell is net neutrality—and is all that is good and holy about the Internet really imperiled if legislation guaranteeing it isn't passed? Network neutrality is necessary, say its supporters, to make certain that all data on the Internet is treated equally and to protect users from information discrimination on the part of Internet service providers who will slow down or even block access to certain sites.

Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan takes a skeptical look at the growing push for net neutrality legislation and asks Peter Suderman, a Reason associate editor who is closely following proposals on the topic, why Moby and Mallory want the Federal Communication Commission, of all agencies, to regulate the Internet.

Approximalely 4 minutes. Written by Moynihan. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg.

Dramatic Olbermann vs. Dramatic Chipmunk

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST

No one is more self-dramatizing on cable news than male hysteric, unsolicited janitor of Cooperstown, and Countdown host Keith Olbermann, who includes more special effects during his Castro-length "Special Comment" segments than Mikhail Kalatozov did in I Am Cuba (one cinematically exemplary rant remains Commandante O's multi-camera denouncement of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign).

When Olbermann is not ripping "tea-baggers" (get it, har har har) or slagging honest reporters such as Miami Herald TV critic and Reason contributing editor Glenn Garvin (who committed the unpardonable crime of reporting that Olbermann donned a Bill O'Reilly mask and did Nazi salutes in front of a room full of TV critics), he is courageously taking a stand in favor of English-only at schools, judging Rupert Murdoch's Fox News as "worse than Al Qaeda," and extolling Sen. All Aboard Amtrak, Joe Biden, who embodies the Holy Trinity of Olbermannia: "passion, detail and eloquence."

Countdown—it's like Rupert Pupkin finally did get a talk show that could broadcast far past the paneled walls of Mom's basement and reach most of the neighborhood—is must-see TV, as riveting as a nail gun powered by nuclear energy on steroids, the sort of can't-turn-away-from-car-wreck-like commentary usually associated with CNN hosts who have actually been in car wrecks (like this guy and this one).

And yet, even (or perhaps especially) in Obama's America, where Dick Cheney is still making millions of ill-gotten gains by keeping unemployment high and sending troops to the Middle East and Central Asia to secure Haliburton's ultra-lucrative tapioca concessions, there are signs that this world was never meant for one as beautiful as Olbermann.

"Has the countdown begun for the end of 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann'?" asks The New York Post. "With his ratings in free-fall, and his hateful histrionics reaching new highs, even Olbermann's former supporters on the left are tuning out." Indeed, The Los Angeles Times reports, "In the most desirable TV demographic of 25-54, which Keith will soon outgrow himself, 'Countdown' lost 44% of its audience from the beginning of President Obama's term until this year."

As a public service, and before Keith Olbermann joins the likes of failed talk show hosts such as Jerry Lewis, Chevy Chase, J.D. Hayworth, and former ESPN colleague Craig Kilborn, it's worth remembering just how damn good Olbermann was before he lost the pop on his bat and could no longer backpedal with the sun in his eyes.

Like some small-screen, basic-cable Capt. Queeg without the strawberry fetish, Olbermann was staying up late and counting and recounting his vote for the Worst Person In The World (surprise! Bill O'Reilly won again!) while the rest of us were tearing it up on the playing fields of ~~Princeton~~ the Xbox version of NCAA Football. While the rest of us were arguing about politics, going to work every day, paying our taxes, protesting stupid policies...who was standing guard over this fat, dumb, happy country of ours, eh? Not us. Oh, no, we knew you couldn't make any money ~~in the service~~ in cable TV. So who did the dirty work for us? ~~Queeg~~ Olbermann did! And a lot of other guys. Tough, sharp guys who didn't crack up like ~~Queeg~~ Olbermann.

Before he descends to that green room below, the one where you have to do your own makeup and bring your own Evian (which is really tap water poured into a bottle you found behind the local 7-11) and use a Johnny-on-the-Spot (or better yet, just hold it until your 30-second spot is over and you can use the can in the nearby Waffle House, as gross as it is), gaze upon Olbermann throwing down against the single most dramatic figure on this damnable series of tubes we've come to rely on even more than latter-day Eric Sevareids and low-rated, histrionic opinion journalists.

And as Olbermann fades from memory even though he's still on the air, like Diagnosis: Murder or DeGrassi Junior High, The Joe Franklin Show, and Oliver North's War Stories, all of which may well be producing new episodes, ask yourself: Didn't he take it to the chipmunk (which is not really a chipmunk, we know) like a pro? Go tell the Spartans, or at least Roger Ailes, that this was one Cool Hand Luke who could really take a punch!

For downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions of "Dramatic Olbermann vs. Dramatic Chipmunk" scroll down. Watch the video at Reason.tv YouTube channel (subscribe to it and you'll get automatic notificatins whenever new material goes live!). Approximately 13 seconds long; produced by Meredith Bragg and me.

Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com.

Second Life

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Drew Carey takes us on a guided tour of Second Life (SL), a virtual world with more than 500,000 residents.

But SL isn’t your typical virtual world. Unlike other popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games, like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, there are no defined roles or objectives in SL. Just like in real life, SL residents determine their own goals and decide for themselves how best to achieve them. Moreover, virtually everything in SL was created by the residents themselves using tools provided by Linden Lab, the company that launched SL in 2003.

SL is based on a simple set of institutional arrangements that would make F.A. Hayek proud. In essence, the people who own the property in SL make the rules. The result is a spontaneously ordered world in which residents are free to fly, teleport, build, trade and interact with others without interference from the state.

Recently, Linden Lab—the SL equivalent of a state—has begun acting more and more like a real life government by restricting activities such as gambling. But open source competitors based on the SL platform are currently in development. so better virtual worlds offering even more freedom are just around the corner.