What’s in a newspaper name?
On January 6, Scott Johnson, an Oakland resident and activist, and cofounder of the Occupied Oakland Tribune, received a cease-and-desist letter from the Bay Area News Group, the corporate overlord of the Oakland Tribune.
This attack on free speech comes as dozens of arrests have occurred at the site of Occupy Oakland as part of a continued crackdown. In one of the most ridiculous, at least one activist was accused by authorities of "lynching" herself--after attempting to free herself from police custody.
Johnson refused to provide a comment to the Oakland Tribune, but he recently gave an exclusive interview to the Occupied Oakland Tribune, which we reprint here.
FIRST, IT is a pleasure to finally meet you.
LIKEWISE.
PLEASE TELL me about the circumstances that led to...
WAIT, ARE you with the Oakland Tribune?
NO. OCCUPIED Oakland Tribune.
ARE YOU sure? Because it would not be appropriate for me to submit to an interview with someone who is threatening a lawsuit.
NOPE. OCCUPIED. Only a total dumbass would confuse us.
GOOD POINT.
BESIDES, WHAT would they want to interview you about?
ABOUT THIS very subject.
NO SHIT?
JUST 58 minutes after I received the cease and desist letter, their reporter e-mailed me for an interview.
DOESN'T THAT seem like a conflict of interest?
I KNOW, right? The only people I had told were my wife and my lawyer, and suddenly I'm getting this e-mail asking for my phone number. She actually already had my phone number from a previous interview, but she lost it.
WAIT, WHAT?
THEY INTERVIEWED me after the Oakland General Strike and were going to run a big story, but it never happened. I only did the interview because the reporters promised not to sue me.
DOESN'T SOUND like they thought you were tarnishing their image then.
NO, FAR from it. In fact, I was told that they thought the whole thing was really cool. They even took a copy of my paper and posted it on the door of the hotel room they were using in the Marriott as their downtown Oakland command center.
Furthermore, for weeks, the @insidebayarea Twitter account, which is the official account for the Oakland Tribune, was retweeting me every time I tweeted about a major Occupy Oakland event. So somebody there thought I was doing something good.
NOW, I hear that there is a Scott Johnson working at the "unoccupied" Oakland Tribune. Have you thought about sending him a cease and desist letter for tarnishing your brand? That would be hilarious.
YES, IT would be hilarious, but then I would look like a total douchebag and would probably lose a bunch of readers, so it's not worth it.
YEAH, GOOD point. So, how much money are you making off this whole thing?
[hysterical laughter]
OK, ANYWAY. You say you have a lawyer. Anybody famous?
I DON'T know, have you heard of Dan Siegel?
OMG! HE'S awesome!
YEAH, WELL, I got his son Michael. Also awesome.
ALRIGHT. ANYTHING else?
YES. IF the Bay Area News Group wanted to keep their trademark from being "tarnished," they could start by not laying off their staff, not foolishly threatening to change their name to the East Bay Tribune, and not abandoning the Tribune Tower. Maybe then they wouldn't have to worry about their image.
Also, people who think this whole thing is ridiculous can support our Kickstarter fund to help us put out our next issue. Even Max Allstadt is going donate to us.
All donations go to the cost of publishing the newsletter, which is full of timely, educational content about Occupy Oakland and the broader movement.
First published in the Occupied Oakland Tribune.
