Greetings Steemit Community! My name is James Tracy, writer, blogger, and reforming academic. I heard about Steemit shortly after its debut while researching Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Since 2012 I have edited Memory Hole Blog ... Reflections on Media and Politics (memoryholeblog.org), a site that's been "featured" (read: fiercely attacked) by many mainstream news organizations because of its "controversial" content. This began with my media analysis on reportage of the December 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre. Before you knew it I was "appearing" on CNN's Anderson Cooper program without even accepting his interview invitations.
Here's MHB's official description: "a forum for news, criticism and commentary on sociopolitical issues and phenomena overlooked or misreported by mainstream media. Such neglected concerns are likewise often omitted from or distorted in popular consciousness and memory." This has expanded to include news on current under-reported issues and events.
If that sounds over-the-top it should because I wrote the description of the blog back when I was a professor and therefore trying to impress readers with over-the-top and unnecessary verbiage. I taught media studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton from 2002 to 2015.
Long story short, the people who ran the university didn't like the negative publicity my blogging attracted but they couldn't fire me because I was a "tenured" professor. Plus it would be a violation of my First Amendment right to free speech as a private citizen. So, they got rid of me another way--arguing that I didn't fill out university paperwork stating the blog was part of my employment. If that sounds confusing it certainly was at the time, and still is. After all, how can anyone be employed by their blog, especially one that doesn't have any cash flow? In 2016 I filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against FAU that was first dismissed, then allowed to go forward, and is presently at a standstill in the court system. Justice delayed in America? You bet!
I describe myself as a media scholar and political analyst located in South Florida. I received my PhD (the "union card" for a job in academe) from University of Iowa in 2002. My writings have appeared in numerous academic journals, edited volumes, and alternative news and opinion outlets including Global Research, Lew Rockwell, Activist Post, Information Clearing House, and Infowars.
Thanks for reading this. I'm happy to be here.
James Tracy
