Stories by David Rosen

 David Rosen writes the Media Current blog for Filmmaker magazine and is a contributor to the Huffington Post, CounterPunch and the Brooklyn Rail; he is author of Off-Hollywood: The Making & Marketing of Independent Films.  He can be reached at drosen@ix.netcom.com. subscribe to David Rosen's feed

How Telecoms Sell Your Private Info to the Highest Bidder

Posted on: Nov 8, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Wireless providers are aggressively collecting and reselling your usage data. And a lot of what they do remains secret.

Kids Tagged With RFID Chips? The Creepy New Technology Schools Use to Track Everything Kids Do -- And the Profit Motive Behind It

Posted on: Oct 5, 2012, Source: AlterNet

It can't be called "education."

Is Privacy Dead? 4 Government and Private Entities Conspiring to Track Everything You Do Online and Off

Posted on: Sep 10, 2012, Source: AlterNet

The police-corporate surveillance “complex” is being consolidated, drawing ever-closer corporate tracking and government surveillance.

How Privacy in America Went Virtually Extinct in Just a Decade

Posted on: Aug 21, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Unless we challenge the idea that we should concede our rights to protect our safety, it'll get even worse.

Why Our Phones and Internet Are Being Threatened by a Big Telecom Privatization Scheme

Posted on: Jul 26, 2012, Source: AlteNet

Consumers stand to lose big-time if the FCC and its corporate friends get their way.

What Secrets Is Your Cell Phone Company Telling the Government About You?

Posted on: Jul 11, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Over 1.3 million Americans have been electronically "searched and frisked."

Mass Arrests Likely at Political Conventions: 6 Historical Precedents

Posted on: Jun 19, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Clinton's law designates political conventions National Special Security Events, a category of state security that virtually dooms the exercise of First Amendment Rights.

6 Government Surveillance Programs Designed to Watch What You Do Online

Posted on: Jun 6, 2012, Source: AlterNet

If you are a user of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist or another popular site, the U.S. security state is watching you.

America's Spy State: How the Telecoms Sell Out Your Privacy

Posted on: May 29, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Your seemingly private information is a public commodity, subject to the dictates of the security state and market opportunists.

The Terrifying Ways Google Is Destroying Your Privacy

Posted on: May 20, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Google appears to have morphed from a corporation that proclaims, “Don’t be evil” to one insisting that users “Join the Borg.”

The Telecom Scammers' Latest Ploy to Screw You for More Cash

Posted on: Mar 21, 2012, Source: AlterNet

Fees, surcharges and taxes make wireless companies tons of money.

You Are Being Tracked Online: Here Are 5 Ways to Protect Your Privacy

Posted on: Mar 6, 2012, Source: AlterNet

If you listen carefully online, you’ll hear a deep sucking sound -- that's the sound of all your personal data being gobbled up by digital service providers.

OccupyTelecom, Occupy the FCC: How the Communications Trust is Harming America’s Future

Posted on: Nov 17, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The telecom trust’s use of the FCC to raise your rates is a direct example of how corporate greed impacts each of us.

Remembering the Bonus Army: Where Are Today's Mass Nonviolent Protests?

Posted on: Jul 27, 2011, Source: AlterNet

On July 28, 1932, World War I veterans marched on Washington to demand their service bonus. Today, in the face of austerity, we see very little protest like that march.

Shills R Us: Organizations That Get AT&T Cash Endorse its Mega-Merger with T-Mobile

Posted on: Jun 21, 2011, Source: AlterNet

A growing number of nonprofits are recipients of AT&T grants; are they violating their IRS nonprofit status by shilling for the company's interests?

The Secret $8 Billion Wireless Scam: How AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Game the System

Posted on: Jun 16, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Telecom giants Verizon and AT&T have gamed the system, using regulations designed to foster competition to snatch up ever more of the wireless spectrum.

The Big Squeeze: How Americans Are Being Crushed by Financial Insecurity and Doubt

Posted on: May 19, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Americans are living lives of lowered expectation and intensified financial uncertainty.

It's Time to Break Up AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and the Rest of the Telecoms

Posted on: May 11, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Today's telecoms provide overpriced and inferior service, and are systematically overcharging the hapless American consumer.

Salons: A New Intellectual Culture is Taking Shape Throughout the Country

Posted on: May 9, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Amidst the long, drawn-out recovery from the Great Recession, an unprecedented flowering of intellectual life is underway.

The Tea Party Propaganda Factory You Probably Don't Know About

Posted on: Apr 19, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The documentary production company Citizens United has dedicated itself to furthering the interests of the far right and the super-rich.

Lust Murder: Prostitutes as Victims of Throwaway Capitalism

Posted on: Apr 18, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Why, with all the deaths, beatings and suffering that prostitutes endure under "free market" conditions, is it not a regulated enterprise?

How Politicians Are Using 911 Emergency Services to Scam Millions of Consumers

Posted on: Mar 17, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Raiding 911 funds is an easy way for politicians to scoop up loose cash -- far easier than taxing the rich.

How Does the Drug Industry Get Away with Broadcasting Those Deceptive Ads?

Posted on: Mar 12, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that allows Big Pharma to advertise directly to consumers. How did we get here?

Notorious Pro-Corporate Group ALEC's Hidden Role in Stoking Class War in Wisconsin and the Rest of America

Posted on: Feb 21, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The American Legislative Executive Council works behind the scenes, using state-legislative stooges to implement the agenda of giant corporations and the super-rich.

The Outrageous Ways Your Phone Company May Be Stealing from You

Posted on: Feb 9, 2011, Source: AlterNet

A growing number of scams are being perpetrated on telephone and Internet customers. Think you can easily identify bogus charges on your bill? Good luck.

Will Only Another Great Depression Save America?

Posted on: Jan 19, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The economic crisis is really a political struggle between the rich and the rest of us.

How AT&T, Verizon and the Telecom Giants Have Captured the Regulator Supposed to Control Them

Posted on: Jan 7, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Our telecom industry's overseer doesn't seem to have any control to stop the greed. That's because it's a puppet of the industry giants.

Phone Companies' $100 Billion Rip-off -- Where Is That Hidden $6 a Month Going in Our Phone Bills?

Posted on: Dec 10, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The phone companies are soaking all of us for a good chunk of money every month, and they're allowed to conceal it in the fine print of your monthly bill.

Class War Spurs Violent Clashes in Europe -- Why Are Americans Just Letting the Super Rich Win?

Posted on: Nov 1, 2010, Source: CounterPunch

It is time for Americans to reclaim the concept of class war, to actively combat the great squeeze ruining the lives of untold millions of Americans.

Conservatives' Big Hypocrisy: Turning Women Candidates (Who Are Anti-Sex and Anti-Woman) into Sex Symbols

Posted on: Oct 15, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The conservative right is happy for 'sexy' female candidates so long as they don't demand abortion rights, maternity leave, equal pay and equal sexual pleasure.

How the Phone Companies Are Screwing America: The $320 Billion Broadband Rip-Off

Posted on: Oct 6, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Americans are stuck with an inferior and overpriced communications system, compared with the rest of the world, and we're being ripped off in the process.

Shameless Schemers Like Sarah Palin, the Tea Partiers and Right-Wing Christians Trying to Start a New Religious War Against Muslims

Posted on: Aug 15, 2010, Source: CounterPunch

The building of a Muslim community center two blocks from the site of the WTC has become the latest controversy in America's long fought religious wars.

The Tea Party and Christian Right's Sneaky Anti-Abortion Crusade

Posted on: Jul 4, 2010, Source: CounterPunch

The new anti-abortion movement is a continuation of the old religious war against a woman's right to choose and for sexual freedom, but with some important new twists.

Gay Sex Scandal Rocks Christian Right ... Again

Posted on: May 9, 2010, Source: CounterPunch

George Rekers, caught with a gay escort, makes clear that sexual scandal is about more then sex and hypocrisy. It's also about denial, shame and pathology.

10 Biggest Sports Sex Scandals of All Time: How Does Tiger Woods Rate?

Posted on: Dec 7, 2009, Source: CounterPunch

Woods' sex scandal is the latest battleground for a media debate over moral order -- here are 10 others that captivated the press and public.

Sanford's Sordid Sex Saga: Why We Like Publicly Shaming Hypocrite Politicians

Posted on: Jun 28, 2009, Source: CounterPunch

Last week, Gov. Mark Sanford participated in one of the oldest social rituals in American history: public shaming of the moral hypocrite.

9 Ways to Halt the Right Wing Culture Wars and Bring Sanity to Sexual Policy

Posted on: Dec 2, 2008, Source: CounterPunch

We have a unique opportunity to overturn the perverse agenda of the Religious Right.

Rape as an Instrument of Total War

Posted on: Apr 13, 2008, Source: CounterPunch

Sexual assault has long been used as a tool of war. But as war tactics have changed, so have sex crimes in war-torn areas.