Rebel Reporting

Edited by Norman Stockwell & Cristalyne Bell

John Ross was a man who lived as he chose and wrote it as he damned well pleased. A reporter with a cause in the time-honored leftwing American tradition of John Reed and I.F. Stone, Ross chose to live most of his life in Mexico in a kind of exile from his native United States. He documented the last half century from the perspective of that country's callejones, its ejidos and pueblos, and we have been enriched by his effort. Ross was a political outlaw of the utmost integrity, and this book, Rebel Reporting, is the maximum legacy of a man who fought injustice all his life with poetry, and with passion. There are some pearls of true wisdom here for the next generation, and for that handful of reporters who may choose to be defiant and brave, and to live like John Ross. — Jon Lee Anderson, Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World and Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life 

John Ross was Jack Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, Roque Dalton and Che Guevara all rolled up together, but most of all he was himself, observer and participant at once, listening carefully to the poorest, challenging hypocrisy wherever he detected it oozing from the mouths of the powerful. John’s spirit permeated the stories he covered so thoroughly that his writing dazzled like that of no other reporter I know. The inimitable, take-no-prisoners voice of John Ross rings clear on every page of this book. In writing a primer for the rebel reporter, John Ross has written a primer for life. —Mary Jo McConahay, Maya Roads: One Woman's Journey Among the People of the Rainforest and Ricochet: Two women war reporters and a friendship under fire

[John’s] state of self-exile gave him a huge gift, that of imagining and describing the potential truth of things beyond the rational boundaries of journalism. His Tonatiuh's People [1998] is one of the greatest political novels I ever read, with abiding insights into the soul of a writer and a revolution. —Tom Hayden, Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader and editor of The Zapatista Reader 

John Ross was uncompromising in his dedication to the poor, the downtrodden and the victims of empire. He was not welcome on the television talk show circuit frequented by journalistic elites andpolitical players, nor was he invited to the cocktail parties of the rich and powerful. He was always most at home among the people in the slums and barrios of the world. John Ross was the personification of the peoples' reporter, a troubadour for justice who chose to cast his lot of conscience with those who have the will to live and the heart to resist against all odds. Simply put, John Ross was the Robin Hood of journalism. —Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars 

About the Book: 

John Ross believed that journalism is not a profession, but rather a moral obligation. His bottom up investigative reporting made him an ally to the underrepresented and an enemy to the overrepresented. This book outlines the basic responsibilities of a journalist and provides instructions on how to document injustices and poetically pitch stories to audiences in order to create change in society. When Ross passed away many said he was the last of a dying breed, but this book passes on his creative knowledge as a poet, and journalist to inspire a new generation of reporters.

978-0-7618-6660-2; Paperback; December 2015 $19.99

About The Lectures

These lectures were first delivered to a classroom of students at San Francisco’s New College in the Fall of 2006. It was here that Ross developed the concept for a series of talks that he later took on tour around the United States, delivering them in various forms to students at universities and community colleges. The lectures have been edited only slightly for publication, and sometimes refer to events and places that were surrounding Ross as he first delivered them in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Excerpt From Lecture 1: 

OK class, this seminar is called “rebel journalism” just in case you wandered into the wrong room. What is “rebel journalism” anyway? Just some catchy scam to sucker in young and not so young media studies grad students at eccentric, overpriced institutes of higher learning?

Is rebel journalism “journalism about rebellion”? You bet your booty. That’s the content of rebel journalism. Rebel journalism advocates rebellion; in fact good rebel journalism incites rebellion.

So who is a rebel journalist? Well, hang on, I don’t know about this “journalist” stuff. It sounds snooty. I call myself a reporter; it’s a lot closer to the street.

But is a rebel reporter just one who covers rebellion? That seems to depend upon which side of the barricade you wind up on. A lot of hotshot corporate reporters—Rob Collier, the San Francisco Chronicle’s foreign editor is one—covered the Contra rebellion in Nicaragua from the side of the Contras.

A good rebel reporter doesn’t just take notes on rebellion. A good rebel reporter incites rebellion, makes people angry, encourages organization, offers them hope that another world is possible. A rebel reporter is a participant in rebellion or resistance or revolution or whatever you want to call the struggle for social change. Like the Zapatistas, our words are our weapons.

So who are some rebel reporters? I spoke about Josh Wolf. By the time he’s out, Josh will have served more time in prison than any other U.S. reporter who has ever gone to jail for refusing to turn over his or her sources. The previous record—168 days—is held by a Houston-based reporter who refused to reveal her sources on a murder story.

Judith Miller, who ran 11 mendacious front-page stories in the New York Times “documenting” Saddam Hussein’s fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction and provided public justification for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, only did 85 days, and not for war crimes either. It was because she balked at finking out a neo-con pal who had outed Joe Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative. You ask what’s wrong with outing a CIA operative? Nothing. It’s an act of rebel reporting, in fact. The only ethical act Judith Miller ever perpetrated.

Anyway, Josh has a lot of time on his hands these days and jail is not such a bad place to report from. I did my first English-language story from Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary doing a year on a draft beef back in 1964. “What To Do in Jail” it was titled, a kind of primer for imprisoned activists.

Someone who had been in jail at the School of Americas protests in Fort Benning for a couple of months told me recently, “Jail is like visiting a poor country.” Almost everyone there is poor and has a story to tell. When rebel reporters go to jail, they should consider themselves foreign correspondents.

What burns me up about Josh Wolf is that reporters refuse to accept him as a real reporter. To these J-School “Richie Riches,” Josh is some post-adolescent anarchist punk blogger, anything but a member of their elite profession. We will talk about J-School at length down the pike.

* * *

A book release party for Rebel Reporting, and celebration of the life of John Ross on the fifth anniversary of his passing. Join co-editors Norman Stockwell and Cristalyne Bell, with special guests Tim Redmond, former editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and journalist Mary Jo McConahay, author of Maya Roads: One Woman’s Journey Among the People of the Ranforest.

La Boheme Cafe
3318 24th Street at Mission: the heart of the Mission
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016
4-7 p.m. PST
For more information: <www.cafelabohemesanfrancisco.com>

PS. Also, we now have a website at www.rebelreporting.com