On Oscar Grant, Phil Bronstein, BART Police, & My Source

This week I posted a vlog on Oscar Grant and what my source claims is an autopsy where crack cocaine was found in his body. Here is an update and what happened when SF Chronicle's Phil Bronstein picked up the story.

First my source said the following:

1) The shooting was an accident, and not a racist hit. There are officers who have taken such actions but not like that. They would make it look like a random murder.

2) My source thinks that what happened to Grant was shameful, contrary to what some commenters have written.

The vlog was picked up by San Francisco Chronicle Executive Vice President and Editor-At-Large Phil Bronstein on his "Bronstein At Large" blog, and who focused on the idea that drugs may have been planted on Grant. My source insists that was not the case; they were there in Grant already.

For some reason, Bronstein's post was removed and when I emailed to learn why got a response from Zoe Stagg , the star of Citizen Sugar, who told me that the SF Chronicle Newsroom expressed "issues" with the source -- my source's -- information, but I don't know what the problem was.

Still, this is the Internet. Here's a link to the cached version of what Phil wrote: PHIL's BLOG.

Then I also contacted CNN about the video, since Phil linked to my iReport version. I contacted Rick Sanchez, who emailed that he would check into it. I've not heard back from him.

The overall lesson here is that Old Media tries to control the spread of information. Look at how KTVU used the BART Shooting videos it had to gain ratings and keep the story going, making sure it had legs, or look at how the Chronicle and CNN are treating the story. This is in direct contrast to New Media, which is designed to quickly communicate a story to many people, regardless of origin.

Who will win? Well, I think New Media's ahead so far.