Statement About Verizon
- Posted on: Jul. 9, 2008
- 38 Comments
Verizon Wireless has chosen to opt out of the distribution agreement with 1938 Media that was announced last week. They were wonderful to work with, and we respect their decision. We would like to thank them and our partners on the channel. We hope that Verizon Wireless might find a way to continue to work with them. They are great shows and great people:
Jay Grandin
Ze Frank
Mahalo Daily
Revision 3
1938 Media has produced close to one thousand videos on the web. We will continue to produce cutting edge, thought-provoking videos and social media art until at least 2038. We will not be intimidated by a radical Islamic religious group, or any group for that matter.
We would like to thank all of our friends who support free thought, free speech and the arts.
We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly. I have a pretty good idea you will like it. 
Sorry for the verizon deal… can’t wait for the new idea..
Replyyou don’t crawl away, beat. Others do. Ppl don’t get it strengthens you. Makes you more fierce & determined.
Replyhahahaha
ReplyStand strong in the face of stupidity.
ReplyThe air is clear on the high road. Well done, sir.
ReplyWe like your work! In my eyes technigga is one of the better 1938media-videos and for me it is not understandable, why it should be rasistic. It puts the spot on some common clichés. That’s it.
Greetings from Germany,
Sebastian
ReplyNext time you do a “street vid”, maybe you should hold back on the Chai bling.
ReplyCutting edge?
Hah!
ReplyDoes not surprise me one bit.
Reply1000 videos on Michelle’s boobs? SWEET!
ReplyI hope your future videos will not be intimidated or influenced in any way by Verizon’s decision…
ReplySounds like iT was an ” Inside Job” Mate~
Now let’s play..Who’s the Tojan
ReplyYou just don’t get it…just as ignorant as you so called fans. More companies should take a stand.
Reply“Radical Islamic religious group?” How exactly the Project Islamic Hope group a “radical” one? Because they opposed Leron’s ignorant and idiotic portrayal of what a black tech blogger would be like? Gimme a fuckin’ break! (1938 must have an ax to grind with ALL Muslims, then)
It’s funny that Leron would slap the shit outta Guy Kawasaki for saying “I learned how to sell from my Jewish friends” for being stereotypical, yet make some ignorant-ass sh!t like the “TechNigga” video.
Gimme a break, 1938! Admit you fucked up and quit trying to smear a Muslim organization for pointing out your stupidity.
ReplyI find it somewhat revealing that in the KNBC news broadcast they blank out the ‘nigga’ word but leave the ‘ho’ word intact; suggesting that some types of discrimination are more acceptable than others. As usual mainstream media fails to practice what it preaches.
I’m also astonished to see just how seriously people took your technigger video. There would appear to be a widespread misunderstanding of sarcasm and some ever strong racial divisions.
And as long as it doesn’t get out of control, I’m sure Loren is loving every minute of this.
ReplyThis video was not racist.
It’s not insulting an ETHNIC group, but a SOCIAL group, and in this case: rappers/ganstas. The video should’ve been titled differently and the introduction not targeted at the whole black community, but the subject itself is in no way racist. And neither are you.
I’m white, personally support Obama and still found it very funny. Barack happened to have used the most efficient web 2.0 staff ever in a presidential campaign! How ironic! Thus yes, we all know afro-americans can be and are great bloggers. Geez, this was a joke, ok???
Would you consider Mencia or Chapelle making fun of rednecks racist? Rednecks are a social group, not a representation of Caucasians, are they?
Here, it’s the same: Loren makes fun of a social group, not an ethnicity. And btw, Eminem belongs to this social group too, and he’s white, right? And the whole joke pimps/hoes was obviously in reference to snoop dog sorta wannabe pimps/rappers.
The only error i see was the title and the introduction, and I think Loren already apologized for it.
What else do you want from him, people?
Reply1938 Media. Pwned.
Reply“we”? you gotta mouse in your pocket loren
Reply@anonymous Don’t you feel lame being superior in the dark?
ReplyI respect you allow a range of comments on here. That’s the way it should work. Way to go and I agree w/ your latest ?s on twitter/ff
I think blaming anyone but yourself for this is ridiculous. The video made you come off as a philistine.
http://www.calvertonschool.org/waldspurger/pages/philistine.htm
The art is in attempting to the same material, but actually pulling it off…
I’m a fan though. I will be watching. The other videos are really good. Your getting better. Just don’t let this hold you back or define you moving fwd - the stuff you were doing leading up to this for the last few months was good. I hope your traffic numbers show that…
ReplyLoren;
I’ve been watching 1938 since I discovered new media. I guess I’m a sick enough fuck to actually enjoy your humor and opinion.
I’m so sorry you have fallen as yet another victim of other people’s insecurity; the insecurity of not being able to live above a comedic stereotype.
Actually, come to think of it, this smacks of one of your nemesis’ followers wielding political-correctness as what is, unfortunately, an effective yet barbaric weapon.
You know what? I’m black, I’m a technophile, and I’m offended. I’m offended by dumbasses and social do-gooders who feel I need to be protected because I’m too stupid to see when someone is making a joke. …If that’s who’s behind this.
If it’s not, then fuck anyone who would use a social instrument (P.C.) that makes the whole black community look like sniveling whiners. I can think of nothing more offensive.
The fact that this has had negative financial impact on you and 1938Media is awful. Just keep on doing what you doing, Loren. The rest of us can take a joke.
ReplyFuck Verizon. They turned down the iPhone also. Great move on their part. Old school corporate… sometimes they never learn.
Keep up the good work Loren. I think it’s good stuff.
Reply@AndrewSmith
Good point! I guess the blacks in the earlier 1900’s also were too insecure to live above the Sambo and blackface stereotypes of that era.
Fuckin’ overly P.C. douchebags!
ReplyNobody slams people harder or more mercilessly for their stupid mistakes than Loren Feldman.
What goes around comes around.
ReplyWell too bad you douche bag drinker.
And resorting to anti-Islamic incitement? The last desperate move of a charlatan and asshole.
ReplyThis is ridiculous. I think it’s an error of judgment on Verizon’s part to give into demands from these kind of silly little activist groups.
The correct answer to give to anyone who complains about anything that’s on TV, radio, YouTube, and now mobile phones is - if you don’t like it, don’t watch/listen to it.
ReplyI love Dave.
Reply@H.Bomb:
Can you not tell the difference between the hideously racist early 1900’s when black people couldn’t even play themselves in theatre, and Loren Feldman wearing a wave cap, doing an extremely tongue-in-cheek parody in 2007?
Give me a break.
Reply@AndrewSmith:
Sure, the atmosphere was different in the early 1900’s from the early 2000’s. But still, the relegating an entire race of people to the lowest-denominator stereotype of them is consistent in both timeframes. (tap-dancing ignorarmuses in the 1900’s, dumb pseudo-rappers in the 2000’s)
Why would a black tech blogger (of all occupations) wear outdated clothes and talk in a manner that makes Vanilla Ice seem authentically gangsta? Furthermore, why is THAT image the first thing that came to Loren’s mind when he thought “black tech bloggers?” I’m sure he would sh!t a brick if someone portrayed a “Jewish tech blogger” by wearing a black top hat, rabbi curls, and a massive prosthetic shnoz.
Also, I find it funny/pathetic that 1938 called Project Islamic H.O.P.E. a “radical Islamic religious group.” The group is run by black U.S. Muslims, not the militant foreign ones you see on TV. (of course, nowhere near all foreign Muslims are militant, in case 1938 thought otherwise)
For a company that calls itself “1938,” you’d think they would know better than to baselessly smear another ethnic/religious group!
ReplyMy suspicion is that Loren signed a mutual non-disparagement clause with Verizon. You know he has to be seething — but he’s too afraid of getting sued to say anything even slightly nasty about them. Chickenshit!
ReplyKeep on going man, love this shit.
ReplyIn this world, Mr. Feldman, we need to be held accountable for our poor decisions. That vid was the epitome of lame.
ReplySilicon Valley is just guilty that they in fact haven’t produced any black tech bloggers naturally, so their raging guilt lashes out at parodies that highlight that fact made by 1938Media.
That’s what it’s about.
Keep going, walk around the robots.
ReplyNever stop! TechNiggas is as rich in satire today as it was a year — even richer and ultimately, it’s not even about black people.
http://www.1938media.com/where-are-the-black-tech-bloggers/
ReplyRight on Loren!
how about making fun of the israeli startups that just copy mos of the US companies. Go techjews!
Reply“radical Islamic religious group”??, what the heck has it to do with TechNigga?
Reply[...] social media shock jock Loren Feldman got publicly bounced by VerizonWireless for being a less than stellar citizen with his prior "Technigga" [...]
[...] planned deal between Verizon and 1938 Media will not be pushing through, as announced by Loren Feldman [...]