Not too long after his viral video, Jason Russell, co-founder and director of the KONY 2012 viral video and Leader of The Invisible Children, found the video spreading like wild fire. If you go on to YouTube, the video has 85,906,706 views around the world. Click here to watch the video on YouTube. According to the half hour video, Joesph Kony is a Ugandan Warlord that has been abducting African boys and girls, where he would use the young African girls as sex slaves, and then train the boys to fight for him as child soldiers. Many females are being forced into procreating more children so Kony can use them to strengthen his current Army. Jason Russell created this program in the hope, that millions of people world wide will come together, and make Kony as famous as American celebrities and put him on the cover of Time magazine, one of the most influential and well known magazines in the world. The only problem with that, is a campaign is only as strong as it's leader...
Now this viral video has blown up across campuses worldwide, newspapers, class room lectures, and clearly the Internet. As a few months have passed, many are wondering what has happened to this campaign? Have they caught Kony? Is Kony still alive? The real question people should be asking is, what has Jason Russell, founder and president of the organization been doing? That answer is a complete shocker to most people. He was arrested on Thursday March 15th 2012, for walking around the San Diego's Pacific Beach area, "in a speedo like" bottom while making sexual gestures and innuendos at the passing motorists before he finally removed his "speedo like" bottoms and started masturbating on public sidewalks and the public roads. The officers arrested him as a psychiatric detainment. According to the ABC and NBC news articles, Russell, 33, was flailing his arms around and slapping the sidewalk while he was naked. TMZ also caught a 2 minuet video where Russell was yelling at the traffic in that all natural look.
Many people would look at this and demand an arrest, but sure enough, there are currently no charges on the 33 year old KONY2012 producer. The CEO of Invisible Children, Ben Keesey went informed the San Diego news reporters that Russell was hospitalized for health problems after the arrest that Thursday, where he suffered from dehydration, exhaustion, and malnutrition, and that all the immediate success of the KONY2012 viral video put a lot of stress on Jason and his family. That stress apparently lead to nude shouting, and masturbation in the streets.
Being the criminal justice students we are, it makes one wonder many different things. Once the arresting officers found Jason to be the producer of the KONY video, did his immediate fame lead to a bill at the hospital and a slap on the wrist? What do you guys think? How does the actions of the President of an international organization make the organization itself look? After reading about Jason's claim to fame and fall from fame, does his actions make you think different about the Invisible Childrens campaign to stop Kony? Should he have to answer for his repulsive behaviors? Should he get a prison sentence his actions, even though he was diagnosed with exhaustion, malnutrition, and dehydration? What do you guys think? As for the organization as a whole, what type of failure do you believe this would be? could his freak out be considered a long term failure which would challenge the organizations legitimacy as a whole, or a minor short term failure? Did his actions lead to an oversight failure on the idea that Russell took his own actions from the instant fame? Use your CRJ knowledge and give your opinion!!
Article found by ABC San Diego News. CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
Video found on YouTube. TMZ link--Click under video box
I honestly feel that Russell was brought into this massive over night fame and unable to take it all in for the moment.After the youtube went viral Im sure they got an out-pour of support and negative feedback as well.
ReplyDeleteI do think that his actions have led to failure, the fame of KONY 2012 has deteriorated tremendously, since the nude video. With his naked rampage I believe this to be a possible long-term failure. Nobody is going to want to back something where the founder isn't stable and money may be going to something that they never agreed in supporting. For instance how are everyday people and supporters like George Clooney, sure that money they send in isn't going to his treatment of health. After all he did say he quit his job so that could mean no health insurance. There have also been reports of this being a tax scam, although I'm not sure how. These reasons maybe factors of a possible long-term failure.
Let me be the first person to say and mean this, at first i was a supporter of Kony 2012 but after watching the video a couple of times I thought it was a scam. Kony had been enslaving children for over 20 years and his rebel armies move from place to place. The video centered around one town. The donated money would have been used to help that one town and not stop Kony completely. Another thing in the 30 min video that bothered me was the fact that Russell was going to accept 20 percent of the proceeds. This would make this man rich. After watching this nude video, I believe the man let the money and fame get to him. This would take away from his original purpose and in the end the two causes collided and drove him to the edge. I believe Russell should be sent to a mental hospital to check for any illness. However after this he should be sent to prison to accounts of fraud. This man is obviously a head case and cares for no one but himself. However this could have been a publicity stunt for him to gain more media coverage. This is a sick man.
ReplyDeleteI agree he let his fame get to his head.
DeleteI think that the instant fame may have gone to Jason Russell's head. He probably thinks he is above the law like many celebrities think they are exemplified by their actions. If I were to come across Mr. Russell in this case as an officer of the law the fact that he made this video would not change how I treated him. I think that the fact that he is "famous" should have no effect on the consequences for his actions. I would charge him and let him face a judge/jury like anybody else that committed his crimes would have to do. I think the video is still effective but it is sad that this man, who obviously has problems, is getting rich off of a good cause. In all honesty I have seen the video and really feel bad for Russell's son, who is probably now going to be exposed to his father’s actions and all the negativity that comes with it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that he was suffering from exhaustion or dehydration or anything that the official reports said. He was probably just raging a bit too hard! Seriously though, the medical condition excuses sound like a cover-up if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Darius mentioned that he's now suspicious of the Kony 2012 movement. I still don't understand how they were going to achieve their goal or what exactly there were going to do with the money. You can't just hire the U.S. military. I know some people will dispute that statement but you know what I mean.
Did you guys see the video where one of the other high ranking members of the Invisible Children joked about keeping $900,000 out of a $1 million grant they received for a different project? This was before Kony but still, it shows the type of people we're dealing with.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/kony-2012-jedidiah-jenkins_n_1386251.html
I guess I can't fault him for celebrating the fact that they got a million dollars to fund a cause that meant something to them. But to tape it is asinine. To say that the bottle was filled with water is a joke. A lot like saying your naked freak-out was due to dehydration!
This poor fella lost him mind. The Kony 2012 video was quite convincing, Ill be honest. I think the nude video that was caught was certainly due to his quick fame and advancement in internet world. Im not sure what happened to the entire cause and push for Kony 2012. There is little information as to what is going on now with the entire project. The money that was donated seems to have gone missing. There is no doubt that Russell is extremely talented. His video was well organized and seemed to have a very professional feel and message to it. Kony is another viral project that erupted and has since gone south. Good article.
ReplyDeleteI watched Kony 2012 and you know it is very sad the situation that is happening over there. I just didnt buy this guys BS. Shortly after he was found wandering the streets naked, vandalizing property, and masturbating in public. NOw a man who just got overwhelmed doesnt do that. A man who is a drug addict does that and im not talking about weed im talking about some hard stuff. He was tripping off something and tried covering up saying he was exhausted just doesnt do it for me. He is a fraud.
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