The Southern Poverty Law Center today is releasing information about how hate groups are using Internet sites like YouTube to spread their hate.

Hate groups used to walk down city streets or stand on courthouse steps passing out pamphlets, but now they can post a video and reach the world.

The SPLC says some of the videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

You can listen to a podcast interview I did with the author of the story, Brentin Mock.

I am intentionally not linking to the video that Mock mentioned in his report, but you can easily look them up by using the search box on YouTube.com. Once you look one of them up, you will find many others listed as related videos. The SPLC says:

One of the most popular videos, "Branik White Power," is a poor-quality depiction of skinheads gone wild, set to roaring hate rock. The high-speed montage depicts Nazi skins dancing violently in the "mosh pit" near the stage, throwing punches, waving "SS" flags, and showing off white-power tattoos. Since it was posted by YouTube user "bulldog88" in May 2006, it has been downloaded more than 40,000 times.

Some of the most noxious videos are more reserved in their approach, such as "The Real David Duke," which has the former Klan leader pontificating on race relations for nine minutes and which has been viewed more than 10,000 times since it was posted last October. Another example is "David Irving on the Holocaust," a five-and-a-half-minute excerpt of a speech by the notorious Holocaust denier in Britain that's been downloaded over 4,000 times during the same time period.

The Irving video was posted to YouTube last October by "Hadden88"("88" is neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler"), who has compiled his own YouTube "channel" of 79 videos, most of them anti-Semitic mini-"documentaries" and speeches by hate peddlers like Irving, National Alliance founder William Pierce, and Adolf Hitler.

Other popular YouTube racist videos include a series of six "White Nationalist News" clips, the earliest episode dated last Sept. 8, some of which have been viewed more than 3,000 times; "Ku Klux Klan -- A Secret History," posted in September, and its accompaniment "Ku Klux Klan 4-Ever," posted in December, each viewed over 11,000 times; "Nazi KKK," posted in October and viewed 15,000 times; "Russian skinheads. We are here," posted in December and viewed over 45,000 times; and "Skinhead" posted in November and viewed 132,000 times.

In his interview with me, Mock points out that YouTube, for example, does try to remove such hate videos, but with a flood of new videos being posted every day, it is impossible to keep up with them all.

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The Future of Roller Rinks

The number of roller rinks nationwide has declined in the last 25 years.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says:

The number of roller rinks nationwide has taken a tumble since the early 1980s. [...]

Many closures nationwide stem from operators hitting retirement age and fielding lucrative offers to sell prime land, [Joe] Champa [president of Indianapolis-based Roller Skating Association International] said. The rising popularity of in-line skating, video games, the Internet and other diversions are also factors.

There is some hope that a surge of interest in roller hockey and even roller derby will breathe new life into rinks that have not seen glory days since the disco years.

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Over the years, I have seen some stories mention that parents are less likely these days to drop their kids off to a public skate session at a rink because of safety concerns. While school functions and parties are nice income for rinks, the public skate sessions are their real bread and butter.

I am seeing stories of rinks closing around the country. Here's a story from The (Longview) Daily News about one in Washington. The story contains this passage:

Roughly 1,100 new skating rinks opened across the United States between the late 1970s and 1983, bringing the total number of rinks to 2,300, according to officials at Roller Skating Association International, a trade association representing skating rink owners and operators.

And the story adds:

Rollerskating's popularity plunged everywhere in the early 1980s, resulting in the closure of many rinks across the country, said Joe Champa. [...]

By the mid-1980s, the number of skating rinks had fallen from 2,300 nationwide to 1,200, Champa said Friday. Business slowly began to increase again and then plunged briefly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But for the last three years, rink operators in most parts of the country are experiencing double-digit increases in revenues, Champa said.

Today, 900 roller rinks are members of the skating association, and Champa estimates there are an additional 300 to 400 smaller rinks in the United States that aren't members.

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Al's Morning Multimedia

Al's Morning Meeting reader Rod Peterson, news Director at WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, gave me a heads up about the station's presidential election site that is now up and fully running.

With nearly half of the country making plans to vote in the primary before the end of February, you had better get moving with your online election coverage as WHO did. The site includes a plog (political weblog), which is parked on Blogger. There are some fun flashback videos from previous elections, which I think is a nice way to use the digital assets you have stored in your archive. Maybe more useful is a constantly updated list of which candidates are in Iowa and where they are.

KCCI-TV in Des Moines also has a 2008 page up and running.

Surprisingly, the TV stations are way ahead of newspapers in rolling out big political coverage online this early.

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Costly Overseas Vacations

If you are planning an overseas trip this summer, you better check the cost. It is getting more expensive by the day as the dollar slides against the Euro.

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SODs

The New York Times published an interesting piece on start-over dads, people such as Paul McCartney, Kenny Rogers, Julio Iglesias and much more ordinary folks who father babies even when they are nearing retirement age.

The story says:

"It's such a new phenomenon that there's a dearth of studies about it," said Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins [University] and the author of books about the American family. "We've never had men living so long and having new families. I know many men who become fathers at age 40, 45 or 50 because they met their wives in midlife and decided to have children. Graying at the temples is not new among fathers. But a head of white hair is."

There are growing indications that SODhood may entail risks for children. In recent years studies have suggested that older fathers are more likely to have children with autism, schizophrenia, dwarfism and other serious problems.

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You Need One of These

Quik Pod is a monopod that attaches to your camera and allows you to take a picture above a crowd and in awkward places, like underneath stuff. You journos who are being asked to take a lot more pictures and videos should ask for one of these. Learn more here.

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.

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