As told by the page, and ostensibly expounded on in the book, the Luddites weren’t against technology. Their livelihoods were taken away by factory owners. They were going to starve.
Brings some interesting context to someone calling us neo-Luddites, as a few have in the past. We’re not against technology. We use technology. We are against companies using their money to lie to the public. We are against corporations violating the law to push us out of our livelihoods.
Those that fail to study history are doomed to repeat it?
P.S.
Tomorrow’s post is written the way it is for many, many reasons. My best friends asked if I was okay. I’m okay.
I don’t anticipate you will read the whole thing. I don’t anticipate anyone will read the whole thing. There are strategic, social, political, and legal reasons for a lot of what I do. The day may come when it is time to reveal these things to the world in more detail or in a more formal setting. Till then…
It’s Black History Month! I don’t do much acknowledgement on here of the “recognition months.” There is a part of me that feels it’s malignantly ceremonial. What I mean by that is, more or less, while we take this time to acknowledge and remember the contributions of Black people to the United States, and that’s important; we, as a country and society, all too often then turn a blind eye to the racial and systemic injustices of this day and age, comforted by the “ceremony” of giving those people a month.
(NOTE: Phrased that way to parody the “us versus them” mentality of the chronically bigoted.)
This is very similar to how I view the way court reporters are treated. Companies and courts tell us how important we are and what a good job we do, turn around and cut our jobs, and then blame us for shortage. The respect we have is mostly ceremonial. When it comes down to actually improving our lives and working conditions through a simple gesture like speaking slower and clearer there are very, very few that make active efforts to help. The primary difference? Most of us can, if we so choose, give up the game and go do something else. Not so with the color of skin. Imagine if someone spent a whole month telling you how important you were only for you to live in a reality where you are more likely to experience excessive use of force by police. “Stop resisting!” “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
I have to grapple with the fact that most do not view “the ceremony” my way. It is viewed as a positive thing. I appreciate that very much. I would gladly host submissions related to Black History Month (or Pride, etc). I’m not trying to blackout or cancel the celebration or stifle discussion about what we have learned from history. But I would need people to come forward and submit things. Otherwise, it’s just me, Whitey McWhiteface, writing what I think should be written. Sharing what I think should be shared. And occasionally being called names for it.
But in the end it’s not about me. I acknowledge the power of diverse teams. I acknowledge that I can only bring one perspective out of the billions on this Earth. It is one mission of this blog to attract more viewpoints, opinions, facts, ideas. And I will stand resolute and spotlight anyone that’ll take the time to share with me what they’re doing or what they think should be posted. Because I know stuff is happening just like Margary Rogers’ 2022 project, or Kim Xavier’s video from 4 years ago. I just don’t have omniscience. The community’s help is required to keep tabs on and publicize stuff, at least until the day someone can be employed full time to investigate and write about these things.
Help bring an end to the lack of diversity on Stenonymous. Please reach out with any submissions or projects you want featured. Contact@stenonymous.com. We don’t have the same institutional and organizational bars as the Journal of Court Reporting. Let’s press that advantage and make some magic happen!
P.S.
If you’ve ever wondered why I’m such a hellraiser on issues related to our field, simply put I’ve spent enough time reading up on private equity and documenting the behavior of various people and entities related to our field. I see pretty clearly that they’re looking to push the median wage of our field, about $60,000, toward the median wage of the United States, $30,000, and pocket the difference, multiplied by thousands of court reporters. What would you do to make $3 million a year? Even if you wouldn’t do a damn thing, keep in mind we live in a world where people occasionally stab each other over stolen lunch. Pretty safe to say the big box brigade will do whatever is within its power to take that money from you, especially when it can be given a sham veneer of shortage and legality. The more resistance that is put in the way, the slower this happens, with the possibility of it never occurring. So that’s the “altruistic” bit. I’d do almost anything except illegal things to keep your money in your wallet.
But I get the sense many of you are wary of that. Perhaps it would comfort you to know I am also self-serving. I have a disability wherein 50% to 80% of those with it cannot hold a full-time job. I have another disability right on top of that. I not only hold a full-time job, but I am in the 10% or 20% able to pass a stenographic training course. Then I’m in one of the best stenographic jobs in the whole country, which only maybe 1% of us can hold at any one time. So imagine being in the 1% of the 20% of the 20% (0.04%?). Now imagine that you know, almost factually, that there are forces that are systematically plotting to take that away (example) and that your future hinges on the actions of professionals all across your field.
Hey, everybody. There are some great articles and ideas in the works. I’ve had an uptick of information from sources across the country and am doing my best to stay on top of things. I also have several articles/ideas in the works for corporations that have opened up to me about their plans and capabilities.
Unfortunately, due to family stuff, this is taking a lot longer than usual, so please bear with me. Low Stenonymous funding means I have to roll without any help. Unfortunately, the blog has to take a backseat to family and work obligations.
I do feel an obligation to my readers and contributors too, but I have to be realistic in prioritizing.
Thank you for your understanding and all the support you’ve given this blog! More regular posting should resume within a month.
A store owner was killed over a pride flag not long ago. When I was a young man and throughout a nice chunk of my life, society was fairly good as a whole about condemning violence. That was sometime after the government stopped producing plans to kill its own citizens. The political landscape has definitely shifted. “Both sides” of the political landscape have elements that regard “the other side” as evil, stupid, or even inhuman. I know because I’ve seen plenty of online evidence and have even made goofy videos trying to persuade young people to get away from thinking about violence as an answer to political problems. We are forgetting, or perhaps some have never acknowledged, that we are all Americans and that while we may vehemently disagree, and in some cases nastily disagree, there is a line, and that line is unlawful behavior.
It has me thinking about my own writing. A lot of my writing is politically left to the degree we must use such labels to describe things, very much like that pride flag is often viewed as being. The concept I created for Patriots Against Corporatism hasn’t taken off yet, but I know there are right-wing people that respect that kind of stuff. They understand that America won’t function without more of the economy going to hardworking people like them, including small business entrepreneurs. The unfortunate catch there is that I may someday have elements from “either” political persuasion angry with me, especially if my following grows.
If I am ever targeted for my writing I hope that people will not lay down quietly about it. You do not need to live in a society afraid to speak. Sometimes the only thing that will stave off the threat of authoritarians of whatever political cause systematically silencing you is gathering together and shouting in one collective bellow, as we have learned from the countless movements that came before.
Those that follow me, I’m eternally grateful for your support. It really made a difference in our field. It continues to do so every day. So if I ever do fall victim to something and am not able to tell you myself, just remember how powerful you really are.
And remember that corporations and governments run cyber ops to control you and how you think about things, including your fellow Americans. That person you’re fighting with online may not be anything more than a kid from a rival country meant to sow discord among the people on the American political spectrum, because if we are fighting with each other, we’re not talking about how to solve societal issues and grow more brilliant American minds, make America a better place to work and live so that the brightest minds from all over the world immigrate here, end corruption in government, and generally how to maintain our relatively wonderful standard of living. For the world governments, this makes America weak, and there are a lot of them that want us weak. For the corporations, our infighting stops us from realizing that some of the richest people on Earth are assholes that abuse that power and they really don’t care if you have a nice life, they care about propagandizing you so that you act in a way that 1) benefits them, such as voting for their guy or 2) combats others that would stand against them deteriorating your and your families’ quality of life, a la the the constant media barrage telling you to live in fear of “them,” the political, racial, sexual, systemic, or religious “other.” These are not nice “rich” people like doctors and lawyers, they are the people who make more money in one night of sleep than you will in your whole life, statistically. These are the people that study human behavior in order to manipulate it for money.
If the neurotypical world is one where the majority of people believe that getting one over on each other is a good way to run a society, then I am quite happy to be an autist and denounce that society. But I suspect that the truth is that the majority of you do not believe in such a world. This is not inherent human nature. We do not see it ubiquitously in every country, nor do we see it in every community in our country. I believe that you believe in helping others, making an honest buck, and that there are simply sometimes social and economic reasons that that takes a backseat. This is very different from people that have all their needs and desires met and simply want more because they can have more at the expense of all else. And if that’s someday at your expense, it’ll be people just like you that save you or let you drown. If that worries you, you only need to throw the smallest of pebbles into the lake to change your reflection.
Each of you has a gift that can help humanity. I urge you to share yours with the world in the same way I have shared my writing. It is not every person’s cup of tea. Your gift may not be either. My writing has not made me rich. Your gift may not make you rich. But I live a richer and more fulfilled life than the one I lived before. I share what I share in the hopes that you will too.
Christopher Day shares his writing with the world in the hope that something good comes out of it.
Many in my audience are small business owners. Some own court reporting businesses. Some own side businesses. Everybody needs some kind of marketing.
If a core part of your business is social media marketing, then I recommend shooting Liam Weckerle an email. He’s a young man that I had the privilege of working with on a project in the past, and I can honestly recommend him for his attention to detail and willingness to go as far as it takes to get the job done. Lweck9844@gmail.com!
I took some time to ask Liam a little more about his business creating these short-form videos. I’ll share what he shared with me below!
Liam Weckerle: What is short-form video?Requirements to work with Liam Weckerle.
In short, he needs a goal, a target audience, and a budget. Here’s an example of his work (for food business).
Example of work by Liam Weckerle
Imagining your service or product being spotlighted? Write Liam today!
*I gave this one the asterisk for Stenonymous Satire Weekends, but it’s not really satire. Maybe I’m losing my touch? Find out on the next episode of Stenonymous Satire Weekends.
Don’t know much about STAR, never needed to in my 14-year career, because it’s irrelevant. But I just wanted to put this out there for the digital court reporters that read my stuff. These folks are heavily influenced by, if not directly controlled by, Stenograph. Ask me how I know.
Stenograph, as we all know, is the company that spent at least a decade, maybe two, telling stenographers stenographic realtime reporting was the future and then quietly pivoted to calling digital reporting technologies realtime. Just for a quick recap, support times took a nosedive while they worked on the digital stuff, they encouraged the loss of stenographic jobs in Illinois, and Stenograph has a company president that calls citizen journalists that report things about his company intellectually challenged. Personally, I’m willing to completely forgive that they were part of a propaganda outfit meant to push agencies, students, lawyers, and even stenographers toward digital, but there’s that too.
The point I’m trying to drive home here is the company used us up and threw us away. We were treated as just another resource. That’s what you are to them, a resource to be used for as long as it’s convenient and profitable. They’ll put nice faces on it and use nice words because they know nobody wants to feel like a resource. But a call for unity is just transfer propaganda. You get good feelings from the word unity, but it doesn’t mean anything and is not a guarantee of anything. To many corporations and organizations, our emotions are merely tools used to extract more wealth from us.
You want unity? Start unionizing agency offices. Start talking to each other. Heck, start talking to us stenographers. We’ve got Digital Court Reporter Helpline open for such a purpose. I can admit that there’s some xenophobia among stenographers, but it’s mostly because our jobs are under constant threat by the tech bros that actively lie about the status of their technology in order to sell it and the multimillion dollar corporations using you guys to push us out. It’s not your fault for existing. I’m ready to acknowledge that. I believe most of the people that follow me are too.
And if you think I’m full of crap, that’s fine. But I’ve got a track record of treating you all like human beings. I wrote out hourly conversions at the bottom of my New York Shortage Squeeze article to make sure it was public info how bad digitals, transcribers — really court reporters as a whole — are getting screwed. I’ve tried to bring digital court reporters and transcribers to steno so they can benefit from the increased purchasing power and vast professional network. So hopefully you’ll see that I’m a straight shooter and take it to heart when I tell you don’t pet the snakes.
Recently the case of Tim Burke came to my attention. A journalist charged with no crime as of writing. His devices were seized by the FBI, harming his ability to do his job.
Search Warrant from the raid on the Marion County RecordSearch Warrant from the raid on the Marion County Record
I did reach out to the police chief there. Though other journalists from the r/journalism subreddit told me it was a pretty standard police response.
Response from Marion Police Chief Gideon CodyResponse from Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody
Generally I don’t bring non-court reporting stuff to this blog, but quite frankly throughout these last many years I’ve learned how underpaid journalists are. There are only maybe 50,000 of them according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the occupation is facing a 9% decline this decade. That pretty much means that 1 in 10 journalists is going to be losing their job this decade as the population continues to grow. There will be more and more news with less and less coverage. If you’ve ever wondered why not a single journalist seems interested in the court reporter shortage fraud, it might be because they’re overworked, underpaid, and willing to lap up whatever crap the companies in our field say. But the situation as a whole gives me a natural bias toward supporting journalists.
Of course, I leave my mind open to the possibility that journalists can use their position to facilitate crime, but given the absence of a probable cause affidavit, it’s looking less likely now. I’ll create an addendum if I learn more.
This is a concern. If everyone from small-town governments to the Feds can just come claim journalists’ stuff for “investigation,” then what good is our constitution, really? “We can violate you as much as we want, and you might win in court later, but in the interim, your mom’s dead and your life’s upended.” There were also journalists targeted during 2020, according to one article.
The satire I wrote on this issue may just come to life someday. To the extent I’m a citizen journalist that writes against powerful people, I may one day see unjust retribution. If this style of censorship comes to your municipality, please stand up against it. If the citizens don’t demand free speech, those who uphold the law have shown they don’t mind trampling it.
And when your news is only coming from government-approved sources, are you really free?
Addendum:
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a letter.
How court reporting companies are getting away with charging top-shelf prices for undervalued work…
The overpriced court reporter page is something that comes up occasionally in legal circles. All through my early career, law firm owners I worked with mentioned how their firms were stuck with expensive court reporter bills. As a young stenographic court reporter, I was paid very little, and later learned that court reporters in my city were about 30 years behind inflation. This set me down a path of skepticism when it came to what court reporters are told about themselves, their industry, and the public’s perception of them. How could lawyers be paying so much when I was making so little and such a large part of the transcript creation was on me?
Years later, as it turned out, some of the largest court reporting companies would get together using a nonprofit called the Speech-to-Text Institute (STTI). That nonprofit would go on to mislead consumers about the stenographer shortage to artificially increase demand for digital court reporting. Tellingly, while a U.S. Legal Support representative had no problem using the word “libel” on one of the female members of my profession, USL and the other multimillion dollar corporations never dared utter a word about my eventual fraud allegations. The companies wanted to trick consumers into believing stenographers were unavailable due to shortage and force digital court reporting on them, where matters are recorded and transcribed.
This set off alarm bells in the world of court reporting. Stenotype manufacturing giant, Stenograph, also represented in STTI’s leadership, shifted from supporting realtime stenographic reporters to shoddy service, and began to call its MAXScribe technology realtime. Realtime, as many attorneys know, is a highly trained subset of court reporting that often comes with a premium. These bait-and-switch tactics on the digital court reporter side of the industry caused a nonprofit called Protect Your Record Project to spring up and begin educating attorneys on what was happening in our field. But as of today, the nonprofit has not reached a level of funding that would allow it to advertise these issues on a national scale — this blog’s in the same boat.
So as more of the workforce is switched to digital reporters / recorders and transcribers, we’re seeing companies use influencers and other media to lure transcribers in for low pay. In short, digital court reporting is now synonymous with side hustle. These companies are going to take the field of skilled reporters that law firms and courts know and love, replace them with transcribers, and go on charging the same money. For the stenographer shortage, these folks were dead silent for the better part of a decade. Now that they need transcribers to replace us, they’re going all out to recruit.
Shopify talks about transcribing as a side hustle.Shopify talks about transcribing as a side hustle.
“What do I care?” That’s what a lot of lawyers and paralegals might be asking at this point. Well, I may not write as well as Alex Su, but I’ll do my best here. First, there are egalitarian concerns. In the Testifying While Black study, stenographers only scored 80% accuracy on the African American Vernacular English dialect. This was widely reported in the media, but what was lost by the media was the reveal of pilot study 1, which showed everyday people only transcribe with an accuracy of about 40% (e226). When we’re talking about replacing court reporters with “side hustle technology,” we’re talking about a potential 50% drop in accuracy and a reduction in court record quality for minority speakers, something courts are largely unaware of. According to the Racial Disparities in Automatic Speech Recognition study, automation isn’t coming to save us either. Voice writing is the best bet for the futurists, and it’s being completely ignored by these big companies.
There are also security concerns. When we’re talking about utilizing transcribers, we’re talking about people that have an economic incentive to sell any private data they might gain from the audio or transcript. If transcription is outsourced, a bribe as low as $600 might be enough to get people acting unethically. Digital court reporting companies have already shown they’re not protective of people’s data — in fact, companies represented in the Speech-to-Text Institute. This also leads to questions about remedies for suspected omissions or tampering. Would you rather subpoena one local stenographer or teams of transcribers, some possibly outside of the jurisdiction?
Finally, there’s an efficiency issue with digital court reporting. Turnaround times can be much slower. Self-reported, it can take up to 6 hours to transcribe 1 hour of audio. By comparison, 1 hour of proceedings can take a qualified stenographer 1 to 2 hours to transcribe. That’s 3 to 6 times faster. Everyone here knows stenographers aren’t perfect and that backlogs happen. Now imagine a world where the backlog is 3 to 6 times what it is today. In one case, a transcript took about two months to deliver. If we’re going to hire teams of transcribers to do the work of one stenographic court reporter, aren’t we going backwards?
Consumers are the ones with the power here. They can demand stenographers, utilize companies that aren’t economically incentivized to lie to them, and spread awareness to other consumers. Consumers, lawyers and court administrators, decide the future. Knowing what you do now, do you want a court reporter or a side hustler at your next deposition or criminal case?
—————————-
Written by Christopher Day, a stenographic court reporter in New York City that has been serving the legal community since 2010. He is also a former board member of the New York State Court Reporters Association and a former volunteer for the National Court Reporters Association STRONG Committee. Day also authors the Stenonymous blog, the industry’s leading independent publication on court reporting media, information, data, analyses, satire, and archiving of current events. He also appeared on VICE with regard to the Testifying While Black study and fiercely advocated for more linguistics training for court reporters in and around New York State.
Donations for the blog will help run advertising for this article and others like it, as well as pay for more journalists and investigators. If you would like to donate, you may use the donation box on the front page of Stenonymous.com, PayPal or Zelle ChristopherDay227@gmail.com, or Venmo @Stenonymous. Growing honest media to combat misconceptions in and about our marketplace is the premier path to a stronger profession and ultimately better service to the legal community.
A posse ad esse.
Addendum:
By sheer coincidence, an article on the side hustle was released the same day as my post. NCRA STRONG’s Lisa Migliore Black and Kim Falgiani really hit it out of the park with this one. Apparently FTR and Rev say they have security in place to prevent sensitive data from being shared. But FTR is known for selling “deficit products,” and Rev is known for its massive security breach. So check out the article by Chelsea Simeon linked above and enjoy!
Wrote a poem. It’s about America instead of court reporting. This is one of the rare times I’m going to use the blog for something like this. Unfortunately, it’s the only way to ensure it gets picked up by web search services like Google.
For the longest time we’ve faced division in the country. I believe this to be intentional on the part of the ultra rich. They control our media, our social platforms, our transportation, our electricity, our groceries. While we battle each other over silly differences or disagreements, we do not address the extraction of wealth from our country. This is very similar to the hatred of digital reporting in our field. While we wasted time decrying digitals as button pushers, we hardly noticed or cared that the corporations were setting up for our replacement and to create a market glut of reporters where our incomes would fall and their profits would rise.
People on very gradient of the political spectrum are being squeezed. I know this to be wrong. I do not know how it will be righted. But I know it must be.
