and no one came?

At 12 noon, on Monday 27 September 1999, Bill Brown of the Surveillance Camera Players held the SCP's first press conference. (It has held at a very convenient location: the Brecht Forum at 122 West 27th Street in Manhattan.) Originally intended as a convenient way of screening SCP videos for the various reporters who had expressed interest in seeing them, the press conference took on an added dimension with the publication of an article about Bill Brown and the SCP in the Associated Press on Friday 24 September 1999. The press conference was listed on the AP daybook, which means that the press conference came to the attention of any reporter who checked it.

Only three people showed up, and none of them, strictly speaking, were press. (Two of them were from the website Indieplanet and one of them was a family member.)

We cannot account for the absence of the reporters who had expressed interest in seeing the SCP's videotapes. But we can account for the absence of New York City's press corps and TV news crews, which are clearly terrified of crossing Mayor Giuliani, who declares war on whomever dares to criticize his policies or report on the activities of those who do.

As people who aren't afraid of bullies, we feel that we are justified in condemning the cowardice of the news media, which would rather be absent when they are needed, and present when they are not.

Contact the Surveillance Camera Players

By e-mail Info@notbored.org

By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York City 10009-9998