Studio 2.8 Editorial and Opinion Journal Articles

Approximately two years ago various people around the American Pacific Northwest who are associated with so called “far left” political groups and networks, people who others seem to consider to be communist extremists, began spreading the absolute lie, the absurd, ridiculous, dangerous, lie, that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is an “alt-right”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, “white supremacist” and a member of various political groups such communist extremists oppose such as: the “Proud Boys”, “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, and so on. These malicious lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, spread libelously via online social media, and spread slanderously in person at political events, are not only dangerous generally, such lies have proven dangerous to the very people who have spread and who believe such malicious lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist.

The absurd, ridiculous, dangerous, lie, the defamatory libel and slander, that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is an “alt-right”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, “white supremacist”, which has been spread via social media and word of mouth for the past two years by a growing network (apparently thousands now) of people who appear associated with so called “far left” political groups, some of whom appear to participate in the criminal anarcho-communist “Black Bloc”, have led to threats of violence published via social media against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, social media threats that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist should be assaulted, battered, robbed, and even death threats against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. All of these felonious threats are based on the baseless and absurd lies, defamatory libel and slander, being spread among the Pacific Northwest’s various communist groups, social networks, and terror cells, about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist.

One of the significant current results of the malicious lies that have been spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist by the just described people is that a man named John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is now being prosecuted by Seattle’s King County Prosecuting Attorneys' office in King County Superior Court for allegedly having committed felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime. John Bennett was video recorded by Studio 2.8 as John Bennett allegedly committed felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime, as John Bennett allegedly attacked Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. Studio 2.8 photography has published a video recording of John Bennett’s (John Lindsay Bennett) alleged criminal act on the Studio 2.8 youtube channel.

John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is currently being held in Seattle’s King County Jail on $100,000.00 bail, pending a trial that might be as much as a year in the future, or his guilty plea, if he were to wisely choose to plead guilty before trial. If John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is convicted of, or pleads guilty to, felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and felony Hate Crime, he could be sentenced by a King County Superior Court judge to serve as much as ten (10) years in a Washington State prison. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett could spend ten (10) years in state prison all because John Bennett apparently believed, and acted upon, the defamatory, libelous, slanderous, lies told him about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist by people associated with Seattle’s far left political social networks, and based on those lies, which John Bennett apparently believed wholeheartedly, used that false belief as the irrational, unlawful, basis to commit felony attempted robbery and felony hate crime assault, battery, and property destruction, against a woman that John Bennett repeatedly called a “Nazi” as Bennett pummeled and tried to rob the professional camera equipment from, a woman who is a veteran of the 1960s civil rights era, who even participated in civil rights actions with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s.

While the various people who have spread their dangerous and defamatory lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist appear to have used online social media and word of mouth have apparently intended to try to intimidate and deter Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and master photojournalist, the actual result of their lengthy, hateful, defamation campaign is that someone who is part of their own social circle, John Bennett, is currently charged with multiple felony crimes, is sitting in the King County jail on $100,000.00 bail, and in all likelihood may have seriously damaged his own future, might lose his job, might lose his housing, and if convicted would spend the rest of his life publicly labeled a convicted of the felony hate crime battery of a woman while in attendance, ironically, at a political protest in opposition to racial hatred. John Bennett's criminal behavior is just one of several examples of European American Pacific Northwest residents, hijacking and besmirching the political concerns of African American people in the Pacific Northwest. Other similar criminal minded European American racial justice protest hijackers include federally convicted felons: Margaret Aislinn Channon (Margaret Channon, arrested June 11, 2020, convicted in federal court of arson upon Seattle Police patrol vehicles, and sentenced to five (5) years in federal prison); Jacob Little (Jacob D. Little, arrested for theft of a Seattle Police on AR15 rifle, convicted in federal court and sentenced to sixteen (16) months in federal prison); and others.

The social media and word of mouth hate campaign of lying defamation and threats against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist appears to have begun about two years ago. At that time, two years ago, as Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist was producing photographs at a political event, a group of people dressed in “black bloc” disguise noticed Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, determined that she “wasn’t with them”, and targeted her for attack during that political rally. The result of that disguised Black-Bloc group attack was that the Seattle Police arrested a man whose legal name is Samuel Wheeler-Martenis but who seems to use the name Sam Wheeler in daily discourse. When Samuel Wheeler-Martenis was arrested by the Seattle Police in 2018 during that political event, Sam Wheeler was carrying a concealed Glock brand handgun and various other weapons, all of which the Seattle Police confiscated. It was never made clear if Wheeler-Martenis had a WA concealed pistol license to carry the Glock handgun confiscated from him by the Seattle Police. Within days after Samuel Wheeler-Martenis was arrested by the Seattle Police, various people associated with Seattle’s far-left political social network(s) seem to have become determined to discover the identity of Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist. Once those people discovered the identity of Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, their social media and word of mouth defamation campaign against her began in earnest, and apparently remains ongoing.

As people who have believed the defamatory lies being told them about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and managing photojournalist, their actions in response have been almost entirely self-destructive. The egregiously malicious type of defamation that has been spread on social media by various people associated with communist extremist politics in the Pacific Northwest against Studio 2.8 photography’s lead and master photojournalist, is not at all a deterrent to the Studio 2.8 photography team. Among the most important responses that the malicious type of lying defamation that has been spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist has generated has been the assiduous, steadfast, determination, of the Studio 2.8 photography and video team, regarding the importance of the documentary photojournalism produced and published by the Studio 2.8 photography team.

One of the more irrational and ironic aspects of the libelous lies spread about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist, is that because that photojournalist “has been seen” photographing such political groups as: “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, or the “Proud Boys”; is that Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist is therefore a “member” of all these various political groups. The same people who have used such absurd logic do not use the same absurd logic and/or reach the same absurd and nonsensical conclusion when the Studio 2.8 photography staff photographs political groups such as: the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club”; the “Revolutionary Communist Party”, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation”, the “Freedom Socialist Party”, or the “Socialist Alternative Party”, or other similar political groups or networks. Given that Studio 2.8 photography staff photographs and publishes photographs of the foregoing groups in action at public political events, the logic such people use to claim that Studio 2.8 photography staff are associated somehow with: “Patriot Prayer”, the “Washington Three Percent”, or the “Proud Boys”; would apply as a basis to claim (albeit equally absurdly) that Studio 2.8 photography is associated with or a member of: the “Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club”; the “Revolutionary Communist Party”, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation”, the “Freedom Socialist Party”, or the “Socialist Alternative Party”, or any other similar political groups or networks. The truth is that neither Studio 2.8 photography, nor any Studio 2.8 photography staff person is associated with any political groups, networks, or factions whatsoever. Among the goals of Studio 2.8 photography’s documentary photojournalism is the detached objectivity that is possible when striving to maintain objective political detachment.

•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Party for Socialism and Liberation
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Revolutionary Communist Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Freedom Socialist Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Socialist Alternative Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in Community and Labor Against Fascism
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Proud Boys
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in Patriot Prayer
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Washington Three Percent
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Democratic Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Republican Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in the Libertarian Party
•  No Studio 2.8 membership in ANY political groups whatsoever

Among the end results of the various libel and slander being spread about Studio 2.8 photography for people like John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett, who is now accused of, and being prosecuted for, multiple alleged felony crimes, including felony hate crime (all captured on high definition video), is that Bennett is currently sitting in a cell inside the King County Jail, likely wondering how he might possibly raise $100,000.00 in bail money (while sitting in a jail cell), and likely wondering just how much damage he has done to himself, to his career, to his job, to his reputation, and to his long term future. The fact is that people such as John Bennett who are, and who have been, spreading their various defamatory lies about Studio 2.8 photography’s lead photojournalist seem most likely to result in self-destructive, self-inflicted, damage to their own lives, more likely than any other possible end result. Meanwhile, the Studio 2.8 photography team will be soldiering on, tirelessly producing documentary photographs and video at Pacific Northwest political events, working with great stamina, adhering to high moral and ethical journalistic standards while publishing such photographs, and licensing such photographs to clients, for the foreseeable future.

In the Studio 2.8 video clip embedded just above, John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett aka #BasedStoneFace, was video recorded by Studio 2.8 as John Bennett, a total stranger, approached, tackled to the hard street pavement ground, battered, and attempted to rob, a Studio 2.8 photography photojournalist. As the acts in the Studio 2.8 video embedded just above concluded, officers with the Seattle Police department arrived, arrested and handcuffed John Bennett, loaded Bennett into a Seattle Police jail transport van and shipped him to the King County Jail. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett has been charged by Seattle's King County Prosecuting Attorney's office with felony First Degree Attempted Robbery and racially motivated felony Hate Crime. John Bennett aka John Lindsay Bennett is being held in Seattle's King County Jail on $100,000.00 bail, pending trial or Bennett's guilty plea.

This is a Studio 2.8 Photography editorial, which is a rarity on this website. However, the need for this essential editorial should hopefully be clear, especially to the various misguided people who have published defamatory false claims about Studio 2.8 Photography, and the equally misguided people who have fallen for such lies, who have believed, or worse, criminally acted upon such lies, as one John Lindsay Bennett has, which has resulted in the dire consequence for John Bennett that he currently resides in the King County Jail, held there on $100,000.00 bail, accused of multiple felony crimes.

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Studio 2.8 photography will soon begin a series of content background articles, including content citation background articles, content encyclopedic citation articles, as well as opinion based editorial articles, about the sometimes controversial political event photography that comprises a portion of the Studio 2.8 photography productions that appear here at the www.studiotwopointeight.com website. This basis for this new series of articles is that all too often, many media publishers omit, or even exclude, essential information about the images and events that appear in their photographs. The goal of this upcoming series of Studio 2.8 backgrounder and primer journal articles is to provide essential editorial and factual perspective on the photographic content presented on the Studio 2.8 photography website.

Of equal importance, while Studio 2.8 endeavors to objectively present the subjects photographed by Studio 2.8 photography, especially political event content that can often be controversial, it has also become essential to present information about the official editorial positions and stances of Studio 2.8 photography itself. Every media publisher, every press entity, has biases. Any media publisher that denies its biases, is a media publisher that shouldn’t be trusted. In contrast, standing politically firm, Studio 2.8 photography, its owner, and its employees, oppose racism, oppose bigotry, oppose fascism, oppose Nazism, oppose white supremacy, oppose seditious communist extremism, supports LGBTQ rights, supports racial civil rights including the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, supports marriage equality rights including the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, and more; because, although these stances are political, they also transcend politics because they represent the foundations of human rights, human decency, and a fair and just society, in which, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are core American values.

Given the foregoing paragraphs, Studio 2.8 is a proudly ethnic minority own media service. The Studio 2.8 photography and video service is owned and operated by a senior citizen, LGBTQ, woman of color, a woman who, in her childhood marched with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. in support of, and in hope of the passage of, the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act. The owner of the Studio 2.8 photography and videography service also shares a university Alma Mater with the late Martin Luther King, Jr. and has always been proud to have studied at a university where many of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s documents, manuscripts, and so on, were, and are, available in the university's library.

As a matter of historical political acumen, the proprietor of Studio 2.8 photography also participated proudly in political demonstrations against the Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily because the Vietnam War was a war that conscripted and sent hundreds of thousands of high school and college classmates, against their will and under threat of imprisonment, to a jungle on the opposite side of planet earth, to battle against other people, for reasons that to this day are difficult for even the most respected historians in the world to fully explain. In the 1960s, brave teenagers were being sent to battle, and to possibly die, (over 55,000 Americans did die in Vietnam), wearing just a green or khaki colored denim uniform, a nearly useless helmet, and an M16 rifle, after just six weeks of truly rudimentary basic training, to literally pray every day of being able to make it home alive, “back to the world”, as the saying went back then. It was a time when peoples' closest friends were sent far away, drafted against their will, before the internet,  before social media communications, only able to communicate with back home by writing a letter on paper with a pen. The owner of Studio 2.8 photography participated in massive political demonstrations against that conscripted war, political events with crowds that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, or were sometimes smaller but still extraordinarily politically important. One such smaller but politically impactful demonstration was the May 4, 1970 anti-war demonstration at Kent State University, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a place that was driving distance from Studio 2.8 photography’s owner’s high school home. During that political demonstration, Ohio National Guard troops shot and killed four (4) Kent State college students and injured nine (9) others. It is this historical backdrop, and other similar political events, such as the August 1968 Democratic National Convention where a huge political demonstration against the Vietnam War overwhelmed it, that informs the photographic eye that is the basis of the Studio 2.8 photography political photographic media craftwork.

From an early photographic tutelage, and an extended apprenticeship by experience, that began in the late 1960s with a Mamiya/Sekor 2000DTL brand 35mm single lens reflex film camera, an experience which has continued over the course of decades since then, with both film cameras, and more recently of course with state of the art digital photographic equipment, Studio 2.8 photography’s political photojournalism is the product of half a century of artistic and informational experience in the United States, observing American political history through a camera’s lens. It is from this foundation of experience and political integrity that Studio 2.8 photography produces difficult to obtain political event photographs. Regardless of risk, Studio 2.8 photography works to be in the political action, within mere feet of the subjects who create political events, recording what transpires, with keen framing that informs, with angles that amplify, and with photographic perspective that is hopefully perspicacious.

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