The Roxbury News is an independent video news company based in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

. The company is best known for producing news videos covering various city council and school board meetings, as well as

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

political and governmental events.

Overview

The raw footage for the videos are recorded by freelance video teams hired by Roxbury. The editing and production is performed at company's office on State Street in

, adjacent to the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. The videos generally appear on the Roxbury News website,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, and other video sharing sites.

Impact of new stories

One of Roxbury News' famous videos, ''"Papenfuse X-mas Gift List,"'' contains footage of former Harrisburg Authority board member Eric Papenfuse reading a list of mock Christmas gifts for city officials. The contents of the

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

were reported by the ''Central Penn Business Journal.'' The '' Central Penn Business Journal'' used footage from another Roxbury video as evidence to question the official story behind the firing of longtime Harrisburg Authority financial adviser Bruce Barnes. The '' Central Penn Business Journal,'' relying on the Roxbury News footage, noted that the firing happened shortly after Eric Papenfuse raised questions about a $27,000 bill from Barnes' firm. In another popular video, a Harrisburg School District board member excoriates a critic for making personal attacks on the District Superintendent. In 2008, ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' used Roxbury's footage from the 2006 "Bonusgate" trials in its coverage of the event.

Grand jury subpoena

Roxbury News was among the media outlets, including the AP, ''The Morning Call'', ''

,'' the ''

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Dail ...

'', '' The Citizens' Voice'', that were subpoenaed to answer questions about their reports on the a grand jury investigation into political corruption surrounding the Mount Airy Casino Resort. Roxbury said that his company had "one or two" videos related to the grand jury testimony in question, but wasn't sure how helpful his testimony could be, saying "I don't know what they think I could offer them. The information is readily available." In July 2008, James Roxbury testified at a closed hearing before Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover regarding the case. Roxbury's attorney, Adam Klein, told the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

that his client had "cooperated without compromising his rights under either the Constitution or the Shield Law." On July 17, 2008 Judge Hoover quashed all 15 subpoenas, including the one for Roxbury News.

Account hack

On January 13, 2008, apparent hackers compromised Roxbury's

account and deleted all but 1 of 160 news videos stored on that site. On the only video not deleted, the hackers left a message saying "You should just quit...I've seen better work from an autistic 4th grader with an eye patch on and no hands to even operate the camera, so yeah i guess you can see by now how much your life is a joke." In a video response, Roxbury offered a $1,000 bounty for information leading to the identification of the perpetrators and noted that he was working with YouTube administrators officials and law enforcement officials on the matter. James Roxbury said that "We feel this has to be a criminal activity. We know the videos must be getting to somebody," and was able to restore the videos from backup sources.

Burglary

In July 2008, the Roxbury News office was burglarized, with thousands of dollars in audio visual equipment missing, including three 40-inch monitors, and two high-definition Panasonic HDX200 cameras, and other accessories. Because data storage units containing backups of his news videos were not touched, Roxbury did not believe the burglary was politically motivated.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Roxbury News
Alternative press American news websites Politics of Pennsylvania Mass media in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania