The Roxbury News is an independent video news company based in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

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

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

political and governmental events. 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 Pennsylvania State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Pennsylvania located in downtown Harrisburg which was designed by architect Joseph Miller Huston in 1902 and completed in 1906 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative ...

. The videos generally appear on the Roxbury News website,

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, 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 Eric Robert Papenfuse (born September 4, 1971) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 38th Mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Papenfuse is the founder and co-owner with his wife of The Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, ...

reading a list of mock Christmas gifts for city officials. The contents of the

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

were reported by the ''Central Penn Business Journal.'' The ''

Central Penn Business Journal The ''Central Penn Business Journal'' is a business newspaper headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The print publication is circulated on a weekly basis and covers five counties in central Pennsylvania: Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Le ...

'' 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 ''

,'' 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'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' 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 Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Dail ...

'', ''

The Citizens' Voice ''The Citizens' Voice'' is a compact newspaper published daily in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Its 2005 circulation was 32,862, mostly Luzerne County residents. Founding The newspaper was founded in 1978 by striking employees of the Wilkes-Barre ...

'', that were subpoenaed to answer questions about their reports on the a grand jury investigation into political corruption surrounding the

Mount Airy Casino Resort The Mount Airy Casino Resort is a casino and hotel located in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains. The casino resort has 284 hotel rooms and a casino. Mount Airy includes more than 1,800 slot machines and more than 70 table games ...

. 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 Dauphin County (; Pennsylvania Dutch: Daffin Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 286,401. The county seat and the largest city is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capital and ninth ...

Judge Todd Hoover regarding the case. Roxbury's attorney, Adam Klein, told the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

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 and burglary

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. 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

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External links

Roxbury NewsAthens24 NewsTechnology News
Alternative press American news websites Politics of Pennsylvania Mass media in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania