renegadepress.com (2004)
Aboriginal hip-hop artist Jack Sinclair and his best friend Zoey Jones established an underground ezine called renegadepress.com. What started as a pet project soon took on a life of its own pushing Jack, Zoey and their crew of renegade reporters to deliver the goods on what's really going on in the lives of today's teens.
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Episode 1 - Out in the Open
Release Date: 2004-01-18Renegadepress.com receives an anonymous message that leads Zoey to investigate a group of girl bullies in her school. But when the investigation makes her the girl gang's next target, she faces mounting pressure to drop the story. Instead, Zoey exposes the truth about the bullies on the renegadepress.com and the bullies are suspended from school.
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Episode 2 - A Real Connection
Release Date: 2004-01-25Jack discovers that his sister Crystal is corresponding with a potential cyber-stalker. Jack lures Crystal's stalker out of hiding in order to expose him on the renegadepress.com. But Crystal gets wind of it and arranges to meet him earlier, still believing he is just a 13 yr-old kid. What she encounters is indeed a 20-something stalker. But before he can abduct her Jack and Zoey arrive to prevent it.
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Episode 3 - Out on a Limb
Release Date: 2004-02-01Zoey is fascinated by ‘bad boy' Ben and decides to write an article about life ‘on the wild side' in order to get to know him better. Zoey is high on Ben and on the thrill of acting like someone different than she is. She goes to a party with Ben and gets miserably drunk. It's only when she lies to her mom, Linda, and to Jack, and lets him down when he really needs her, that she realizes she's gone too far
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Episode 4 - Skin Deep
Release Date: 2004-02-08Carmen discovers a story about a girl in her dance class who is getting her breasts enlarged as a present from her parents for her sixteenth birthday. The girl, Amanda, is so depressed about her normal teenage body that her parents and her psychologist support her decision to have major cosmetic surgery. Carmen is amazed that Amanda would consider the operation but Amanda's obsession with image makes Carmen reexamine how much attention she and her friends pay to their looks.
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Episode 5 - Too Cool
Release Date: 2004-02-15Sandi uses the guise of doing a story on skateboarding as an excuse to get close to Kat, a skater girl he has a crush on. Vince wants Sandi to tape his skateboard ‘trick' for the Renegade website, but actually he wants to crash on purpose, hoping the video clip will get picked up by Xtreme crash shows. Sandi, thinking it'll impress Kat, agrees. But Vince gets hurt and when Kat realizes Sandi was in on it she is angry he was involved.
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Episode 6 - Hard to Hold
Release Date: 2004-02-22At Ben's group home his friend has lapsed into a coma after being restrained by staff. Ben wants Zoey to investigate and get the guard who restrained his friend fired or charged. Zoey takes up the cause but realizes the system also holds responsibility for the staff not being properly trained. When her report refuses to point the finger solely at the guard, Ben feels betrayed
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Episode 7 - Some Of My Best Friends Are Indian
Release Date: 2004-02-29A kid at school dies and the official line is a heart attack. When Jack hears it might be related to sniffing, he decides to find out. Zoey knows the family, and isn't sure she wants Jack bugging them, but Jack argues his research shows that the majority of sniffers are white kids, yet you never hear about it in the mainstream news. Everyone thinks sniffing is just a native problem, but the bottom-line is it is everyone's problem.
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Episode 8 - A Very Thin Edge
Release Date: 2004-03-07Zoey is startled to learn her friend Melaine belongs to a local pro-anorexia website, run by Vanessa. Because of stress at home, Zoey almost becomes seduced by Vanessa too, who presents herself as strong and in control of her life. But when Zoey meets Vanessa she learns she is actually bed ridden and under constant nursing care because of her disease. The image of a sickly Vanessa helps Melanie realize how dangerous anorexia is.
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Episode 9 - Just Cause
Release Date: 2004-03-14When Carmen's basketball coach is forced to resign, Carmen decides to investigate and uncovers allegations of sexual harassment. The allegations come from the star basketball player who wasn't getting enough playing time, ruining her chances at a basketball scholarship. The coach appears to be innocent, so Carmen writes a story for renegade. When the basketball star reveals she really was harassed, Carmen goes to Jack and Zoey to retract her story -- she got it all wrong.
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Episode 10 - The Long Way Home
Release Date: 2004-03-28Jack's cousin Reg comes to stay with the Sinclair family, claiming he got out of the street gang he belonged to. But when the gang wants Reg to come back to ‘the family' they threaten Jack and Crystal. It's up to the Sinclair family to find Reg a safe place to stay and off the streets.
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Episode 11 - Secrets and Lies
Release Date: 2004-04-04An indignant Zoey decides to do a story about privacy after she learns the school is planning on installing surveillance cameras. To fight back, Zoey plans on planting a camera in the staff room, but when she tests the camera at home she accidentally discovers her mother, Linda, had an affair -- and her dad knows about it. Zoey is upset she was kept in the dark, and her renegadepress story argues surveillance cameras are not an alternative to honest and direct communication.
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Episode 12 - Body and Soul
Release Date: 2004-04-11Carmen is courted by a big modelling agency. She and the agent hit it off and sparks fly. It's then that Carmen learns from another model that the agency expects the young models to have sex with managers and clients while overseas in Europe. Carmen confronts her agent and gives up her dream of a big modelling contract.
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Episode 13 - A Tangled Web
Release Date: 2004-04-18Renegadepress airs a submitted video of a girl at West Central doing an awkward dance. Kids start to parody the tape and the girl reveals she never sent it in. Jack takes it off the website, but not before dozens of other sites tamper with the original picture and spread it across the web. The humiliated girl has to drop out of school and a guilty Jack contemplates shutting down renegade. Meanwhile, Zoey has a run in with the Principal and is suspended from school, and the season ends with Jack taking up her cause... on renegadepress.com.