[Imc-finance] Re: More lies about IMC funding

[suzq at riseup.net]

I'm hoping this mail gets posted to the global features listserve ... I
unsubscribed by accident a little while back, so it may need to await
moderator approval until (hoping) the moderator lets me back onto the
list.
This is a response to the Townhall magazine article about Indymedia
published at
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/bs20040428.shtml (see below).

On the global features list, there was some discussion last November about
doing an "internal expos'e" on how Indymedia is funded.  Now that this new
article against Indymedia came out on Townhall.com, and the frontpage
magazine lies are being used as source material that others are quoting, I
think it makes sense for someone who's involved in the global finance
group to write up a little summary, just to "go public" and clear up
misconceptions spread by our detractors.  You can read our archives
discussing the frontpage magazine article at
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/www-features/2003-November/ and
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/www-features/2003-December/

Ana was compiling mainstream news articles on Indymedia back in November
2003 -- ana, perhaps you'd like to write something up?  anarch3m also
suggested doing a feature ... I'd be happy to collaborate but don't have
much background knowledge in the finance department.

Full Indymedia financial documentation can be found at
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/FrequentlyAskedQuestionEn#pay ,
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcFinance , and in the archives at
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-finance/
Information on general resource-sharing can be found at
http://docs.indymedia.org/twiki/bin/view/Global/SendingComputers

We also get slammed a lot for open publishing, and the fact that some
groups and people use open publishing to call for or to celebrate the
deaths of other groups and people.  I think another angle for an internal
expos'e might include some kind of public statement on how open publishing
works and what editorial or moderation policies, if any, indymedia
editorial collectives exercise on the posts and comments that come in to
them.

Another thing I think we need to be aware of is the impact of the "allies"
list, posted at
http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/links.shtml
Aside from the fact that, like the indymedia banner on the top of the
global site, our list of links is too NorthAmerican/European-centered, it
also lists groups as "allies" that have probably never heard of us, much
less consider themselves to be "allied" with us.  And the www-features
working group is small; I think too small to speak as the voice of the
network in deciding that certain activist organizations, such as the
AFL-CIO or the ELF, represent "allies" to Indymedia while other activist
organizations do not.  Personally, I would recommend either having that
list ONLY include resources for other sources of alternative media and
grassroots tech support, since that's really what we do and that mission
is the only real point of common ground among all the different IMCs and
the network as a whole, either that or changing the header from "allies"
to "links for more information," or something a little more neutral that
doesn't imply political endorsement of all the groups listed.
More information on that can be found at
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcAllies
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/IndyLinksNew
http://web.archive.org/web/20030512153831/www.indymedia.org/links.php3
and in the archives at
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/www-features/2004-March/

Food for thought...

Love and solidarity,
SuZQ
-----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 17:57:46 -0400
> From: Mike R <micro.zen at verizon.net>
> Subject: [phillyimc-discuss] More lies about IMC funding
> To: discuss at phillyimc.org
> Message-ID: <19762069469.20040428175746 at verizon.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hey discuss,
>
>   I just saw this syndicated article on Townhall.com , a self
> described conservative news site.
>
> ignore the stuff about the death of the NFL player. Look at how it
> references an erroneous article about donations to the IMC.  If all
> 100+ IMCs each got grants from the Soros & Heinz supported Tides
> Foundation, maybe then that $376,000 number may be real.  But this
> article is doing the same as the Frontpage Magazine article: trying to
> tie presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee John F. Kerry to an
> organization they call extremist.  By the article's own admission,
> only 6 IMCs covered this particular story on the open newswire, yet it
> blames the network on the comments posted questioning the heroics of
> a man who died defending US corporate expansion.
>
> Does anyone know where Frontpage gets that number from?  Is anyone
> surprised that one "news" source can make up a stat & then see it used
> as fact by other outlets?
>
> -m
>
> http://www.townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/bs20040428.shtml
> Pat Tillman: Dumb jock, baby killer?
> Ben Shapiro
>
> April 28, 2004
>
>  What would you call Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinal football
>  player killed in Afghanistan? A hero? An inspiring example of
>  American military men and women? A model of principled strength?
>
>  How about a "dumb jock"? A "baby killer"? A "dumb-a--"? A victim of
> "brainwashing"?
>
>  If you were a regular reader of Indymedia.org, odds are that you'd put
> him in the latter group. You'd think that Pat Tillman was a boob, a
> complete dimwit at best -- you might even believe that Pat Tillman was an
> evil person and deserved what he got.
>
>  Indymedia.org has 50 local chapters in the United States. Forty-four of
> them made no mention of Pat Tillman's death. The other six celebrated it.
>
>  The Portland, Ore., chapter of Indymedia.org posted the news of Tillman's
> death accompanied by this headline: "Dumb Jock Killed in Afghanistan."
> Some who posted comments suggested alternate titles for the piece, like
> "Privileged Millionaire, Blinded by Nationalist Mythology, Pisses Away
> the Good Life," "Cottled Sports Star Allows Nationalism to Foster
> Jingoistic Irresponsibility Resulting in His Death," and "Capitalist
> Chooses to Kill Innocents Instead of Cashing Check."
>
>  Others made comments on the site comparing Tillman to a Nazi and accusing
> him of responsibility for "the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of
> Afghan civilians." "Karma sure is a b----, isn't it, Tillman?" one
> sneered.
>
>  The Urbana-Champaign, Ill., chapter of Indymedia.org posted two articles
> about Tillman. One carried the headline "Pat Tillman is gone good
> riddance." The other labeled all soldiers "dumb-a--(es)."
>
>  The North Carolina Indymedia chapter also posted a piece labeling
> soldiers like Tillman "dumb-a--(es)" and added that Tillman was killed
> during a "baby-killing raid." San Francisco Indymedia posted the same
> piece. St. Louis Indymedia stated that Tillman was "brainwashed by the
> 'patriotism.'"
>
>  One commenter on the Washington, D.C., Indymedia site wrote this: "I
>  saw the Post this morning, on the front page. It was sickening. They
>  built this guy up like he was Audie Murphy or something, publishing
>  this foto of him in his Ranger getup, all tough-looking and
>  stony-jawed, like a goddamn' recruiting ad ... Puke-o-rama. Cold as
>  it may sound, 'Dumb Jock Dies for Pipeline in Afghanistan' pretty
>  much sums it up."
>
>  What is Indymedia? According to its Web site, "Indymedia is a
>  collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of
>  journalists offering grass-roots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia
>  is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate
>  and passionate tellings of truth." Indymedia is made up of leaders in
>  the anti-globalization and anti-war movement, coordinating massive
>  protests. They revel in wild conspiracy theories. They're rabidly
>  anti-capitalist and generally anti-American. In short, they're a
>  bunch of left-wing nuts.
>
>  Yet the American left has neglected to excise the Indymedia cancer
>  from its support base. In 2002, the left-leaning Ford Foundation gave
>  Indymedia $50,000. The Tides Foundation has donated $376,000 to
>  Indymedia, according to Frontpagemag.com. Two of the biggest donors
>  to the Tides Foundation? George Soros, who has given over $15 million
>  to Democratic causes during this election cycle, and Teresa Heinz
>  Kerry. Ralph Nader is one of Indymedia's biggest supporters; his
>  group, Public Citizen, is listed as on Indymedia.org as an "ally."
>
>
>  Indymedia is no small-potatoes venture. Aside from its Web sites based in
> 50 major American markets, it also has Web sites located in five chapters
> in Africa, 13 in Canada, 39 in Europe, 15 in Latin America, eight in
> Asia, and nine in Oceania.
>
>  The Indymedia list of allies is impressive as well. It lists groups like
> Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Adbusters, ZNet, the Institute for
> Public Accuracy, and Corporate Watch.
>
>  Largely due to an unceasing hatred for President Bush, the American
> political left continues to support Indymedia and its ilk. During the
> MoveOn.org Hitler-Bush ad scandal, liberal pundits largely refused to
> condemn the ads. Democratic Underground, a site linked on John Kerry's
> official blog, constantly pushes an extreme leftism often encroaching
> into paranoid territory.
>
>  This latest outrage underscores the leftist community's tolerance for an
> ugly, radical element. The Pat Tillman insults have been floating around
> the Web for days; the liberal silence is deafening. Tillman died to
> protect freedom of speech -- that doesn't mean anyone should use it to
> spit on his grave.
>
> ©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
>