Posted on 05/08/2012 3:35:15 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
We can’t rely on the media, even the alternative media. Free Republic is announcing a new initiative that gives you a platform. We want to leverage the most powerful minds on the right to make a difference. To do this, we want to bring a new level of activism, the citizen investigator. In the spirit of 1750’s The Pennsylvania Gazette published by Ben Franklin and of Andrew Breitbart.
For the longest time, our primary focus has been on looking at what the media presents and investigating it or discussing it. We have been missing something, YOU!
Jim has created a new news category, “FReeper Editorial” (freepered) for you to post your investigative reports. We are working on getting this promoted to a sidebar and other ways to promote your work but here are the basics.
No longer will quality vanities posted in this topic be frowned upon. Free Republic needs to become about you. We are tired of waiting for the media to come around to us, it is time we take our many, many members and become an army. What was once was your vanity is now your megaphone.
To do this right, we need your help. Initially, we are trying to have this as a smooth launch, and creating the new news category is a baby step towards something big. We ask just a few things.
Stay tuned for more change, enhancements, and opportunities that go along with this. - Your friendly neighborhood Mod Squad with blessings of the big dog himself. We are not quite legion, but we are a bag of kittens.
Not sure if this would have qualified for the new category. (It was linked all over the Net at the time.) It wasn’t an editorial. It was more like investigative reporting. Thoughts?
JournoList: 157 Names Confirmed (With Organizations)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2573077/posts
I suggest freepmailing Lazmataz he created.....caused...it.
It was entertaining to me, but it offended some who are less sexist.
What an honor it must be to have his very own restriction!
You're welcome. It took me a few years to figure it out.
For any "Keyword" that is attached to an FR article, you can have a list of articles (to which that "Keyword" has been added) listed in a Sidebar on your main FR page (click on a Keyword, then click on the words "Add To My Page" found on the resulting page).
That would be a way to keep up with articles you're interested in, although not all articles have the Keywords added to them (anyone can add the appropriate Keywords to an article though).
Firearms articles consistently have the Keyword "banglist" added to them by people that appreciate the Keyword feature. I have a list of them included on my main FR page :)
Well, dadgum! I consider myself a keyword nut but I didn't know that. Thanks! I have a Free Republic bookmark folder and have a few keyword pages in there.
Also, substitute any FR “Topics” instead of “Keyword” in the procedure I described, and you can get a list of articles for that Topic to be displayed on your main FR page :)
(on technical drawings it's the latter)
I'm pretty sure I gave this a cursory read back in 2010 — if I remember right, one of our own local readers even posted a crosslink on the Pulaski County Web to your Free Republic coverage on the Palin hairdresser situation since he's been a Free Republic fan for many years — but I didn't realize at the time how critical Free Republic was in exposing this ridiculous situation.
Great work!
“Crowdsourcing” is not a panacea, but getting hundreds of angry activists to catch and call attention to stuff like this can quite effectively expose and embarrass people who need to be called on the carpet.
If Free Republic's new section can lead to this sort of thing being done more often, and localized to state-level and congressional races, it would be fantastic.
That kind of reporting is exactly what we are looking for.
Agreed - it needs to be by-default visible on the sidebars.
For example, at work, I am not permitted to walk by the receptionist's desk any more for any reason whatsoever, nor board any elevator with any female employees unless escorted by a chaperone.
I feel it would be an outrageous stretch for anyone to sue on a comment on a news item, and would end up with the Righthaven sort of smackdown that the litigant would deserve. Since the article is an extension of the comment ability, the very same would attain there as well. Yes, there is some theoretical liability, but I don't feel it to be a substantial risk.
However, even this remote risk does speak to one feature that I would love to see employed on this Freeper Editorial Sidebar (and this is where JohnRob comes in): It would be a great asset to the moderation of that sidebar if,
2) Once certain posters have earned their chops, perhaps they might be thought of as Regular Contributors (such as are featured in some of the news websites) and they might get an ability to post right away. If there was a problem, the article or opinion piece could be taken down in retrospect.
I understand this might take some new coding, but I don't see this as too formidable a programming task. Right John? I mean, if you had it all done in dotNet, it should be easy! Oh wait, you did it in Perl. ;)
Sorry, we’re not going to vet any posts, other than our regular moderating which is usually in response to submitted abuse reports and or for inappropriate or misclassified posts. We do not have an editorial staff. This is a discussion site, not a news reporting agency. Our posters are exercising their first amendment rights to post items for discussion and critiquing purposes. It’s opinion oriented. Sometimes our opinions do make news, though. Like (paraphrasing), “Something’s wrong with Rather’s letter. The fonts don’t look right for a typewriter.”
The right to express opinion is protected by law.
Powder..patch..ball FIRE!
EXCELLENT! Yeah I was yelling...
Bottom line up front: this is a great idea. It can work, and given the resources Jim has at his disposal (i.e., some very powerful conservatives who are capable of giving him top-notch advice on both legal and practical matters) I think it will work.
Legal environments differ from state to state, not in basic principles of libel law but rather on fine points, state precedents, and practical issues. I am not qualified to discuss details of California law and I'd be a fool to try. Jim has access to private legal advice so there's no point.
Reading between lines, I think the point Jim is making may be that his role providing an online forum to post opinions is a different category, legally speaking, from editing a newspaper and becoming responsible for every single thing in its pages. Internet law is in a tremendous state of flux, and the level of moderation, prior review, etc., that is exercised by the owner of a website becomes key in how courts will view the level of liability of the website owner vis-a-vis the person posting an article or posting a comment on an article.
I don't think anyone can safely predict how the courts will handle developing internet law down the road, but that distinction between posting content and providing a forum for others to post content was asserted last year by my business partner's lawyer, and it saved him from a lawsuit threat caused by allegedly libelous comments on an article. I'm not going to say more publicly since the statute of limitations on the alleged offense hasn't yet expired, the guy is still mad, and he has a long history of suing people, but I was very glad our business operations were designed with defending against litigation in mind. In my world, most people aren't going to spend five-digit sums of money merely to jump on me in court, especially since any lawyer worth his salt will find out very fast that I know what I'm doing, I don't make the sort of screwball mistakes that typically get reporters sued, and I have the financial resources to fight back hard rather than buckling under at the first threat. However, I'm a conservative, and that means I'm cheap, so I hate spending money I don't need to spend and prefer to prepare in advance rather than suffer due to lack of advance planning.
Also, “balls” count. It's possible for management be so scared of their shadows that people can't do their jobs. Anyone who knows Free Republic's history knows its owner doesn't back down easily and that will help him tremendously.
Lawyers for big newspapers, networks, and TV and radio stations are used to threats and respond accordingly. There's a reason for that. Giving in to bullies makes the bullying worse.
Anyway, I said up front that this is a great idea. I hope it takes off. Free Republic could do a tremendous amount of good with original content, especially at the state and congressional district levels.
Okay bro, just tossing ideas out there. Some you might like, some will suck. I'm not emotionally invested in any of them.... :)
Would you happen to have a link to that? I bet it was a hoot ... thanks!
EXCELLENT!!!! That should be required reading for all noob FReepers as well as a refresher for those who have been around a while. Thanks for sharing - you made my day (and bookmarked too ... hehe)!!
Or "FrEd" for short, maybe.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1011545/posts?name=#40
and a very nice piece it is too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.