While I do echo your sentiments and wish more FReepers would regard paying FR as a far better deal than any magazine or newspaper subscription ever was, this monthly donor says that I cannot find many a post to which I wish I had access because of the WaPo/LAT lawsuit. There was a lot of work I did: ideas, references, and analysis, that I wish I could recover. I don't know if those threads are gone or simply walled off, but I would like to know. At least there is the WayBackMachine, but without knowing the original URL, it can be hard to search.
If FReepers would support this site as they should, I am sure such work would be within reach. It's just too bad that so many conservatives don't realize the power of their purses, however meager they may be.
I don't even consider subscribing to such anymore. The technology has moved ahead, but Free Republic sorts and condenses the major news and opinion and then provides a discussion format that enables us truly to discuss it from a conservative perspective.
This is all the more important because of one final problem with our major media: they no longer value truth at all. They deliver spin, propaganda, and sometimes outright error.
A site like Free Republic helps sort through propaganda.