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Before I had cable tv and internet access, I had to rely on the usual suspects (ABC, CBS, NBC) to keep me informed of what was happening in the world. Oh, I knew they were lying to me. I knew they were biased, but I had no alternative. No where else to turn. My fellow Conservatives often advised to just turn them off but I had no other choices if I wanted to know what was happening in the world.

I TRIED to find other sources of news. I went to the local libraries to read books written by Conservatives for Conservatives, but those were far and few between. And those books were usually out of date. The Conservative magazines, when I could find them, usually informed me of some Conservative happening (a debate, a press conference, some get together of some Conservative organization: The Heritage foundation, NRA, etc.) weeks after it was over. But I would find no mention of these things in the liberal press.

Then Rush Limbaugh came along with his new talk-radio program. And he kept me informed of what the liberal media was hiding from me. Rush had cable tv and internet access and would inform me of what he saw on C-Span, etc. Providing me with a much needed source for a Conservative point of view, three hours a day, 5 days a week.

Then I got cable tv. And I was finally able to see for myself a few more alternative news sources. Especially the then unbiased C-Span. Finally I could hear my fellow Republicans speak for themselves, live on the house or senate floor or some conservative function, in their own words without the usual liberal editing (read: censoring) and filters.

Then I got a home computer. (top of the line then, junk now) Naturally, like all beginners to the internet, I got AOL. I explored the chat rooms, the message boards, the usenet newsgroups, before I drifted over to AOL's political message boards where I found alot of like minded people and remained for a couple of years.

The AOL political message boards, along with all their other message boards, you could only post text or links. No pics. No sounds, etc. But it was better than nothing.

However, we Conservatives of the AOL political message board eventually learned that AOL was planning to shut our boards down while planning to leave open the less traveled board favored by the liberals. We protested the obvious bias, but there was nothing we could do. Someone, I don't remember who, placed a link to FR on the message board before it was shut down (This was around 1996 or 97, I think), saying that we could go there from now on. I went to FR, but the website was quite slow. I don't know if that was the fault of AOL, the antiquated server of FR, my computer, or a combination of all the above.

However, I stayed with FR, as painfully slow as it was in those days. I lurked for about 3-6 months before I finally signed up (under a different name than the one I am using now) Often using it as a source for news. Taking great articles off of FR and planting them in the AOL message boards and usenet newsgroups. EVERYONE would ask: ""Where do you always get these great articles??? What's your source???" Of course I told them: FreeRepublic.com!

I've been Freeping ever since :-)