Indy Media Watch

You have to love it when one baby-killing terrorist organisation issues a press-release (courtesy of Indy Media naturally) offering condolences and condemnations over the assasination of another.

Professional courtesy perhaps? How sweet.

This article: A Trinity of Evil follows the recurring Indy Media argument which blames 9/11 on George W. Bush's involvement with Israel and simultaneously George W. Bush's involvement with Saudi Arabia.

But wait a minute, Saudi Arabia is the sworn enemy of Israel. So who exactly is Bush working for? Is he Israel's bitch? Or the Saudis' bitch?

I thought neither, but apparently it's both! Hooray!

Please Indy Loonies: Only one looney conspiracy at a time.
(See here for why you can't have both)

Before you victims of the Florida hurricanes "go blaming Mother Nature or God for your misfortune", I think there's something you should know: US President George W. Bush is in fact entirely responsible for the hurricanes!

I can't believe my eighth grade science teacher lied to me!

I can't work out whether this article and the attached graphic represent clever parody, or just incitement to kill (whoops, sorry, make that radical peace-activism).

Apparently Indy Media are upset that Google News often doesn't include Indy Media in its news sources.



Naturally, none of this has anything to do with the usual garbage found on Indy Media sites which may be potentially aggregated by Google. Instead, this is all the fault of a "pressure campaign launched by prominent right-wing bloggers." Shortly after this accusation, Indy Media suggests.... A pressure campaign.

If they put aside their media-control conspiracy theories for just a second, it might become obvious that maybe Google wants to maintain credibility as a news source.

And there's the problem...

(Hint: As an open, unmoderated cesspit, Indy Media doesn't have any).

I have previously questioned the point of multiple 'local' Indy Media sites when it seems the same articles appear on many of them.

Why (Scotland) do (UK) you (Seattle) think I got (Sydney) that idea anyway?

Too bad the poster didn't actually RTFA before posting it as whilst his intent was to condemn Israel, according to a Sydney poster, the article actually shows Israel's legal system, process of appeal and compensation. A pretty decent portrayal too, headline notwithstanding.

The bottom line: Spam posters on Indy Media are like seagulls. There's lots of them who fly in, make a lot of noise, cover everything in shit and fly out again.

I came across the headline "Activist killed in Gaza" and assumed a protester had been caught in the crossfire or bulldozed.

Not exactly, but apparently an activist was killed prompting this condemnation:

"Israel has no justification for killing an activist who was merely enaged in protest, no matter what his means of protest happened to be".

Even if his "means of protest" happens to be suicide bombing and firing of rockets towards Israeli cities?

Nope. No justification at all. Gotta love a bit of activism, and suicide bombing sure beats the hell out of placards and slogans doesn't it?

An episode of Frasier prompted me to poke around Seattle's Indy Media.
Hoping to find some truly inspiring anti-globalisation tirades from the same people who brought us S11, I found instead more of the same.

In this case, the "Weekly Report On Human Rights Violations" in the Palestinian areas.

Here we go... My favourite bit was:

The difference between the suicide bomber and soldier(s) killing
civilian population including children, is the IDF uniform and the US tax dollar in foreign aid .

Silly me! Thank heavens for Indy Media. There I was believing the difference was that Palestinian suicide bombers deliberately and strategically target children, women and civilians again and again, whereas Israelis (and the US for that matter) do not. I'm glad that was cleared up!

Then we get to comments like: "7 of the victims were extra-judicially executed by Israeli troops". Naturally the specifics are non-existent which is rather a pity as they might indicate exactly who the so-called "civilians" actually are. Not exactly Palestinian school-children. Speaking of non-existent, there's predictably no mention of Palestinian terror efforts including missiles fired into Israel but neither are the specifics of why Palestinians were arrested. Something or other to do with suicide bombing. Hardly a jaywalker! By deliberately omitting this information in the chronological listing of activity by the IDF, the author is forcing you to believe Israelis were just randomly rounding up Palestinians (when not taking pot-shots at them).

Sorry, it just doesn't work that way.

Quite conveniently, the article lists the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs website (to whom complaints about Israeli human rights abuses should be directed). Thanks for the link, it allowed me to see all the stuff that wasn't reported in your 'comprehensive' piece. It also allowed me to see the very same site and information the Indy Media Poster looked at, yet deliberately (and conveniently) ignored.

Thank heavens the Indy Media project provides a forum for biased, incomplete and factually inaccurate articles about Israel. It's what people deserve right?

(Right?)

It's not uncommon for any article indicating criminal activity of Israelis or Jews abroad to receive airtime on Indy Media, howsoever small (speeding fines were one example). The obvious intent is to smear all Jews because of the actions of a few.

Occasionally though, the story on its own doesn't make them look bad enough so the author embellishes it to make the Jews Israelis look even worse.

In this instance, the Israelis arrested in Los Angeles weren't just drug dealers (as reported here) but were, (according to Sydney Indy Media's scoop) in fact trying to poison their victims by lacing the drugs with arsenic. This latter addition was made up by the article's poster. That is, it was a total lie.

And the inevitable protest at this blood-libel was of course followed by the usual anti-Semite trump-card: "Jews call everyone an anti-Semite therefore such claims are null and void" (even though they are entirely justified as is the case here).

Naturally, despite protest, the article has not been deleted from the site suggesting Indy Media's managerial approval, if not involvement in this disgraceful smear.

Update 22 Sep: Apparently at least one of the site's moderators are now aware of the problems with the article, yet have indicated they will not do anything about it (but appreciate the complainant "taking the time to point out inaccuracies in others' stories").

Sometimes the evil corporate scum media just do it better.

The cover of the latest TIME Magazine will look awfully familiar to some people.

According to the mission statement:

The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth.

Let's see now:
Radical adj. Departing markedly from the usual or customary.
Accurate adj. Conforming exactly to fact; errorless.

So let's recap: The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for departing markedly from the usual or customary, conformity to fact or actuality.

Yup. That just about sums it up.

Even though I couldn't understand it, I was pretty certain I understood...

I was just thinking that Indy-Media was wholly one-dimensional (anti-Bush, anti-Israel, thanks for playing) irrespective of location or current affairs.

This time it appears some kontneuker has contributed by translating some mildly interesting Ha'aretz article into Dutch.
What can I can say but Ga kots drinken ranzige smegmakegel.

Any article in left-wing Israeli paper Ha'aretz which is critical of Israel is guaranteed to get airtime on Indymedia simply because (so the anti-Semites' favourite argument goes) "you can't call it anti-Semitic if a Jew wrote it right"?

Wrong.

Firstly, Ha'aretz is frequently critical of the Israeli Government just like American papers of the George W Bush, simply because Israel is the only country in the Middle East where journalists don't have to worry about Fatwas.

The linked article also fails to give context to the point that Israel's Attorney General can rule against the Government without being murdered in public.

If you single out Israel yet only repost the negative articles and consistently omit other material it's anti-Semitic and you know it. If you hold Israel (as the only Jewish State) to a higher level of accountability or human rights than other countries with virtually no freedom or human rights, yes Virginia, it is anti-Semitism. But you really knew that didn't you?

Someone in Israel breaks wind and Indy Media will be all over it.
Of course if it's just someone getting their head sawn off or a 16 year old being hanged in public that's okay right? It sure is on Indy Media...

Cruising around Indy Media Japan I came across this article linked from San Francisco. It was an "in-depth interview with "human shield" Ken O'Keefe during his recent Japan tour.

What exactly constitutes a tour? I know when the Rolling Stones come to town, that's a tour, but one feral unemployed person and a mate with a notepad? Not exactly. But anyway, let's have a look at what [echo and reverb on] The Human Shield said.

BC: How did you yourself get drawn into the human shield movement?

KO: One of the inspirations for it was during the siege of the Occupied Territories in spring of 2002, when the Israelis went into Jenin, amongst other places, and were committing these horrendous crimes. One of the things that I happened to see was the activists that got themselves into the Church of the Nativity and Yassir Arafat’s compound — when it was looking like, while there were Palestinians in the church, they were just gonna kill ’em. Then Yassir Arafat’s compound was seriously looking like it might get hit or run over. And these activists went in there. Whether they did or didn’t stop the Israelis from doing what they might’ve intended to do, it was a balls-out, “Fuck this, let’s do something about it” [action], and I really respected that, big-time. I thought, “That’s not talking about it, that’s just doing it.” That’s what I’ve been doing in my life and I really think that that’s what we need to do. So that was kind of an inspiration for human shields.

I notice he refers to the "horrendous crimes" committed in Jenin that we now know were never actually committed and the only thing massacred was the truth. Uh huh. Liar, tattooed and swears a lot. I wonder why he loves Indy Media and the (evil corporate scum) media don't want to know. Of course I don't recall he or his inspired colleagues ever being a human shield on Israeli buses or doing anything frankly to stop terrorism against Israel.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the Church of the Nativity. As far as I can see, your "human shields" were standing in the way of the arrest of terrorists who threatened to destroy the Church. The terrorists were also using human-shields. Namely, priests and nuns.

One of the Church’s monks taken hostage, Narkiss Korasian, told reporters:

"They [The Palestinians] stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything... they stole our prayer books and four crosses... they didn't leave anything. Thank you [Israel] for your help, we will never forget it."

Curiously, I don't see him thanking the human-shields.

Still... The other side of the story is not really Indy Media's job is it?

It's September 11 again. As the civilised world mourns, over on NYC Indy Media they are celebrating.

Nice!

Having just thrown back an espresso made from Equador's finest roast, I swung by the Centro de Medios Independientes to see how good my Spanish was.
Turns out I didn't need it with the same spam (in English) appearing as on nearly every other IMC site I'd been to this week.

Indy media has been overrun by seagulls. They are crawling with disease, fly in, make a lot of noise, cover everything with crap and fly out again.

I've said it before: What's the point of having local sites if they are identical (anti-Bush, anti-US, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist) and not otherwise local in nature. Indy Media has lost whatever plot it once had. Time to pull the plug!

No it isn't. Yes it is. No it ISN'T. Yes it is. No it isn't.
Umm... Yes it is.:

"A lot of the posts on this site is as useful and inteligent as the stuff you can read on any public toilet wall, another open publishing medium."

Says it all really, as readers and former-readers of Indy Media call the site for what it has become. As much as I agree with the sentiment above, it has always amused me when people who can't spell comment on the intelligence of others.

And speaking of Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Product, it looks like the Australian Embassy in Jakarta has been bombed with at least 7 killed. Angry Methodists perhaps? Oppressed Mormons maybe? Or is it those brutal Indonesian Buddhists again?

Who knows? Certainly not Sydney Indy Media which at the time of writing had at least 4 articles written since the bombing, none of which mentioned the bombing. Let me guess, that's the evil corporate scum media's role right? Right.

Melbourne Indy Media? Nope, nothing to see here either.

I wonder who Indy Media posters will blame first. John Howard or the Jews? Certainly won't be the (cough) Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Product.

Update: It was John Howard - A bombing that could help HoWARd on Oct 9 (=Oz federal elections). Meanwhile, as predicted there are other Indy articles which make no mention of the actual bombers, but assign full responsiblity to the Australian Government and the victims.

Who's going to pay Indonesia for loss of security and tourism? Honest John? Or the Australian taxpayers?

While 7+ humans lost their life, Indy Media makes no mention of the real perpetrators and is worried about tourism dollars. Nice!

Stu over at Crumbling Ivory sent me a quick email as follows:

Your website is the proctologist of the internet. You truly have to slog through some of the most vile crap, but it is job that someone has to do. Me, it'd make me sick to wade through IndyMedia. But thank you for doing it.

Stu has also adopted his own euphemism for Islamist terrorist. Namely, Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Product. Makes about as much sense as attackers, bombers, captors, extremists, fighters, gunmen, hostage-takers, insurgents, kidnappers, militants, radicals, rebels, separatists and activists (Daniel Pipes) doesn't it?

Stu's comments about hating to visit Indy Media got me thinking. Could it be that intelligent reasonable people are staying away from Indy Media altogether? Put right off by the usual caliber of posting? If so, it would seem that Indy Media is encouraging the evil and driving away the good. In other words, they are Distilling stupidity.


I've pointed out previously that others have left Indy Media in droves on precisely this basis. Evidently IMC don't know, or don't care. It's the latter option which I find more likely.

You can tell a lot about the editorial policy and complicity of Indy Sites such as the exciting sounding Thunder Bay, by having a look at what's hidden from public view (Indy Media's impotent substitute for deletion) and what's not.
For example, this article was hidden. Oh not because it said "JEWS DID 911 [sic]", but because it was posted repeatedly. Anti-Semitism gooooood, cross-posting baaaaad...
But what of the spirit of Indymedia, to it's Principles of Unity and to basic ethical behavior I hear you ask? I don't know, but this is a great read and really put the sanity cat among the conspiracy theorist pigeons.

Indymedia UK: You're either with us or against us. An interesting comparison between both sides of one story as reported on Indymedia.

On one hand: Indymedia protesters, trying to organise a boycott of UK department store Marks and Spencer and calling themselves "Victory to the Intifada" (which I can only read as "complete and violent end to Israel"). They refer to "the usual heckling from the Zionist counter-demonstration, organised by Betar, reaching a new level of hysteria and filth."

Isn't it interesting how it's only okay for some protesters to say and do whatever they please?

On the other hand: "Betar-Tagar Shaliach Shimon Shamila added: "Some Muslim extremists were shouting anti Semitic and anti Israel slogans but were stopped by the police before becoming violent."

Hmmm.. Indymedia posters versus their arch-enemy, the poh-leese. Who do you want to believe? Isn't it interesting how Indymedia accuses (evil corporate scum) corporate media of only telling one side of the story...

They were honest enough to admit it...

The most honest Indy Media page I've seen yet...

Meanwhile, can anyone explain to me the point of the numerous local Indy Media sites? No matter which one I go to, Australian, South African, American, European, all I seem to see are exactly the same sort of articles polluting the Internet and doing nothing for local news.

Hell there are even articles about the evils of Jews in countries where there aren't any.

Vancouver Indymedia had a wonderful invitation to an "Online occupation of the White House" and no further details.
Being a good little Neoconist, I am told that I am always up for some occupation so surfed on over to find out exacly WTF an 'online occupation' is.
I found instead a page entitled "Tell Bush the World Says No". On it, was a passionate thank you from the author saying more than 2000 people had hit the website I just visited and told Bush they said no. Well actually, I just visited it as the IMC page said nothing at all. Whoops... I guess I'm now counted in the statistics.
Here's a nicer statistic: 36 people registered through the "Live March site" in the space of 5 days. What an awesome turnout! I guess that's all the evidence that Indy types need that the whole world says no to Bush (albeit twenty or thirty at a time).
When will these protest-types wake up? In a democracy, if you want to argue that everyone says no, it's called election results. Most of the world isn't a democracy with that luxury howver, and that's where their attention should be focused. As much as they don't want to hear it, there really are more evil dictators out there than Dubya.

I ate Indian for lunch today and felt inspired to wander over to Indy Media India (try saying that ten times quickly after a Vindaloo and a lager) to see if it was any better than the local IMC product. Expecting to find out about Indian affairs (you know, the stuff censored by the Indian evil corporate scum media) I found this instead -A Pakistani views British Rothschild Imperialism.
Apparently The Illuminati (cough...Jews...Cough) are the reason for conflict between Pakistan and India.
Well that explains it! And I always thought it was just because they were fighting each other. I should have known it was the Jews again. Thanks Indian Indy for clearing that up.

Muslim terrorists are going on a killing spree in Russia, as reported all over the media. Yet on Russian Indy Media, they are covering the news left out of the evil corporate scum media, preferring to focus on Ariel Sharon instead.
At least Indy Media has their priorities right, even if the evil corporate scum media haven't yet worked out that Israel is actually the sole reason for all terrorism in the entire universe (as well as tooth decay).

This Indy Media article explains why the Iraqi terrorists (Sorry, Freedom Fighters) were actually "forced" by the West to saw heads off and execute 12 Nepalis who "aided and abetted the occupation by working as" wait for it...."kitchen hands and cooks in Iraq." Those bastards!