Indy Media Watch

I previously reported on this sad indictment of Sydney Indymedia.

Some comments left on the article (which hasn't been hidden of course) shed some light on the Indymedia mindset. The first, by 'AVM':

hello all, I'm just wondering how you expect this site to have any credibility at all by allowing people to print articles like this, in turn followed by sick comments below. I don't even know if you guys realize it, but you are as hate-filled as the nazis were in your view of the jewish people. You sound deranged, deluded, filled with hate, paranoid, possibly on hallucinogenic drugs, and you also use the same rhetoric as islamic fundamentalists. This article and some of the following comments are a good example. In short, until the powers that be decide to take control of the foaming-at-the-mouth nutjobs that shit out their mouths like the fucking nazi that wrote this bile, all indymedia sites will continue to be the laughing stock of the political blogosphere.

Read some of the other comments on the page and you will reach a similar conclusion very shortly. A response from 'Stacy' to AVM however is stunning in its naivete:

Hmmm... I don't remember the Nazi's (Sic) allowing feedback to their propaganda.

Finally, a comment in response to AVM which drops a bombshell:

AVM, Your comment is quite correct.

Pointing it out however, usually results in one or two standard responses.

1) Someone will claim posts like this were actually by Jews, as part of some twisted conspiracy to prove anti-semitism. The argument doesn't make much sense, but then, neither do its proponents most of the time.

and

2) But but but... This is freedom of speech, and we want people to discuss these matters and disagree with them.

Stacy, who it should be pointed out is a moderator with the authority to hide examples such as this, has very nicely demonstrated example 2 with her previous post.

That this site allows "feedback" - and considering some of the "feedback" which appears on this page, is apparently some form of justification and even vindication of such garbage for which some Indymedia moderators are quite proud.

And so the cycle revolves...

I have reported on the black-flag antisemitism conspiracy angle before (see here for a reference to it on Sydney Indymedia) and it can safely be ignored for what it is. Reading the subsequent denial by a moderator, of everything which is wrong with Indymedia however, left me dumbstruck. Not only does Stacy (a Sydney moderator) ignore the problem, she is apparently so enamoured with Indymedia, she defends this case as proof of how worthwhile the whole thing is.

Unbelieveable.

Update: AVM scores another direct hit:

Just wondering why you've never had an article ridiculing the death of arafat by any of your so-called supporters of "free-speech." Doesn't that fit you agenda? For you to say that this site doesn't promote religious hatred of jewish people is laughable. I suggest you remove your head from you anus and read the forementioned "article" again. If you still don't get it, repeat this step over and over until it sinks in.

Yeah, you might allow feedback - but you also provide a forum for rotten hate-mongers to spew their bile. This so-called article has absolutely no substance, yet is nothing more than a bigot taking cheapshots at a dying man. A poster below had it right - with free speech comes responsibility. And by allowing garbage like this to be seen on you site, it shows that the moderators (hatemongers) have none at all. In turn, indymedia as a whole has lost any shred of credibility. I expect to see things like that post on sites such as stormfront, an outwardly racist/supremacist site that doesn't hide behind "free speech." They are racist jew-haters, and they admit it. Sydney IMC is actually worse than they are. At least the nuts at stormfront have the guts to admit what they are, unlike the people that you allow to post hate-speech here, then the moderators hide like a bunch of cowards behind the guise of "free-speech." If Sydney IMC were so for free speech, you'd allow articles by people with viewpoints other than radical socialist/Anti-Israeli/Anti-American stuff. But that wouldn't their agenda now would it? The folks that run this toilet seem to be a bit one-sided in which articles they post. Again, I challenge you - post something by someone ridiculing Arafat the same way you did this sick individual did Sharon, then I'd actually believe that you are for free-speech. Otherwise, admit what this site is - A radical leftist/hate site filled with cowards that can't even admit what they truly are - jew-hating socialists that should probably be writing for stormfront.
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