Friday, March 16, 2007
The End
Indy Media Watch has closed. Here's why.
Finding examples of rank lunacy, libel, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, support for terrorism, incitement to crime or simple hate speech on various Indymedia sites is not especially challenging.
In general, when in a hurry to post, a quick visit to one of several 'leading' IMC sites will yield such an example usually within thirty seconds.
It's not difficult. However, it's not especially intellectually challenging either nor does it make for diverse reading to blog visitors. Oh look, here's more antisemitism on UK Indymedia. Check this out: More anti-American stupidity. And so on.
When Indymedia started, there were not many avenues for 'citizen journalists'. Today, that is simply no longer the case. Many who supported Indymedia in the beginning have long since moved onto other projects or started their own websites. Are these perfect? Of course not, however focusing on Indymedia distracts from problems elsewhere.
Frankly, we do not believe there are many people today, who take Indymedia seriously. However, here we are, week by week forcing ourselves to wade through the muck, to satisfy our readers. It's exhausting. So, we've decided to call it a day and end the project.
In the two and a half years since Indy Media Watch started, in over 1000 posts, we have repeatedly documented easily verified problems with Indymedia. This has not been acknowledged by many involved with Indymedia as fair criticism but rather completely denied or otherwise ignored.
Our masthead states:
The masthead was written in the first-person as the blog started off with one person but now has a few contributors. I would like to thank them all immensely, from those who composed entries over the years, to those who provided tips and of course other bloggers (and even book authors) who have linked to, or referenced this site.
Long term readers will recall my annual suggestion Indymedia commit seppuku. As Indymedia has not substantially improved, this call remains unchanged.
I think we have made our point.
Finding examples of rank lunacy, libel, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, support for terrorism, incitement to crime or simple hate speech on various Indymedia sites is not especially challenging.
In general, when in a hurry to post, a quick visit to one of several 'leading' IMC sites will yield such an example usually within thirty seconds.
It's not difficult. However, it's not especially intellectually challenging either nor does it make for diverse reading to blog visitors. Oh look, here's more antisemitism on UK Indymedia. Check this out: More anti-American stupidity. And so on.
When Indymedia started, there were not many avenues for 'citizen journalists'. Today, that is simply no longer the case. Many who supported Indymedia in the beginning have long since moved onto other projects or started their own websites. Are these perfect? Of course not, however focusing on Indymedia distracts from problems elsewhere.
Frankly, we do not believe there are many people today, who take Indymedia seriously. However, here we are, week by week forcing ourselves to wade through the muck, to satisfy our readers. It's exhausting. So, we've decided to call it a day and end the project.
In the two and a half years since Indy Media Watch started, in over 1000 posts, we have repeatedly documented easily verified problems with Indymedia. This has not been acknowledged by many involved with Indymedia as fair criticism but rather completely denied or otherwise ignored.
Our masthead states:
Indymedia was set up to fill a void in the corporate media. An idea I thought long overdue. Unfortunately, as a largely unmoderated, unrestricted medium it was promptly over-run by bigots, trolls and Nazis confusing free-speech with hate-speech. I believe the Indy Media experiment has failed.Has anything changed? Has there been any improvement? Has there been any responsibility, accountability or quality? No, no, no.
The masthead was written in the first-person as the blog started off with one person but now has a few contributors. I would like to thank them all immensely, from those who composed entries over the years, to those who provided tips and of course other bloggers (and even book authors) who have linked to, or referenced this site.
Long term readers will recall my annual suggestion Indymedia commit seppuku. As Indymedia has not substantially improved, this call remains unchanged.
I think we have made our point.
