Does publicly funded ‘media democracy’ mean killing the president?

RALEIGH — North Carolina taxpayers are supporting, through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an “independent news” site that regularly features calls for the execution of George W. Bush, promotes armed uprisings in America, and receives dozens of other conspiratorial rants too bizarre to explain.

All of this is in the name of “open publishing,” a notion supported by three departments at UNC-CH on the hopes it will challenge the “corporate media” by “empower[ing] individuals to become independent and civic journalists.” A novice may be forgiven for asking what all that could possibly have to do with executing the president. Allow me a brief explanation. Behind the term “corporate media” is the assumption that (I kid you not) major media outfits as disparate as Fox News and The New York Times serve the same corporate masters, and therefore everything published by “for-profit” media organizations is hopelessly tainted “corporate ideology.” Now, once you imagine the kind of people who see Fox and the Times as peas in a pod, your answer readily presents itself.

News freed from objectivity and “corporate bias”

The web site operating on North Carolinians’ nickel is chapelhill.indymedia.org. If the tag “indymedia.org” sounds familiar, that’s because the Portland, Ore., cell of this outfit achieved brief fame this past April for reporting the news of Pat Tillman, the former pro football player who died in combat as an Army Ranger, under the headline “Dumb Jock Killed in Afghanistan.” The Chapel Hill cell showed greater restraint in conveying this news, charitably describing Tillman as an “arogant [sic] babykilling bastard … punk … dumb ass LOSER!

The Chapel Hill Indymedia site is the web vehicle for the North Carolina Independent Media Center (NCIMC), and the home page declares that it is “Hosted by ibiblio.org.” According to Information Technology Services at UNC-CH, “ibiblio.org was formed as a collaboration between the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s MetaLab, formerly known as SunSITE, and the Center for the Public Domain in September, 2000. At UNC-CH, ibiblio.org is supported by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Information and Library Science, and Information Technology Services.” Yes, UNC-CH’s J-school is involved.

UNC-Chapel Hill funds ibiblio.org to the tune of approximately $167,000.

One of the key components of ibiblio.org is encouraging open-source software, but it is also concerned with “Host[ing] and foster[ing] projects that expand the concepts of transparency and openness into new areas.” This apparently includes “independent media,” since NCIMC is “committed to the decommercialization and decolonization of information.”

It’s likely for most of you that this is the first time you’ve ever come across the notion of news being “colonized.” Such unmistakably leftist jargon — commercialism bad, postcolonialism good — is altogether too common in many academic fields, which apparently now includes journalism. But what happens when you apply those concepts to news (or, in the NCIMC euphemism, “information”)? Put another way, what happens when you socialize the news?

Impatient readers may skip to the end now to find out, but here’s an indicator: In April, North Carolina State University hosted a panel on “media bias.” As to be expected at a major research institution, the panelists managed to reach consensus on an issue the outside community finds highly debatable. In other words, they agreed upon the existence of bias in the media — namely, “corporate bias.” The panel included Richard Hart, editor of the local leftist “independent media” tabloid, imaginatively called The Independent, and two N.C. State professors, one of whom, Cat Warren, is the “media writer” for the Independent.

Hart kvetched that “current news media are too profit-driven” and argued that reporters ought to have an “activist mentality.” Warren, a “professor of journalism and media,” agreed and complained that reporters had a problem with objectivity — specifically, that they tried to be objective. “Objectivity is a new concept for the current media,” she said. “It is also an excuse for reporters to not challenge those in power and to not report the right stories.”

“Objectivity as a goal leads to lack of value,” agreed Michael Cobb, a professor of political science who “stressed that … corporate bias had clouded editors’ judgment.”

Sponsored by the Raleigh cell of Indymedia, the panel clearly identified the movement’s enemies: objectivity and corporate bias. The UNC-CH departments having us underwrite this “independent” news service see the promise of “civic journalists” busting through media oligarchy and “using media and journalism as a tool for promoting egalitarian change.” It’s the glorious revolution in digital form, comrade banding with comrade to overthrow their media oppressors foisting objectivity and corporate bias upon us hapless proles. With its “Newswire,” NCIMC “encourages people to ‘become the media‘ by posting their articles, analysis, videos, audio clips and artwork directly to the web site.” Anyone can do it, and “Indymedia relies on the people who post to the newswire to present their information in a thorough, honest, accurate manner.”

NCIMC defines itself in a pastiche of marxist slogans. It’s “a grassroots collective committed to using media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice.” Its web site is intended “to promote diversity and unity in the progressive community throughout Chapel Hill and the rest of North Carolina, further the self-determination of people under-represented [sic] in the media, and to illuminate and analyze local and global issues that impact ecosystems, communities and individuals.” It is “dedicated to generating alternatives to the corporate media and to identifying and creating positive models for a sustainable and equitable society.” It is “media democracy.”

But still, why do we the people have to pay for it? What about all this could possibly interest ibiblio.org, consumed as it is with the quest for free software? (Why should we pay for that, either?) The key lies in an explanation that NCIMC finds particularly compelling: one Matthew Arnison’s definition of “Open Publishing,” a link to which appears under the first occurrence of the term. Helpfully entitled “Open publishing is the same as free software,” Arnison’s long, self-impressed manifesto neatly bridges the gap. “They’re both (r)evolutionary responses to the privatisation of information by multinational monopolies,” Arnison writes. “For software it’s Microsoft. For publishing it’s CNN. For both software and publishing it’s AOL Time Warner.”

Given that the NCIMC’s existence depends upon state support via UNC-CH, it seems odd for it to call itself “independent.” What about its claim to being “media democracy”? After all, the site pushes a specific political agenda, which it advertises quite freely. Apart from disassociating itself with any “commercial for-profit enterprises” and being a “grassroots collective [blah blah] social and economic justice,” NCIMC “will actively oppose racism, homophobia, classism, sexism, and nationalism within our framework and within the framework of society.” Nevertheless, “there is no designated collective that edits articles posted to the Newswire,” so outbursts of “media democracy” that run counter to those principles are moved to the “unabridged newswire” of “hidden posts.” Some posts are more equal than others.

“Media democracy” in action

Let me now return to a question I asked earlier. What happens when you socialize the news? How do “media democracy,” “creating positive models,” the “present[ing] information in a thorough, honest, accurate manner,” &c., actually sound?

Like the twits and squawks of the deranged nuthatches and cuckoo birds nesting in the political fringe, that’s how.

Here are several quotations from items appearing on NCIMC’s Newswire. These are not the screeds the NCIMC consigned to its Island of Misfit Posts. These are the ones that passed NCIMC’s muster. We’re funding all of them, of course, but these are the ones we were intended to pay for:

From “gdy” on August 21:

Numerous writers have compared the Bush tactics with those used by Hitler, while others have documented the connection between Prescott Bush and the Nazis. However, there is much more to what has lead the Bush regime to transform the United Stated into a fascist police state. … [The author takes us on an entertaining jaunt through history, tying the Bush family fascism to Leo Strauss, J.P. Morgan, the New Republic, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Pinochet (by rote), and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.] … Too many people still believe that fascism can’t happen here. It is happening here today. The Gestapo is firmly in place in the form of Ashcroft’s justice department. … Ike’s military-industrial complex, the PNAC document, the World Trade Organization, free trade agreements, and the George W. Bush regime are all parts of the many-headed Nazi Hydra in America.

If George Bush declares a red alert or martial law or manages to steal another election, will you be one of the first sent to the concentration camps? Will you go quietly like a lamb? Will you allow the Gestapo to haul away your neighbor, your wife, your son or daughter? Will you live next to the crematories with your head in the sand as the Germans did? Or will you oppose the regime and help reestablish the constitutional republic?

The time to decide is now, tomorrow may be too late. The corporate state of fascism has risen from the ashes of 9/11 like a giant phoenix. It will consume all that opposes it. The Fourth Reich has risen. Beware. Your life and freedoms depend on it.

From “Lloyd Hart” on August 21:

… There has never been a moment in America’s history (a history of stolen elections) when the opportunity arose so fortuitously to actually instill democracy into what has essentially been the buying and selling of power in America that began with the buying and selling of the so-called American Revolution. …

From “Victoria VITTANGI” on August 22:

… My Grandfader had piggies at farm; all the animals had name there and selected examples prized by true ID cards… I see that Grandfather’s true piggies were more respectable than human faced piggies&doggies… Let’s these doggies [expletive] here on internet, mostly using false sexual announcements; let’s people witness what a kind kinky planet the two-legged piggies dreaming.. Keep the evidences should be apparently pasted there on internet page, although it’s not friendly; all after checking this attack it’ll easier to struggle against thus kinky character, who beyond this dirtiness!.. Go on to tell what the newest!.. In fact, we have much more exciting broadcasting tournaments… Let’s create new saga examples and try to build a wonderful socialistical saga-world for whole humanbeing; yes, for human, dear!.. Solidarity regards from saga-teller, additional works of studio-guests, followers on friendly tv channels. …

[From there the article eventually tumbles into a long, rambling diatribe against Jews.]

From “SHAC” on August 20:

… When the U.S. government actually protects and underwrites animal exploiters and demonizes animal activists like SHAC as “terrorists,” it places an added responsibility on all activists to speak truth to power: the true criminals are corporations that needlessly torment animals unto their deaths and a government that defends those corporate interests while systematically violating its own Constitution and the right to free speech.
Far from insuring “the safety of its people,” the State’s main mission is to protect the property and profits of the Corporate Masters that it serves, whatever the political, social, or ecological costs, and no matter what the toll to the institutions of “democracy” (such as they are) or the dissidents exercising their rights. U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay, and religious extremists like Bush and Ashcroft who want to plunge their own nation into the same authoritarian abyss as their avowed enemy Al Qaeda are evidence of the bankruptcy of the “civilized society” upheld by Christie and the entire ruling elite.

From “SamRob” on August 17:

… What kind of aragant person would state that they would have authorized force even when no WMD were find. That is sicking when a thousand troops have been killed and almost 40,,000 free Iraq’s have been killed due to the US IMPEARLISM in the middle east. What kind of people in the governement do we have and what does this mean for the next four years.

Ask your self one thing America: What would you do if another country, lets say China invaded and started dropping bombs when you the people have done nothing and broke no Intl. laws. All they want is Bush, which is illegal but they still kill thousands and call you terroist when you try to defend your family when your childrens geads get blown off in front of your face. WHAT WOULD YOU DO AMERICA????????

This is the world that we live in today. We have no choice in this election. Everyday more and more technology is being created to make it cool to turn the American society into a POLICE STATE and most people don’t even see it happening right in front of their eyes. Even today in the news the 9/11 commission was dissussing National ID cards and papers as if this were NAZI Germany and BIOMETRIC SCANS FOR THE EYES AND FINGERS when traveling around america.

Is this the country you want your children growing up in? Is this the country you want to grow up in and live your live. Wake up American. THE US GOVT IS NOT TRYING TO HELP THE CITIZENS. IF YOU NOT PART OF THE SYSTEM THEN THEY LOOK AT YOU AS A CIVILLIAN AND DEGRADING YOU BY CALLING YOU THAT. WAKE UP AMERICA WE ARE THE PEOPLE AND WE CONTROL THE COUNTRY, NOT SOME BANKING INSTITUTION, NOT SOME PRESIDNET, NOT SOME CIA, NOT SOME RICH ROTHCHILDS IN EOURPE, NOT SOME TECHNOLOLGY, NOT SOME BONES AND SKULL MEMBERS, WE DO LIKE THE FOR FATHERS AND THE CONSTITUTION STATES.

From “jeanmarry” on August 17:

America became insane?!! the attacks lowest, of the incongruous assertions, it is necessary to hurt!! it is a policy dustbin!! 44 million American without Social Security cover, veiled an interesting subject, the whole world looks at you, all this is not worthy of the greatest nation of the world. …

From “Varlet…and the National Lawyers Guild” on August 17:

… The simple fact is that, far from being “The Land of the Free” (as American jingoes love to prate endlessly to anyone naive enough to listen) this has NEVER been the land of the free… unless your idea of asserting your “freedom” is to have the “right” to sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” off-key, at the top of your lungs, while waving a mini version of “Old Glory” that was probably made in an American-owned sweatshop in China.

I predict that this FBI harassment of activists, instead of scaring people away from the NYC protests against the Repulsivats’ war-festival in August, will cause many people who never thought of attending the protest to turn out in record numbers to assert their Constitutional rights while they still can!

This kind of police repression can be expected to continue indefinitely, until the working people of this country organize working-class-based socialist political parties dedicated to the task of eradicating the capitalist system from the face of the Earth through workers revolution. Only then will we finally be free of the capitalist system, its endemic poverty, racism and wars… and its “Eternal Odor Of Police”. …

From “bin laden” on August 16:

… Traitor evil lawless bushite enemy, die for us instead of our good families of innocent men women and children.

True American blood brother, why don’t you, get your guns loaded and kill un-arrested bush and rumsfeld for 9/11 proudly. Then, offer autographs at the preliminary! Or, die a traitor rightly sacrificed as enemy, fighting with the lawless godless enemies of Creation who will ultimately fail to enslave these Universal values. Trust Yourself, Life’ll kill the evil enemy lawless bushite before we can’t help defend ourselves as Humanity. …

Hunt to kill the lawless un-arrested bushite hiding in our America why don’t you God’s true to life Patriot? …

Happy happy, joy joy, bushite bushite, die die die die. …

Just imagine what the bushite’s pro-Amerka will be like, if You don’t stand up and shout, “For God sakes, somebody kill that demon nazi tyrant George Bush Jr. for the benefit of all our Humanity” I HATE bushite. How about You?

ENEMY lying fascist nazi whores they are the bushite eh? Who wouldn’t gladly kill a bushite soldier for the love of their family and country? Ha ha ha.. die bushite die. Any bushite who supports the sacrifice of their lives to support the further victimizing of Humanity for Mr. bush Jr., is the ungodly enemy to all people. There is no joy greater than killing a mortal enemy of the innocent, God, of which the bushite is as purposefully ignorant, weak, slow, and as parasite, believes dropping bombs on cities, towns and villages, makes them fearful to all slaves, but godly men to bushite, I kill them quicker than the time it takes. Well… We’ll just have to wait for the pay-for-view spectacular. Contracts will be signed, and bushites will die.

[This goes on and on and on — 27 pages on my printout, and I have my printer scaling set at 70 percent]

From “Bill Gallagher” on August 9:

IMPEACH AND EXECUTE BUSH.

[Short and to the point, eh?]

From “Don’t Just Vote Take Action” on August 7:

… The torture in Abu Gharib is nothing new to those who have been tortured in the prisons of America, and the bombed rubble of neighborhoods in Iraq resembles all too well neighborhoods across America destroyed by “free trade” and trickle-down economics. From the poor sent to die in Iraq for corporate profits to the countless victims of the American military across the world, it is in the best interest of people everywhere to unite and strike at the heart of greed and war that is the Republican National Convention. Will future generations look back on us as the “Good Germans” who stood idly by when action was called for? Or will we take a stand?

From “catB” on August 5:

When a movie star is kidnapped and put in a 12 step recovery program from Western Civilization, the fugitives are out to make it clear about how civilization is destroying the earth and our lives and why we’re blind to it. It brings the destructiveness of civilized life to the forefront and gives us other ways of approaching it. To always ask why instead of remaining complacent. To think for ourselves and not look for answers. … In a time when books on the destruction of civilization are hard to come by, this book is even more welcomed. Its not just amazing writing or a fun thought exercise; it’s a call to action. That is the crux of the book: civilization is killing us, what are you going to do about it.

From “duko” on August 4:

Calling All Rebel and Revolutionary Communist Youth!
Come to New York City for the month of August to run with the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, NYC!

Revolutionary Worker #1247, July 25, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org

We are at a moment in history where Bush & Kerry and the whole ruling class are looking for a mandate–looking for an approving thumbs-up, or at least a complicit silence from people in this country for their whole war-of-empire horrors and homeland repression. They want to go forward–with whoever wins–and say, “This was the will of the people.” But MILLIONS are fed-up with this program and do not want to go along with it. The debates in society over what is happening and how to stop Bush and his team are vast, and millions are searching for answers to very profound questions and for someone who can show what must be done. We must become part of this debate, uniting people in their resistance, and introducing them to Chairman Avakian who has answers they need to hear. … There is a very real potential and a very real necessity to bring out more than a million people to the streets against the RNC.

The RCYB of NYC is urgently calling on youth to come to the city where the showdown is happening! Run with us to build a broad movement to change the course of history – and within that, preparing minds and organizing forces for revolution! This August in NYC will be a school of revolutionary struggle–in the streets and in the study of revolutionary theory! Join us as we fan out through different neighborhoods in New York City, taking out our Revolutionary Worker newspaper, arming people with the truth they need to change the world, and the leadership of our Chairman Avakian. We must bring people the truth about the moment we’re in, and the importance of taking a stand.

The people of New York City will be forced to choose sides, and the stand they take will impact the world. Whether or not they stand with the people of the world is up to us!

Quit your job! Come to New York! Win everyone you know to support your efforts! These are the times when what we do could change the way history unfolds. …

From “Johnny Wizard” on August 3:

… DIE BUSHITE DIE

The left broadcasted cowardly American soldier, who stead fast refuse to stand for God’s America today, as any real Atheist Patriot soldier would, we watch instead as self betrayers sided with as the ungodly bushite enemies. Enemies who targeted entire towns or cities of ourselves for first degree murder. The bushite cancer is a traitor to the American cause of liberty and Justice for all. Enemies of God are the bushite corporate news agenda that refuses US to voice our truths on evidence being the only requirement to convince ourselves of something so important as a freedom stand to die for. Patriots need to demand the arrest, or rightly shoot dead steven russell, mattis, kimmitt, bremer, nergroponte, or anyone else who serves treasonously as loyal enemy bushite slaves, by doing so, eventually earning respect of this Universe over as true freedom fighters committed to liberty and justice for all. Wow!, what a privilege. [Wanna wager who’ll likely be the one to kill bush and rumsfeld if you don’t wise up in time to do it for yourself instead my friend? Hello?]

DIE BUSHITE DIE! A hunting we shall go as one for the army of Justice and Freedom, true love and sweet understanding. Destined to destroy the unarrested godless demon bushite disciples. I shall never end until every bushite war mongering enemy is laid to rest in their early graves, as a testament to God’s great love held dear in the hearts of every real brave warrior this entire Universe over. Join the battle to save you soul! Or don’t. DIE BUSHITE DIE! …

THINK! I ask you again: Who wouldn’t kill the threatening to re-commit lawless bushite nazi savage rapists and torturers deemed “unaccountable” by bush the ungodly anti-Christ?. Bushites are enemies of Freedom and Justice, enemies of life in Nature, enemies of You, me, God, and everyone else that includes themselves to act their self destruction, but in my stolen name lying. DIE BUSHITE DIE! …

[This one foams on and on, too.]

From “The Seer of Forbidden Truth” on August 2:

… What is a child? … The Forbidden Truth definition of how society judges and defines all children is as follows: A subhuman, officially decreed worthless piece of owned property, that has no legal, civil, moral, or human rights, and that exists solely to serve as a slave and Poison Container to his/her creators, Sacred Family Unit, and to adult society in general.

What is the definition of the term Poison Container? The actual original creator of this phrase is, to the best of my knowledge, a psychohistorian named Lloyd deMause. He defines this term, as relates to child abuse, thusly: The Child As Poison Container: The main psychological mechanism that operates in all child abuse involves using children as what I have termed poison containers–receptacles into which adults project disowned parts of their psyches, so they can control these feelings in another body without danger to themselves. Rather than the child being able to use the parent to detoxify its fears and anger, the parent instead injects his or her bad feelings into the child and uses it to cleanse his or herself of depression and anger. End quote. In general, I absolutely agree with this insightful observation and definition of Lloyd’s as being accurate. However, I also expand the definition in a broader way, to include all of society, with complete malice aforethought, choosing to genocidally sanction and legitimize the mass torture of children, to allow all citizen-slaves, parents primarily but not exclusively, to “detoxify” themselves by torturing the human beings who remind them, consciously or subconsciously, of their own past torment, that society inflicted upon them when they were children. …

The most blatantly obvious forms of ritualized child murder, such as tying a child to a stake out in public and letting the child die of starvation/dehydration, were phased out by societies pretending to have become more “civilized”, and this was hailed as a wonderful demonstration of societal advancement, morality, and decency. At the very same time of course, dozens of other, less glaringly obvious forms of genocidal child murder, continued to be practiced and new forms were and are constantly being introduced. … In year 2001 America, every biological creator/legal owner of a child, is officially empowered to commit repeated, violent legal assaults upon all the child-slaves they legally own, by engaging in an act labeled as “spanking” or “corporal punishment”. …

[Torture would be to quote from this any further.]

From “gdy” on August 2:

Shortly after Bush stole the 2000 election, I wrote an article in which I suggested that it might be wise to consider the purchase of an AK47 as an investment. Today those words sound strangely prophetic, yet eerie alien. … This administration is guilty torturing prisoner, executing prisoners, bombing civilians, war mongering and a host of other war crimes. They are also guilty of mass murder in ordering the stand down of the air force on 9/11. The PNAC document certifies to the need of a Pearl Harbor so they would be free to wage war on oil rich nations. … All it takes for Bush to unleash another world holocaust and bring about his plans for regime change in 60 nations is for good men to do nothing. Hitler could have been removed easily in the first few years of the Nazi regime if good men had acted. … While many may naively blame the Germans for allowing Hitler to rise to power, the wolf is once again at the door, don’t make the same mistake the Germans did. Use what time there is left to make plans and to stockpile some provisions and any material you need for total opposition. Your freedom and life depends on it. …

Whew.

Those are just from the first three weeks of August. If any of you wish to read further, feel free. You paid for it, after all! You may be particularly interested in the July 20 installment of the “die bushite” theme by “Johnny Wizard”; the Reagan farewell by “Dick Tracy” (“regan was a lame ass actor the real regan administration is the same fascists wolflwitz negropanti Donald duck rumsfeld etc running this country now with the bone head imbecile gw bush …”); the advice from “June Scorza Terpstra and Husayn Al-Kurdi” on “Who and What to Remember on Memorial Day?”; evidence from “Guy” that “Christ was an alcoholic,” which makes sense when you think about it since “Jesus was immortal [and] could drink as much as he wanted and not die”; or the disturbing discovery by “billder” that innocent-looking jet trails are really government surveillance, “keyholes through which the government can peep, anytime, and anywhere it pleases, including underground, or THROUGH WALLS,” which is why we should “[G]et bush out and execute him for treason.”

In his definition of “open publishing” provided by NCIMC, Arnison wrote, “Open publishing is not new. It is an electronic reinvention of the ancient art of story telling.” Yea, verily — and good storytellers know not to let any facts get in the way of a good yarn!

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Jon Sanders (jsanders@popecenter.org) is not at liberty to divulge which evil corporation forced him to write this.