Posted on 06/29/2004 5:29:13 AM PDT by urtax$@work
Below is a partial transcript of the article for discussion purposes. Please go to above link to see full story about FR on the web.
AUSTIN -- Erica Anthony-Benavides is a junior at Trinity University in San Antonio, a member of Ladies in Physics and not very politically active. But because she signed a petition against the war in Iraq, a national conservative Internet site has declared her an enemy of America.
A conservative known as "Doug from Upland" took the petition and turned it into a posting called "Here is the enemy" on FreeRepublic.com. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
You will want to see this; your name is mentioned in a newspaper.
Yep, because we use the internet to circumvent the mainstream media channels, whereas the libs use the internet to reinforce the mainstream media/Dem talking points. So it has come to the point where conservatives and liberals have extremely different interpretations of reality. We believe that SCOTUS stopped a rogue state supreme court from trying to take the election, whereas liberals believe that SCOTUS selected Bush despite the will of the people.
Of course, subsequent studies by the mainstream media showed that, under any of the guidelines of the proposed recounts, Bush still would have won Florida. We know that, wheras the libs use the Internet to try and shout that fact down. We use the internet to get at and promulgate facts, and the libs use the internet to try and broadcast the Big Lie to counter our facts.
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INTERNET SITES: LEFT AND RIGHT
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Conservative: ·FreeRepublic.com-- Those who use the site are called FReepers. · PABAAH.com -- Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood targets movies.
Liberal:
· Democraticunderground.com -- Those who use the site are called DUers. ·Take Back the Media -- An anti-corporate media site sponsoring a boycott of commentator Rush Limbaugh. |
AUSTIN -- Erica Anthony-Benavides is a junior at Trinity University in San Antonio, a member of Ladies in Physics and not very politically active. But because she signed a petition against the war in Iraq, a national conservative Internet site has declared her an enemy of America.
"I don't know why they want to accuse us of treason. It's not fair. We haven't done anything. We've just said something that somebody doesn't like," said Anthony-Benavides, a native of Corpus Christi.
Anthony-Benavides, 19, has been swept up in a new Internet war between the right and left in America that is trying to establish ideological purity for the nation.
Grass-roots political Internet sites have been springing up since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Those on the right vilify anyone who does not support President Bush and the Iraq war as communists and un-American, while those on the left use common curses to describe people on the right as fascists.
The right organizes boycotts against musicians and actors who oppose the war. The left urges boycotts of conservative talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh or actors such as Bruce Willis.
Altogether, the Internet chatter is part of the partisan echo chamber of talk radio and political cable television shows that some experts believe has intensified the polarization of America's electorate.
Polls indicate American voters are at their most divided in a decade, with a partisan split on national security at its highest level since the late 1980s.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this year also found the number of people who get presidential campaign news from the Internet grew from 9 percent in 2000 to 13 percent this year. The number of people getting campaign news from traditional sources such as television networks and newspapers has declined as much as 10 percent.
James Gimpel, a University of Maryland professor who studies political divisions in America, said a small percentage of the U.S. populace visits ideological Web sites. But he said they reinforce strong feelings for those on the left and right.
"The people who tend to go to these sites are people whose views are pretty well entrenched," Gimpel said. "It's likely to enhance polarization. It's likely to enhance extremism. But it's not likely to create many converts."
The enemy list that included Anthony-Benavides received notoriety because of its connection to the beheading of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg in Iraq.
Berg was a Bush supporter, but his father, Michael, like Anthony-Benavides, signed an anti-war petition for the International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) coalition.
A conservative known as "Doug from Upland" took the petition and turned it into a posting called "Here is the enemy" on FreeRepublic.com.
Doug from Upland told the Chronicle he had no idea who Berg was when he posted his enemies list. He said he wanted fellow subscribers to FreeRepublic to know the names of people who had signed on to what he described as a communist organization.
"That was my opinion. Here are the enemies of America," Doug said. "I called them enemies because I believe that while we are at war, they really are the enemies. They are hurting the morale of our troops."
Postings on the FreeRepublic site often urge readers to call the employers of liberals to report their anti-war sentiments.
Doug said he was motivated to post the enemies list because his son-in-law is in the Navy and one of the signers of the anti-war petition identified himself as being in the U.S. Coast Guard.
"That man had no right to have these feelings if he was in the military," Doug said.
Doug, who is 51 and lives in Upland, Calif., is in commercial real estate and was among those who questioned Bush during a Jan. 4, 2002, town hall meeting broadcast on C-SPAN. His photograph is posted on the FreeRepublic site, but he did not want to be interviewed using his last name because of concern that a liberal backlash would harm his business.
"They're foul-mouthed and vile and they call for violent behavior," Doug said.
Some liberal Web sites promote boycotts of conservatives, most particularly commentator Limbaugh. One Limbaugh boycott site is Take Back the Media, run by Michael Stinson, 51, who lives in an "undisclosed location."
"As far as I'm concerned, this is just voting with your buck," Stinson said.
Stinson posts contacts for Limbaugh's advertisers and urges liberals to call them to complain.
"Some people say we're trying to stifle Limbaugh's freedom of speech. We're not, but the Constitution does not guarantee 1,300 radio stations," Stinson said. "I'm not going to pay money to his advertisers for him to call me a Marxist and a traitor to my country."
The Internet battles have spawned at least one libel lawsuit that may test the future bounds of free speech.
A site called ProBush.com posted a list of politicians and entertainers who signed an anti-war petition and called them "traitors." The site describes it as a parody, but one of those on the list, former liberal Sen. Jim Abourezk, D-S.D., has sued for libel in federal court.
"Senator Abourezk has a pretty tough hide and can take as good as he gives," said his lawyer, Todd Epp of Sioux Falls, S.D., a University of Houston graduate. "It's also his concern that some people might be cowed by this. ... If you speak out and you're called a traitor, the social and legal ramifications of that can be harmful."
ProBush founder Michael Marino, 20, of West Point, Pa., said Abourezk's lawsuit is an assault on the First Amendment right of free speech.
"It would be most unfortunate if lawsuits could be used to silence the diverse voices of this 21st century medium," Marino said.
Marino's defense is supported by the Electronic Freedom Foundation, which has filed a brief in his case.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
you've been getting in trouble latley haven't you..
Good job : )
Hmm...so it's all AlGore's fault then, right?
Amen! It's time to choose sides. You can't be against everything this country
is founded on and pro-American at the same time. Declare yourself.
Hmm. I have been a member of this forum and I don't recall seeing anything like this. If it has happened, it is quite rare and hardly qualifies as "often".
We do call people on their actions. We do call for boycotts of products/companies that are represented by people who are not acting in America's best interest.
The Hollyweird crowd has a right say what they want. It is freedom of speech.
We have freedom to peacefully assemble.
If the Hollyweird crowd thinks this is a massive conspiracy, well, fine. It's assembly, nonetheless. The internet has finally given "the little guy" the ability to share points of view that would have otherwise been disconnected. That we can assemble more people, more rapidly, and more cohesively, that makes it wrong? That makes it facist? The freedom to assemble is facist? The freedom to protest other peoples actions which you disagree with is facist? Pardon?
What the left is concerned about is our ideas getting to the masses. In the the arena of ideas and in the arena of what makes common sense, the left doesn't have a prayer...and they know it.
EAGLES UP!
Good job Doug!
It certainly does scare outfits like the Houston Chronical(ly Biased) that the internet is a source of information that cannot be controlled by a Leftist agenda.
They can see their life's work slipping away before their very eyes, and it's driving them mad.
On that thread there were a few posters who said they were calling employers -- about the people on the ANSWR list who were in the military.
In the media, that becomes often. The poor writer is too dense to comprehend and contrast the actual numbers of posts and replies on FR daily to the few on that one thread.
I would say the author is often wrong.
And you would be right.
In the past that wasn't the case. It is now and because of that they are disintegrating. Just as Mad Howie Dean moved all the Dim Pres. candidates further to the left Micheal Moore has reframed and restaged the leftist stance to the absolute fringe of the left. Now all debate from the left has to proceed from that point as its base.
More moderate Dims have been disenfranchised from the process by the kooks and the press. Kerry is incapable of wresting it back partially because he's already so far left himself but mostly because he's as exciting as day old oatmeal. The only thing he can say that resonates across the Dim spectrum is "I was in Viet Nam."
The "journalist" might as well have said: "Hey fellow libs, here's the info you need to really get back at DFU!"
Amen to that. The Houston Cron is so blatantly leftist tha they can't bring themselves to admit they repeatedly print hearsay and rumors. Not to mention giving MM's lies a front page review. they are sick. and if you question them they innudate you with lefy articles the next day. They are petty and as with all Evil Dums, just plain DUMB.
I've never seen such a thing, and I sincerely hope it hasn't happened, because this behavior could cause a lot of trouble and I wouldn't want JimRob hurt.
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