Outspoken Media wants to bring the voices of the average citizen to "the media". However, what exactly they are doing and getting done could be calrified on their website.
Giving a voice to the general public, when so much of the national dialog is controlled by biased and bureaucratic media institutions, is certainly a good idea. That's one of the goals of Outspoken Media. If you expand that to helping give people in countries where there isn't even the pretension of a free press, or guarantees of free speech, so much the better.
And www.outspokenmedia.org claims that as their goal. And it has admirable mission statement:
Since its inception, Outspoken Media's mission has been simple: reduce inequality in all forms of publication and educate those who lack the ability to make themselves heard.
But, with an inception in 1998--more than 10 years ago--I would like the website would indicate they had more to show for it. Under the History Section on the website, they say:
Our first major success was in 2002 when we helped bring online publishing education to four underprivileged high schools in the Atlanta area to the extent that the schools started two new websites, later to become blogs, both of which are still active.
That was seven years ago. Since then, Outspoken Media says they have helped hundreds of individuals begin media ventures, down home in Mississippi and as far afield as China. But no more details about what they did, and no links--not even to the blogs they started in the Atlanta area. They are doing good work, so why not show it off? Why not help the people who come to their site see what they've been doing? Hopefully, that will come in the future.
They offer a link to Corporate Fundraising, which I hoped would tell me more, but it leads to an error saying that the page cannot be displayed. There is a link titled "The Fight for Free Speech", but this also goes nowhere. At least, the link to Amnesty International's Irrespressible.Info does work, however, with a lot of links and information for Irrepressible.Info, but what their relationship between them and Outspoken Media is unclear.
In conclusion, it's a noble goal, and they do appear to be non-partisan, though some links to the projects they have been involved with and more information on the site itself would help make it more clear. Hopefully, they plan to add more to their site in the near future. If they want to advocate citizen journalism, and given the average citizen a voice, as part of their media advocacy mission, their website should be the first place that make that mission real.
For example, it wouldn't hurt them to add a blog to showcase successful projects, and promote the individuals they are trying to help give a voice to. Just sayin'.
Seriously, they are. Which is a good thing. Using a modern secular myth to justify looting the private sector and punishing the tax payer is reprehensible, and the more people who wake up to the same, the better.
The Jawa Report has a breakdown on how Axelrod and the Obama campaign are trying to make fake grassroots campaigns to smear Sarah Palin, while, at the same time, leaving a trail of smoking guns everywhere. No wonder the left like's to tell us they are the smartest and most ethical folks out there!
The Journal of Feminist Insight blog has a breakdown of softballs Charlie Gibson tossed Obama vs. the prosecutorial nature of his questions for Palin. Pretty damning stuff, indeed. For Obama: How does it feel to win? For Palin: Do you have enough qualifications for the job your seeking? And on and on and on.
Not classy, Charlie.
Apparently to folks of the left, the ends will always justify the means. Ruin people, lie, cheat, steal, anything short of murder (and, hmm, who knows, maybe that, too) is okay if it means you get universal healthcare and progressive taxation. Learning that, on the left, the end always justifies the means is why I'm not a liberal today.
