ALL NEW: The Raw Story, the liberal alternative to Drudge

[rawstory]

Two Oberlin College graduates (myself and a friend) have finally taken on Matt Drudge in a major way. The Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com is their rebuttal to Drudge's decade of lies, slander and otherwise unsavory 'journalism.'

Unlike Drudge, the layout is clean and appealing, and the stories are updated more frequently. It's a great locus for progressive reporting, and also features daily exclusive content, culling and composing stories from around the world.

It's finally time that someone take on Drudge, and the site does a good job of it. Check us out and judge for yourself. If you'd like to write or get involved, email [e-mail].

[Wickerman]

1. cool, but

fix your link. Your page is accessible, but I wouldn't count on users having to delete the comma at the end of the url.

[rawstory]

3. Thanks.

Fixed the link. Weird that it adds commas in there.

[rawstory]

4. A question

Is there a way to link the graphic? With this weird HTML coding in here I don't know how.

[Wickerman]

5. try this

just enter the url of the image you want. Use properties (right clik) to see what I mean.

[rawstory]

7. Right, but...

How do I make the image 'clickable' so that if a user clicks the image they'll be directed to the site?

[swag]

2. try this

http://www.rawstory.com
















http://contribute.johnkerry.com

[Caution]

6. I like it.

However after you get established drop the drudge angle...he doesnt deserve the free publicity.

[rawstory]

8. I agree.

Yeah, we've gotten a lot of commentary on that, like "Why do liberals always have to reference the conservatives?", i.e., the "Franken factor," etc. The trouble is, though, there's not a lot of known link sites on the web that do this sort of thing, so it's hard to avoid Drudge. But he certainly doesn't deserve the publicity, especially after that Kerry infidelity stunt, and the puerile Janet Jackson's tits business.

[fryguy]

9. nice site, but

Why feature al Jazeera's lie-riddled propoganda story about the averted terrorist attack? Are we really to beleive the word of Yaqub Shahin, a director-general of the Palestinian Authority ministry of information, about what the young Husam Abdu was actually doing - unless he knows because the PA in reality is controlling the actions of the Hamas and other groups committing these atrocious acts?

[rawstory]

11. Why we feature Al Jazeera

Here's why: I think everyone deserves a right to their viewpoint. I know Al Jazeera is often a propaganda organ, but so isn't Fox News, or, on occasion, the New York Times. We're clear about who's putting the story up, and people can decide for themselves. Obviously the Palestinian Authority doesn't want to be blamed for the kid, so it isn't a surprise, no. If we just put the story without noting it was Al Jazeera, _that_ would be irresponsible.

[fryguy]

13. maybe this is for another forum

Its not an issue of allowing one to express their viewpoint or not. Al Jazeera can do that without being featured prominently on another site; nothing is taking away from their message. In the same way that I hope you wouldn't promulgate propaganda or lies put forth by Faux News or any other US media organization, I would hope you wouldn't do it for such anti-Semitic media outlets either. (Or for that matter, any anti-Arab right-wing Israeli news sources.) If there's one thing that the Internet is great at doing, it is making true a falsity simply by virtue of its repetition. Allowing THAT to happen would be irresponsible.


<< my disagreement with al jazeera and consciousness of the proliferation of anti-Semitic attitudes in the media notwithstanding, good luck with the site....I will continue to "tune-in" >>

[rawstory]

15. Faux news

That's for your cogent reply. I'm fascinated by the Faux news tag, I'd never seen it before DU. Where did it come from? Can't believe I'm so out of the loop.

[fryguy]

17. I dunno know

I don't know where I picked up Faux News - maybe here or Liberaloasis or Axisoflogic, I'm all over sometimes....

By the way, as a partial mea culpa, I do see that you have a headline about the attempted bomber being stopper. However, the link is messed up and sends me to a story about Clarke. Figure its just a glitch, but thought I point it out to you....

[rawstory]

20. Fixed, thanks!

[mouse7]

51. al-Jazeera is just a discontinued BBC bureau - they have cred.

The whole staff of a BBC Arab language bureau simply switched nameplates over the door when BBC closed the bureau because of budget cuts then opened al-Jazeera with the exact same staff. These were all the same reporters doing BBC Arab language broadcasts that started al-Jazeera.

[fryguy]

57. Former BBC?

I don't know where you got that factoid from (I'd be interested in seeing something that supports it), but it also presumes that the BBC had credibility or neutrality to begin with on Arab-Israeli issues. In fact, the BBC has been one of the harshest pro-Palestinian English language news outlets, assailing Israel for its every move. One need only look at its bias reporting of events in the region to see its latent anti-Semitic attitude.

[rawstory]

65. Maybe so...

But their current reporting shows heavy, heavy pro-Palestine bias. Among other myriad biases. This ownership isn't as 'objective' as the BBC, I'd say.

[qanda]

10. Cool! I bookmarked it.

[rawstory]

12. Thanks!

[SeveneightyWhoa]

14. Too late!

There's already a liberal Drudge Report...
It's called www.Counterbias.com! Booyah!

[rawstory]

16. Of course!

Actually, there are many of them, including The Drudge Retort (most famous) http://www.drudge.com, The Project for an Old American Century, http://www.projectforanoldamericancentury.org among them. But we think we can do a better job, since we do it _as_ a full-time job, and we also update far more frequently. Also, I think a lot of these so called 'liberal' Drudge's are just as offensively partisan as Drudge. One key thing we try to do is not to feature editorials as news, which is a frequent problem with web journalism.

[americanstranger]

19. Upgrade your blog links....

Not for nothin', but you should include Atrios, Josh Marshall, D-Kos, Political Animal, etc. There are a lot of influential liberal blogs, and I don't see them on your site.

And you can add http://www.takebackthemedia.com to your media links if you want to. ;)

-as

[rawstory]

21. K.

I'll add them tonight. If you can, could you give me those URLs?

[KelleyKramer]

28. Links to top bloggers ...

Here are some links to the better known bloggers, I put mine at the top ;)

I'm posting them in html which should save you a lot of time, not sure if the code will show up in the post or not...
If it doesn’t show up give me an email addy and I'll send them to you in plain text,

Kelley


<a target="_blank" href="http://kelleykramer.blogspot.com">Kelley Kramer</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.atrios.blogspot.com">Atrios</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailykos.com">DailyKos</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://interestingtimes.blogspot.com/">Interesting Times</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.talkleft.com/">Talk Left</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/">TalkingPointsMemo</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.pandagon.net/">Pandagon</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://xnerg.blogspot.com/">Skippy</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.calpundit.com/">Calpundit</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.the-hamster.com/">The Hamster</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/">Hullabaloo</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.liberaloasis.com/">Liberal Oasis</a><br>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.ruminatethis.com/">Ruminate This</a><br>

[americanstranger]

29. Forgot Blah3, Kelley!

http://www.blah3.com

-as

[rawstory]

30. Thanks.

I'll work on getting those up tonight. To date, most of our blogs have been from swapped links.

[KelleyKramer]

66. Uhhh ..

That was just a quick copy and paste...

I have Blah up at the very top with the big websites ;)

Sorry about that.

[Gloria]

69. Also the Smudge Report...

eom

[rawstory]

70. Oh...

Oh so reputable. :)

[fryguy]

18. besides

Does it hurt to have another? I say, the more options out there the better. Let the right have talk radio - for now - we will rule the internet because Dems are literate and seek to discuss rather than be preached to - think Ditto-Heads and O'Reily groupies....

[tallyho]

22. Off to a bad start

Israel stages suicide bomber? No thanks.

[Robbien]

23. Yesterday you posted you believed the Clark smear attacks

and again today your posts pile again on the Clark smear campaign about him doing all this for political gain.
And now you are smearing a new liberal site?

Sure does make one go hmmmmm.

[rawstory]

24. Suicide bomber

Sure, it's controversial. And maybe it isn't true. But shoving everything under the rug just because it doesn't 'sound true' isn't real journalism. We will, however, be moving it from the lead postition shortly; it's not good to give too much credence to Al Jazeera.

[Guaranteed]

44. Journalists seek the truth, and tell it

If you don't think this is the truth, you shouldn't be saying it is.

[rawstory]

46. Well....

If you read this site, you'd see it wasn't there anymore!

[bearfartinthewoods]

25. how come my spyware fighter went GA GA when your site was loading?

[rawstory]

26. ??

What is GA GA? Because it has a popup? I dunno.

[rawstory]

27. Maybe...

Maybe it's because we have a Weatherbug popup? That program can be pretty insidious (but we gotta make money somehow).

[mouse7]

52. Weatherbug?

sorry... you won't get me back there now. Weatherbug is almost as much of a pain in the ass as Gator.

[rawstory]

60. Re:

Hmm. Well you don't actually get it by logging on to the site. It's just a pop-up. And we hate it too, actually; just that we can't really even pay the rent yet, and have to start somewhere. But I can understand.

[Woodstock]

31. dupe

sorry, posted this on the wrong thread

[rawstory]

32. ??

[Cleita]

33. I came. I saw. I was impressed.

Thanks. I will be checking in.
:thumbsup:

[Poiuyt]

34. Bookmarked

I love Oberlin. I ran the fastest mile of my track career on the Oberlin track in 1972.

[rawstory]

35. Word!

There are Obies out there! And I thought it was just a college slipping in the rankings! ;) Go Oberlin Review!

[SayitAintSo]

36. Cool ... one problem ... Fonts too small on favorite links ....

Maybe an over forty problem ... but still ... :)

[rawstory]

39. ;)

Yeah -- I hear that, but to make them bigger would screw up the layout, I think. But its worth checking out. I'll take a look.

[SayitAintSo]

42. Form over utility ?

Rules of design ....

[deacon]

37. WTG guys-- kick some butt n/t

[Kathy in Cambridge]

38. I'm from Cambridge too!

Good site-kick Drudge's ass!

[rawstory]

40. Lol.

Go Cambridge. Did you see the piece in the Cambridge Chronicle?

[doc03]

41. Thanks adding to favorites!

[ThirdWheelLegend]

43. Your Image in clickable format, and how to do it...

This is how you put it in a post(just replace what is inside the quotes with what it says and remove the quotes, all the brackets and other symbols are required)

EDIT: ack didnt work hold on :P This is hard to show in a post without it trying to change it to that format.. use what is below, change the < brackets to square brackets. Remove the * from all spots. then follow above. When you post you can click on HTML lookup table and it will tell you how to make a HREF, that is how you do it.


<*link:'your url here without the http://'*|*'the pics url here with the http'*>

questions?

Oh and grats on the site, best of luck!

TWL

[rawstory]

45. Haha

My editing period has expired, so I can't change it anyways! Too bad! ;)

[BigBigBear]

47. Great content

but I disagree about the layout being "cleana dn appealing" - it's cluttered and busy.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

48. Is there a link to DU?

I can't seem to find it.

[rawstory]

67. Yeah

I think it's under etc.

[AgadorSparticus]

49. really like the site. easy to read. great job!!

I like it enough to bookmark it.

[KharmaTrain]

50. Lose The Hannity Ad...

I was scanning through and surprisingly saw an ad for the Insannity book...25% off. At first I thought this was a joke, but appears that whomever your site sells the space to put the ad on there. You might want to look into this.

Otherwise, glad to have another warm voice in a very cold world.


Cheers!

[LTR]

55. Sometimes there's little choice

The Google ad, for example, just relays related ads. Sometimes it's relevant, other times it's infuriating.

They are more accurate than others. I have a counter on my message board that has a sponsored link to Lane Bryant. On a SPORTS MESSAGE BOARD!!! :wtf: It's all guys posting there, and probably not much of an audience for plus-sized women's fashions. They really need to fix that.

[rawstory]

58. We're nixing Amazon ads...

Just been kinda lazy in getting rid of all of them, and switching to BookSense, which supports independent local bookstores.

[RebelOne]

53. Good site.

I bookmarked it.

[LTR]

54. Not bad, but...

I'd do the links so they open up in another window. This is one foolish mistake Drudge makes. Why send people AWAY from your site?

Here's how to do it:

<a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com /" target="_blank">Democratic Underground</a>


Post something like this as your link. The target="_blank" is added after the URL to make it open on another page.

I'd also change the font. It looks kinda cheap.

Also, optimize your HTML for faster, cleaner, error-free loading. Here's a Google page with some good sites:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Data_Formats/Markup_Language...

Hope this all works. I run a web site too, a Sports Message Board:

http://pvsmackboard.proboards29.com/index.cgi

I've been spending the last month or so adding HTML 'hacks' to add more interesting stuff, such as graphics, tables, and other things.

Good luck!

[charlie]

56. Gotta cast a dissenting opinion

Forcing new windows with every link is a bane, a terrible practice. Don't do it!

[rawstory]

59. Editor agrees

Yeah, I agree. What we'd really like to have is every page open with a header bar at the top, using a javascript thingy that we don't know how to do, so that users can return quickly to the main site. (This format is used on about.com).

Does anyone know how to do this?

[charlie]

61. Yech. That's just as bad.

About wraps outbound links in a frameset. To paraphrase someone famous -- "Let your people go!" They'll like you and your site a whole lot better for it.

[LTR]

63. Ugh! I hate frames

It gets annoying, and I notice it's not used as much anymore.

[rawstory]

64. Fair enough.

"Let your people go," is a great way to put it.

[LTR]

62. I may be showing my anti-IE bias

I use Avant Browser and Mozilla, which use tabbed browsing.

Internet Explorer opens a new window. I loathe IE and often encourage people to switch to Avant or Mozilla Firefox.

I just hate using the BACK button all the time.

Internal links (within the board) should always stay in same window, unless necessary.

Often, I just use the center scrollwheel on my mouse to open new windows.

[okieinpain]

68. thanks. looks pretty good.