Fresno Bee does a glowing story about FR on today's front page

[Newsjock]

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1002348.html

The headline at the bottom of today's front page: "Fresnan pioneers Web grass-roots conservatism." I'll spare you the flowery prose. But as of right now, there's exactly one reader comment on the story:

I've been a Free Republic member since 1999. I admire JRob and what he's done. But Free Republic today is very different from when I joined. Back then, it was about ideas about government reform; about rebellion from the dominant left-wing Presidency and press. Now its devolved into an often demented hate-fest against primarily Muslims. I cannot believe half the conspiracies I hear; rumors that even moderate Arab states (some of which base US troops) are trying to form a caliphate to take on the West. It is not uncommmon at all to hear the sentiment there that the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. Now I'm not Muslim, but to hear this invective day in and day out is just sickening. Sadly, JRob has turned his forum over to the wrong crowd -- FreeRepublic hardly will serve as any meaningful community against Obama.

It's worth pointing out that as of yesterday, Barack Obama has taken the lead in drawn-out Fresno County vote-counting. Yet a big pic of Jim Robinson is what's on the front page of today's paper. Way to go, Fresno Bee.

On edit: Oh, The Bee accuses DU of copying FR!

For instance, Allen said, Free Republic was the first to let users set the agenda -- an approach later copied by the left-leaning Democratic Underground.

[barbtries]

1. i hope everyone

who reads the story (i'll skip it, i'm at work) keeps going to read the comment.

[Occulus]

26. I just added a comment re Andy Stephenson's death

and referred everyone to Google for that horrible "scamdy" site and past freeper threads.

The comment isn't there yet, though... but I don't want that episode to fade into obscurity.

Damn them all to hell.

[Ian David]

2. Wow... love the comment at the end...

<snip>

I've been a Free Republic member since 1999. I admire JRob and what he's done. But Free Republic today is very different from when I joined. Back then, it was about ideas about government reform; about rebellion from the dominant left-wing Presidency and press. Now its devolved into an often demented hate-fest against primarily Muslims. I cannot believe half the conspiracies I hear; rumors that even moderate Arab states (some of which base US troops) are trying to form a caliphate to take on the West. It is not uncommmon at all to hear the sentiment there that the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. Now I'm not Muslim, but to hear this invective day in and day out is just sickening. Sadly, JRob has turned his forum over to the wrong crowd -- FreeRepublic hardly will serve as any meaningful community against Obama.
Cal Evans | Homepage | 11.11.08 - 12:15 am | #

[onehandle]

3. Do they cover the death threats, overt racism, and separationist activities?

No?

How fair and balanced.

Free Republic, Well known hate group and admirer of Timothy McVeigh ("that poor railroaded boy").

Want to find the core of the next wave of domestic terrorists? Look there, FBI.

[Ian David]

4. Just wondering... does Democratic Underground ever send out Press Releases?

Do we have a Media Relations program here at DU?

[Mike Daniels]

5. A lesson the Freeps would be well served to learn

If FOX News isn't pursuing a story one of your regularly posted "bloggers" has uncovered it's probably because even they acknowledge that it's full of shit.

However, the more time they spend obsessing over conspiracies that the media and other powers that be are hiding Obama's "sleeper" status the less time they have to cause real trouble.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Oh. My. God.

What a fellating article. No mention of the fact that Tony Snow was a member. No mention of the anthrax threat guy who was a member. The absolute racism that exists on that site should preclude it from being a topic of serious news. I wonder if the guy who wrote the article is a member.

[Alter Ego]

24. Wasn't that "Doug from Upland"?

[Starry Messenger]

31. The anthrax guy? I think I read his Freep name was TripleC. n/t

[Justyce]

7. That was disgusting. I posted a comment.

Wonder how long it will take to show up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Incredbily, Robinson describes himself as a "retired Web site designer"

'retired' as in 'I haven't updated the design of a website since 1996'?

[MiniMe]

9. If he updates it too much, his computer illiterate users won't be able to use it

And there go his donation base. They don't want that fancy stuff.

[Rob H.]

35. I'd hate to see any of the other sites he's supposedly worked on

I hesitate to say "designed" because his own site is so butt-ugly and hard to navigate. You'd think as often as FR has fund drives he'd use some of that money to take some remedial HTML classes.

[Starry Messenger]

10. kick

I posted a comment. It took about ten minutes to get through, but it's there now.

[gratuitous]

11. So what do they say about the porta-potty patrol?

I hope the Bee gives prominent mention to the stalwart Free Republickers who stand on the front lines, gallantly defending the group's porta-potties from unpatriotic offal.

[crispini]

12. LOLWUT?

"Part of the Obama campaign's success, she noted, was its use of social networking technology, which Free Republic was one of the first to develop."

Social networking technology? The author clearly doesn't understand much about the web if she thinks FR is an example of that. :eyes:

[yellowcanine]

13. Did they point out that there a half dozen threads devoted to Obama's birth certificate, etc.

[lies and propaganda]

14. who was Robinson before FR?

I had never heard his name before until i found DU some years ago..

[LeftyMom]

15. Nobody. nt

[lies and propaganda]

16. bwahhahaha, well, Im sure of that.

I just assume there was another rock or two he was under as well..

[DemoTex]

17. Free Republic: A force to be reckoned with!

[vanlassie]

18. Thanks for the warning. I just walked in the house from picking up my copy on the driveway....

Came here first..... good to be prepared!

[WolverineDG]

19. Lemme guess....no mention of Chad what's-his-name

the one who sent "anthrax" to Keith Olbermann & others & used FR to brag about it?

dg

[NNN0LHI]

20. Or Tyler Froatz

[Starry Messenger]

21. I put it in a comment.

It's been on top for over an hour. ;)

[123infinity]

23. Hehe...nice one

:D

[jakefrep]

25. From the comments:

"Jim Rob has a hair trigger for idiots"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

It's sort of frightening to think that there are people dumber than those who successfully post on FR.

[chat_noir]

28. Chad Castagna

Yes, it appears that Chad Conrad Castagana, the man "suspected of mailing more than a dozen threatening letters containing white powder to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Jon Stewart and other high-profile figures," was a conservative and a commenter on conservative blogs.

He also appears to have been a frequenter of Right Wing sewer, The Free Republic.

UPDATE: Domestic Terrorism expert David Neiwert has responded to the evidence that's pouring in from all corners about Castagana and his love for Conservative commentators. Noting that prominent pushers of hatred are somewhat culpable, he writes:

Mentally unstable types are almost always stirred up and driven to their insane acts by haters of various stripes, the kind whose voices seem each day to be growing louder in our public discourse. These cultural vampires have developed a real knack for inspiring mentally unstable people into horrific acts of violence.

Haters like the people Castagana claims as his heroes -- Coulter, Malkin, Ingraham, just for starters -- are constantly engaging in the worst kind of eliminationist rhetoric directed primarily at liberals. It is simply an inevitability that, when this kind of hate is broadcast to millions of people daily, some of them are eventually going to start acting it out in fashions precisely like this. And worse.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/44231

[Starry Messenger]

22. It's getting Freeped.

This should be good. The reading public can see their nuttiness in all its glory.

[Starry Messenger]

27. Rocking the awesome.

Comment on the top:

"WOW there it is again the only ones calling others and using that card again. It is funny to me that I have never gone to that sight but now I will in support of them! All because again some think they have the right to use that card or other ugly accusations against any one that dose not agree with them. So keep talking and using your ugliness all it is doing is slowly closeting the minds of people to even listen to you. You may have won this battle but the war only began and in it you will lose simply because of how you speak and act. Just as so much was promised and so little will be fallowed threw with like instead of a 95% getting tax cut it will be more like 95% getting tax increases. When they are shown how if they do not agree with you 100% they to will be called names and ridiculed or that the card will be pulled and used on them. Your venom and hatred shows threw. so keep a flapping that way we have lots to cut, past, and post all over the web as what the left really believes, thinks, says, and will call you when you do not agree with them. How they will not engage in a civil debit or conversation but will revert to an ideology that dose not allow any decant normal give and take it is like a two year old tamper tantrum and reasoning with them is about the same forget it just show them and so we will come 2010 and 2012!
Huntman58 | 11.11.08 - 12:27 pm | #"

[JuniperLea]

36. Gawd I lurves me a good civil debit!

:rofl:

I'm series! Especially when the civil debit is done in English... we want that to be the offical language, remember! I know I'm preaching to the quier here, but this is HUGH!

Get a brain, moran!

[lpbk2713]

29. I hope the Fresno Bee readers know bad spelling when they see it.

:rofl: :rofl:





LOOSERS!!


**Freep spelling of course.

[Starry Messenger]

30. The world is about to get a taste of Freeper english.

In all it's sodden HUGH11!! glory!1! :)

[XemaSab]

32. Series!

:o

[Starry Messenger]

34. For shame!

Can't you engage in a civil debit?! Let's be decant!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[agentS]

37. This comment was the best by far

I am still trying to comprehend why the 2000 or so active
remaining Freepers continue to send their hard-earned money
to Jim Robinson, the site owner of Free Republic. Judging from
the abysmal performance of his web site lately, he certainly
isn't spending it on things like expanded server capacity or
increasing the robustness of his network.

Rim Job (as we like to call him) claims to receive $320,000.00
a year from the Social Security and pension checks of his
deluded followers as love gifts to operate his web site. But
its become almost a rarity these days for Free Republic to
actually be up and fully functioning at any particular time.
Rim Job publicly and routinely asks his users not to use the
search function or other database-intensive features on the
web site because they so negatively impact system performance,
and blames conveniently unidentified hackers for Free Republic's
ongoing connectivity problems. But what Rim Job doesn't tell
them is that the pros simply don't bother with an irrelevant
chat site with a core of 2000 or so active users. There may
indeed be a million or so user names in the databases that
Rim Job touts, but all but a small fraction of those users have
been banned or have left in disgust in response to the various
ideological user purges that Rim Job proudly and unabashedly
conducts from time to time. (Does the term "Bug Zapper
Thread" ring a bell, Freepers?). The real uber-hackers want
to penetrate and deface the Googles and Yahoos of the Internet,
not some backwater bolthole for racists, contrarians, and the
terminally paranoid that Free Republic has become.

So I guess a better question to ask is, "Why do stupid people
persist in being so stupid?" Free clue: It simply doesn't take
$320,000.00 a year to operate an early 1990s-era text-only chat
site like Free Republic, even if every server were plated with
24K gold and Rim Job was using Google-quality redundant pipe
for every connection. Why else would the Freepathons (the
fundraisers that Rim Job conducts on a quarterly basis) have
been getting longer and longer in the past couple of years,
and why hasn't Rim Job opened his company's books to actually
confirm the financial numbers that he's been feeding us? Can
you name any other major political web site that actually
suffered significant service outage on the one day out of
every 4 years that they would actually be relevant, which is
Election Day 2008?

So the bottom line is this: if Freepers want to knowingly donate
their hard-earned money to a man who publicly refers to George
W. Bush as a coked-up fool and war hero John McCain as a
"treasonous bastard", then they have my blessing to do so. It
is perfectly legal to be stupid and to give money to charlatans
and grifters like Jim Robinson. But they really should ask him
to use extra KY the next time he tries to guilt them into
giving him extra money for a "secure server". Because judging
from Free Republic's performance to date, those monies are going
to go straight into Rim Job's pockets, not to realize any
significant improvements to Free Republic.
Olive Garten | 11.11.08 - 11:15 am | #

Freepers are dittoheads or lemmings. If 'high command' asks them to jump off a cliff, they would.

Olive Garten brings up a valid point: If FR is making 320K a year, why is it so ugly and crash so much? DU probably doesn't generate that much revenue but is far more dynamic and user-friendly and codes more effectively than FR. Alan Colmes' blog Liberaland looks better than all of FR.

Guess it's true that their audience is mainly anti-intellectuals who don't like or can't handle bells and whistles. They're the "AOL Crowd" so they only focus on sites within their prism.