Free Republic
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Free Republic is an American Internet forum and activist site for conservatives.
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Free Republic logo
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Origins and funding
Free Republic was founded in 1996 by Jim Robinson of Fresno, California. The site gained popularity during the President Clinton impeachment controversy when protests and write-in campaigns were organized on it.
The site is funded by donations requesed through "Freepathons". These fundraising events occur each quarter, and raise sufficient funds to support Free Republic's founder and staff.
Format
Free Republic's content consists largely of news stories posted by its active user base. Despite the forum's conservative orientation, stories are covered from all sides of the political spectrum. Articles from The Nation, L.A. Weekly and Village Voice rub shoulders with National Review and other conservative publications. Some publications, generally those on the fringes, are banned. Counterpunch (newsletter) is a good example of a banned publication. Many articles from left-wing sources are labelled with "Barf Alert", indicating that the poster disagrees with the article.
After the news stories come the comments, which are highly variable in quality. Some of the comments are crude personal attacks, often against people mentioned in the articles. Others are well-informed and insightful. Although it is arguably carried to an extreme in Free Republic, the variable quality of comments is a well-known problem in all online fora, including highly respected ones such as Slashdot.
Until recently, users generally posted the full text of news stories. This caused controversy due to the apparent copyright violation, which led to a lawsuit whose settlement is discussed below.
Social Organization and Events
There are local chapters within Free Republic, in a parallel structure that is not easily noticable unless you are active within it. This semi-hidden nature makes it easier to organize events. These chapters are organized through ping lists (see below), email and Free Republic mail.
The more active chapters organize events called "Freeps". Often these are presented as responses to protests by left-wing groups such as International ANSWER. Freepers, as Free Republic's active users are called, will assemble at some point with signs and banners, generally designed and hand-drawn by individual members.
Freepers are often harassed by members of ANSWER and other groups. Violent confrontations are rare, but the occasional punch has been thrown. Because of this, police will often assign different sides of the street or corners to the respective groups.
After Freeps, Freepers generally assemble at a restaurant or bar close by the scene, to review the results and discuss tactics for future Freeps. The freep is as much a social as a political movement, with like-minded people generally enjoying each other's company. This is similar to the motivations of many members of left-wing movements.
Freepers generally consider themselves underdogs when compared to the better organized left, such as the aforementioned ANSWER. Freepers often good-naturedly complain about being the side with jobs and responsibilities which, while good in and of themselves, often decrease participation.
What goes on in a freep is well represented by a video made by the author of this entry [[1] (http://www.amazing.com/politics/freeping/2003-03-29/)]. The early segment shows the protest made during Oscar Night in 2003. The later segment shows the left-wingers entering the Freepers' assigned space and wreaking havoc on an attempted vigil in support of the troops. Most freeps are more like the initial segment than the latter.
Board users
There is no fixed membership structure or dues. Nobody is required to contribute to Free Republic in order to become active. Users of Free Republic organize themselves in ad hoc groups to organize local gatherings and events (see discussion above).
There is a member directory, but like most internet forums nearly everyone has a pseudonym and few people divulge their true identity in their online profiles.
All members are afforded a mail service that allows them to send, receive and store private messages to each other.
Many also inform other members about certain interest areas on "ping lists," lists of users interested in a certain subject that are alerted to ongoing discussions on that topic.
Discussion
Members post articles from news sources and then then discuss them with subsequent replies to the original post, and to each other.
Comments posted by users of Free Republic are often insults directed at liberal political figures, institutions, ideology, liberals in general, and the media. Most of the comments are short, with some posts of longer length and substance.
The Free Republic community is largely united on certain political staples of the conservative movement, including having a strong dislike for President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, and opposing gun control, abortion, and what it considers to be "the gay agenda," particularly same-sex marriage. Freepers are often called to vote en masse in off-site online polls, and there is a daily prayer for Bush.
On some issues, however, the Free Republic membership is divided. Three main groups can be observed on the forum: neoconservatives, paleoconservatives, and libertarians, with neoconservatism being represented in the large majority of posts. Divisive issues include evolution, immigration control, free trade, and the legalization of soft drugs.
Free Republic does not seek to be a board that represents all political viewpoints: it is a meeting point for those to the right of the political center in America, and articles posted which contain unwelcome (usually liberal) views are customarily ridiculed and tagged with the words BARF ALERT after the headline, a feature meant to warn the reader in advance of an opinion running counter to the prevailing perspective of the site's intended audience. The moderators often remove or ban posters who criticize Israel, the Iraq or Afghanistan war, etc., from its discussion boards.
Material criticising the administration of President George W. Bush from a left-wing perspective is typically not permitted. However, ample examples exist of criticism of the President and Congress for not being sufficiently conservative or living up to the group's ideals. Despite this, articles from anti-Bush sources such as The Guardian and The Nation are freely posted every day. It is comments and "vanities" (articles written by the poster instead of an outside news source) that are often subject to censorship.
Some thoughtful left-wingers have been allowed on the Free Republic board, but this is at management's discretion. More often, someone will act as a troll and post a provocative article. These users are promptly deleted from Free Republic. Generally, the amount of latitude you have to express your views expands significantly as you become more better known on the site. Democratic Underground, a site similar to Free Republic but with a leftward slant, has very similar policies.
Some examples of outright hatred the site displays, include calling Palestinian children "bombs still growing" (a reference to suicide bombing) and the song parody Crying (Frying Abu-Jamal) [2] (http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a377afda025c2.htm); the site is blocked by several leading child-protection filters.
Manipulating polls
The manipulation of online polls by Free Republic has not been without controversy. The practice involves making a post directing members to vote en masse in an online poll, particularly those on television network or newspaper websites, with the intended goal of significantly affecting the final outcome. Known on the Free Republic as "freeping" a poll, the practice is not unique to the Free Republic forums and is employed by many other activist websites of all political stripes.
Free Republic in the national spotlight
In August 2004 Jerome Corsi, co-author of the controversial and influential book Unfit for Command, apologized in the national media for racist, homophobic, and anti-Catholic comments, as well as slurs against liberal political figures, that he made on Free Republic. The posts were discovered and made public by Media Matters for America, a liberal website. Subsequently, John O'Neil, the book's other co-author, attempted to distance himself from Corsi and attempted to downplay Corsi's involvement in the writing of the book.
Lawsuit and settlement
Because it has been a practice of its users to copy and paste copyrighted news stories in their entirety to its discussion boards, Free Republic was sued by The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. (Reuters and The Wall Street Journal were part of the original consortium threatening legal action, but they dropped out before the lawsuit was filed.) Many members view the lawsuit as an unsuccessful conspiracy by a "liberal media" to stifle the organization; founder Robinson referred to the suit as "a life and death struggle with elements of the socialist propaganda machine."
In a negotiated settlement, Free Republic agreed to remove the posted articles, and paid these two newspapers $5,000 each. Neither party was awarded any damages, legal fees or costs. Today, other publishers, such as Condé Nast, have joined The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times in objecting to the posting of entire copyrighted articles. Users now post excerpts from such publishers (as allowed by fair use), and the site filters submissions against a watchlist of "banned" sources, by request of their webmaster or as a result of the lawsuit, as a precaution against future lawsuits.
Jim Robinson
Jim Robinson (born 1945) is the founder and primary owner of the site. He is a computer programmer and served in the United States Navy as an electrician from 1965 to 1969. He formed Free Republic in 1996 and is currently semi-retired due to muscular dystrophy.
Controversy
Robinson's activities on Free Republic are the subject of controversy. In 1998 Free Republic was successfully sued by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times for copyright infringement of their news stories, which were posted to the site.
Immigration Rift
Robinson has taken informal positions in favor of George W. Bush's amnesty program for illegal immigration, causing a substantial rift in the membership of the site. The difference of opinion has allegedly resulted in Robinson's decision to ban several hundred posters and the resignation of many others.[3] (http://www.vdare.com/misc/gheen_050216_jimrob.htm) Critics on the right, such as VDARE have likened Robinson's activities to political purges and suggest that he screens new members of the site who take a differing position on immigration from his own.[4] (http://vdare.com/misc/gheen_050211_shot.htm) Robinson is also said to engage in censorship of articles that criticize illegal immigration.
The subject of illegal immigration had been a contentious one over the last few years, and many vitriolic conversations had occurred on the subject. This antagonized many long-time users. As a result, it may have been necessary to censor the immigration topic because the alternative would be to watch the forum tear itself apart.
Financial Impropriety
Free Republic's finances and Robinson's involvement with them have long been the subject of internet criticisms. The website is allegedly run on quarterly fundraiser drives that reportedly collect as much as $100,000 from member contributions. Many critics on sites such as Clown Posse, (http://www.clownposse.org)Liberty Post and Democratic Underground, as well as former Free Republic posters who have since fallen out with the site, have expressed suspicion with the site's fundraising and Robinson's activities. Frequent allegations of financial impropriety include the claim that Robinson uses member donations as a source of substantial personal income. One frequent allegation suggests that Robinson used money collected for Free Republics operations to purchase a large recreational vehicle for his personal use.
According to Salon.com, "Robinson has also been accused of raising funds online and not accounting for how he's used them." He was rumored at one time to be receiving a six-figure consulting fee from a now-defunct online streaming radio venture "while crying poverty" on Free Republic "and begging for donations." As Salon notes, "No one beyond Robinson really knows how much money has been taken in or spent. He refuses to release a financial statement, and declined any comment to Salon News on his finances." [5] (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/07/13/free/print.html)
Jim Robinson has responded to these allegations on the site by saying that he does, in fact, make a living via Free Republic, and its operation takes a considerable amount of time and energy. He frequently states that if members do not value Free Republic sufficiently, it would shut down if it did not provide him with needed revenues. These are not dissimilar to appeals for contributions made on many other sites, both from the right, left and center of the political spectrum. For example, see one of his many detailed messages here. [6] (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/580057/posts).
The amount of money requested in the quarterly "freepathons" has varied significantly over the years, mainly as a result of legal costs going up and down. As a result of his settlement of the legal cases mentioned above, operating costs have dropped, and the amount of money he has requested has dropped in concert.
External links
- Official website (http://www.freerepublic.com)
- Statement by the founder of Free Republic (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1103363/posts)
- Pitt, William Rivers. "God Sees The Freepers (http://www.apj.us/20010609GodFreepers.html)." Editorial. Truthout (http://www.truthout.com): 9 June 2001.
- Pitt, William Rivers. "God Still Sees The Freepers (http://www.apj.us/20010612GodStillSeesFreepers.html)." Editorial. Truthout (http://www.truthout.com): 12 June 2001.
- Niman, Michael I. "Disturbing the Peace: Creepy 'FReepers' Target Activists (http://mediastudy.com/articles/av3-13-03.html)." ArtVoice: 13 March 2003.
- Stein, Jeff. "Free-for-all at Free Republic: Lucianne Goldberg, Matt Drudge and other friends abandon the Clinton-bashing Web site over its attacks on George W. Bush (http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/1999/07/13/free/) Salon, 13 July 1999.
- Best of freerepublic.com (http://bofr.blogspot.com/)
- DUmmie FUnnies (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;s=DUmmie%20FUnnies%20) a popular satirical thread about Democratic Underground
- Comments made by Jerome Corsi on Free Republic (http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010)
- Jim Robinson Profile (http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Jim_Robinson)
- Critical article about Robinson by an ex-freeper (http://www.rebelgray.com/horsesass.htm)
- FreeRepublic Archive (http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=%22free+republic%22&sp-a=sp0a298a00&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-d=custom&sp-date-range=-1&sp-start-month=0&sp-start-day=0&sp-start-year=&sp-end-month=0&sp-end-day=0&sp-end-year=&sp-x=any&sp-c=25) at VDARE