Thursday, December 14, 2006

Introducing Consortiumblog

We at Consortiumnews.com are excited to announce the launch of our new blog, Consortiumblog, available at http://consortiumblog.blogspot.com/.

The creation of the blog is a component of our general overhaul of Consortiumnews.com, and is meant to provide our readers with a dynamic online community in which you can discuss our articles, post additional information, and read what others think about the issues being covered at Consortiumnews.com. The blog will not be replacing Consortiumnews.com – which will remain an outlet for original investigative reporting and independent journalism – but rather is meant to complement the journalistic articles we produce for the news site.
Beyond providing a space for discussion of our articles, we intend to use the blog for shorter posts and to alert readers to relevant and important news that we might not be able to fully cover at the news site. In addition, those who register to use the blog will also be able to post their own news items and information.

In order to register, you will first have to set up a Google account.

We only ask that users try to maintain a high degree of accuracy and basic journalistic standards, and follow our ten simple posting guidelines, listed below.

Thanks for your support, and we hope to see you at http://consortiumblog.blogspot.com/.

1. Posts should be substantive.
2. When possible, all assertions should be backed up with facts and preferably links to reputable supportive materials.
3. Posts that engage in wild speculation without any proof are strongly discouraged, and may be removed without notice.
4. Posts that contain hateful, racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobic or otherwise defamatory writing are prohibited and will be removed.
5. Posts that are deliberately disruptive and/or designed to inflame are prohibited.
6. Copying and pasting complete copyrighted articles without permission from the copyright holder is prohibited by this site's policies as well as copyright laws.
7. Limited copying within the bounds of the doctrine of "fair use" is permitted.
8. When you quote material that is not your own, please provide a link whenever possible.
9. Avoid ad hominem attacks and stick with substantive, constructive criticism only.
10. This site’s management reserves the right to remove any posts that violate these guidelines and permanently ban any registered user who commits gross violations.

6 comments:

knowbuddhau said...

Now we're talking! I still owe Mr. Parry for his work on the Iran-Contra affair. I lost count of the times I was arrested back then. Thanks for starting this blog.

I love the emphasis on "substantive" comments. I hope this is substantive enough.

brotherbruz said...

11.) stopwar and be kind.

I will try to vow silence. Post nothing to un-poise. Knowing the goverment reads all my email, plays head games, disturbs peace of mind, acts troublesome and calls people names like sophistical, shakes fist up in the airy-clouds at you, defines honest discussion as disputes, needs Help curing real evils...Oh, obviously, you want to reduce stife and war so I'll be cautious, try to not appear too stupid/silly or unmanagable with Nature's Gift of controlled anger...and most important, congratulate you for humanitarian service. I wll recomment Tony Snow read and report what you say at daily dharma talks to the wider world. I'll try to remember my 11th commanment.

11--th rule. be lovingkind as often as this seems impossible while the neocon is snooping around. Thanks, I'll try to vow quietude. I warn I break every manmade law I can. I try not to be jailed, and remain a lover of freedom. Speak winged-words, yerall. Be circumspect. These days are dangerously evil. Someone eats my email. Hungry dead ghost in human form are difficult to deal with. They stack the deck, but jokers are wild. Walk slow and keep poise and balance.

leftdog said...

Congrats on your new blogsite! Very glad to see you in the blogosphere.

Avedon said...

How come I needed to sign in with Gmail rather than just my usual blogger account?

Nat Parry said...

Actually, it's not necessary to sign in with a Gmail account, but if you don't use Gmail, you will have to set up a Google account to register for this blog.

Once you've registered, you shouldn't have to use Gmail at all in order to sign in.

CitizenPaine said...

Great that you have a blog site now!

I really enjoy your revolutionary web site and I do not make that wording lightly.

It is amazing how Orwellian our society is.

The light shining on the true historical record of what really happens and happened in this country grows dimmer and dimmer and is known by and I think even cared for by fewer and fewer.

Your website is one of the most vigorous upholders and best examples of what all journalism should be. Projecting uncovered truths into the public forum.

I can only imagine the voting record in this country if the American people truly knew the reason that the plane holding the Iranian Hostages sat for hours on the runway fully fuelled and took off only after Reagan was sworn in within minutes. (And they call Kerry a Traitor?)

Can we self govern as an informed citizenry, have a successful Democracy and effectively lead the world in our superpower position when powerful inside interests so effectively control the media and hence the minds of Americans?

What are the risks to democracy when propaganda through ommission or "The Big Silence" fails to inform, advise and allow debate on pressing issues of global importance and even those critical to our very survival because such talk does not serve the current goals of and is uncomfortable to a very few powerful self interests.

Not that this is not a problem as old as commercial journalism. It is. Not that wars of choice have not been waged before against foriegn nations while the media led the marching band. They have.

And not that the "Ministry of Truth" hasn't ignored and erased history for a long time. It has.

But if it never changes, we are doomed to forever repeat this cycle but in a different era.

We are now in such a new era in which this generation sees the risks and consequences of such action become more and more grave to the people of America and the Planet.

More than ever we need a critical, insightful perspective into the true motivations and consequences of the actions of the leaders we elect.

We need more than a sheepish passive press that merely parrots the slogans and rhetoric of politicians, calls it a job well done and heads for the watering hole where they act like real reporters.

More than ever we need to reject the Rupert Murdoch / Randolph Hearst model of media ownership as merely a personal political tool, king maker and personal fortune maker, attacking anyone who dares to poke their head out of Ruperts Fox News holes.

Not that he (Rupert) has to capitulate. It's a free country and he can do as he pleases within the law even if his selfish actions are repugnant to me (they are).

We as well have voices and websites such as yours where within the law we may exchange ideas repugnant though they may be to the likes of Rupert.

Thanks for this addition to the site.

I really have found Consortium News to be an oasis in a sea of sand dunes.

So many of the stories you write about I have known in my heart since the day they broke. I saw behind the story during the Hostage Crisis when it unfolded. It simply screamed at me SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT HERE. It was bigger than Water Gate. Yet largely it was successfully supressed by the right wing media machine that is as old as I do not know when.

And today because of that dismal failure of American Media, the history of the systematic Republican led looting of America from the S&L crisis to the current tens of billions being raked in by Halliburton KBR and Carlyle in this ill gotten war lays before us like a blood stained carpet still behind the curtain of the MSM.

Sure the Republicans will counter and point to the huge waste and abuses and failures of the Democrat's War on Poverty.

I have no argument there. Lofty goals were set and painful truths and consequences emerged that were brought to the forefront by a dominant conservative media.

We are all the better for those revalations that showed us it is better to teach a man to fish. Our fish giving days behind us, now we can move on.

But what of the failures of the Conservative's programs? Where will the lessons learned from this mess-o-potamian misadventure we are in be vetted and aired.

Or will they forever live in the shadows. Will those brave and honest enough to call the Emperors Robes for what they are be called a traitor and an un-American.

John Kerry knows the answer to that question for a very long time.

And so I wish you luck, you brave and honest reporters. Your lot is not an easy one and the way is steep up the escarpments to the Castle where the Lords and Ladies of K Street, Wall Street and Capitol Hill rule our land under their King George and Sherrif Cheney. The Foxy Fox Town Crier will come down the hill every day to make official pronouncements to the Serfs while former Crier Tony Snow Job plays Juggler with the vestigial MSM press people.

And every day, we get to hear the wonderful news from the Holy Land as our brave Christian Soldiers wage war against the Heathens.

Cheers