SourceWatch
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Sourcewatch logo.png SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia) describes itself as "a collaborative project that aims to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests."
The stated SourceWatch policy for WikiWiki editors is "fairness and accuracy" rather than a neutral point of view policy.[1]. The project's sponsor, research group Center for Media and Democracy, lists Australian journalist Bob Burton as SourceWatch editor. [2] Burton is the main contact for the project and provides a degree of oversight as an analyst on public relations.
The directory is available on the web as a Wiki, which means that any visitor to the site can edit existing articles and create new ones, and is maintained by a community of interested users worldwide. SourceWatch was started on January 15, 2003 and publicly launched with 200 articles on March 10, 2003. Conservative estimates put the number of articles in SourceWatch at over 5000 as of July 2004,[3]. Content in the directory is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Since the SourceWatch style is to often extensively quote other news articles, the SourceWatch article will, in many cases, have extensive external links.
Criticism of SourceWatch
Some critics believe SourceWatch has a liberal or left-wing outlook. Many of the project's investigative and critical articles are aimed and directed at prominent conservatives, those that are right-of center and Republican Party organizations and individuals.
The website ActivistCash.com, operated by industry lobby group the Center for Consumer Freedom, describes the Center for Media & Democracy, the organisation behind SourceWatch, as "a counterculture public relations effort disguised as an independent media organization... it is essentially a two-person operation" run by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. ActivistCash adds "If someone in a shirt and tie dares make a profit (especially if food or chemicals are involved), Rampton and Stauber are bound to have a problem with it." [4]
In April 2001, the Village Voice in a review of Rampton and Stauber's book wrote: “These guys come from the far side of liberal. Saying so is not to detract from their exhaustively detailed reportage and calmly convincing tone; indeed, the book is generally light on rhetoric, and there's hardly a radical quoted. But the public stranglehold of corrupt experts is framed as a crisis of "democracy," which the authors see as not just freedom from having your mind messed with, but also a level of engagement that drives citizens to become their own experts.” [5]
See also
External links
- SourceWatch.org - 'SourceWatch, a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda'.
- PRWatch - 'Center for Media and Democracy, Publishers of PRWatch'.cs:Disinfopedia
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