Misplaced Pages

Free Republic: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 20:17, 21 July 2006 editBenBurch (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,364 edits Revert to NPOV version.← Previous edit Latest revision as of 05:39, 21 December 2024 edit undo2602:fe43:0:5401:cd6e:57a2:64b1:75d6 (talk) Instigating Birther rumors about Barack Obama: these theories have been circulating ever since his literary agent claimed he was born in Kenya in 1991.Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Internet forum for conservatives}}
'''Free Republic''' is a moderated ] and activist site for ] from the ]. It bills itself as "the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web."
{{Multiple issues|
{{update|date=October 2017}}
{{Undue weight|date=March 2020}}
{{primary sources|date=August 2022}}
{{unreliable sources|date=August 2022}}
}}
{{Infobox website
|name = FreeRepublic
|logo = ]
|caption = logo displaying motto
|url = {{URL|http://www.freerepublic.com/}}
|commercial = Yes
|type = ]
|language = ]
|registration = Required to post
|owner = Jim Robinson
|author = Jim Robinson, John Robinson
|launch_date = {{Start date and age|1997|02}}
|current_status = Active
|revenue = Donations (not deductible)
}}
'''Free Republic''' is a moderated ] and chat site for self-described ], primarily within the ].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-30-pro-war-money_x.htm|title=Conservatives 'fed up' with protesters|publisher=USATODAY|access-date=2008-02-07|first1=Patrick|last1=O'Driscoll|date=March 31, 2003}}</ref> It presents articles and comments posted ]ously by registered members, known as "Freepers",<ref name="Stein">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/07/13/free/print.html|title=Free for all at Free Republic|date=1999-07-13|work=Salon.com}}</ref> using screen names. The site is supported entirely by donations, with ]s known as "Freepathons" held each quarter.


Free Republic has been involved in several organized conservative campaigns including against CBS anchor ] after Rather reported on documents about President ]'s service record which turned out to be forgeries, and against ] for their antiwar statements.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.image.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/complete_report/CBS_Report.pdf|title=Complete report|work=CBS News}}</ref> Freepers were instrumental in raising the question of a lack of authenticity in the so-called "]".
]


==Local chapters and forum policies==
Free Republic's mission statement is:
There are local chapters "unconnected with ''Free Republic''", organized through ping lists, ], and Free Republic mail.<ref></ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techlawjournal.com/courts/freerep/19991029rob.htm|title=Document: Declaration of James Robinson in LA Times v. Free Republic, 10/_/99.|work=techlawjournal.com}}</ref> Some are only "ping list" groups, members who include their names in a list to be "pinged" on news articles of a certain nature. Some cover presidential events (daily picture, prayer, and speech threads), some focus on contemporary conservative issues such as the ], the ] movement, or opposing ]. The more active chapters ] live protests, which they call "Freeps." Since the ], these are often counter-protests, responses to protests by opposition groups, or small rallies.
<blockquote>
"Broadly stated, the goals of this site are to further conservatism, expose political corruption, and recover a truly constitutional form of government.
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and pro-America."
</blockquote>


As concerns policies and purpose, the main page of Free Republic states,
==Origins and Funding==
Free Republic was founded in ] by Jim Robinson of ]. The site gained popularity during the President ] controversy when protests and write-in campaigns were organized on it.


"Opinions expressed on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Free Republic or its operators. Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience."
The site is funded by donations requested through "Freepathons." These fundraising events occur each quarter, and are intended to raise funds to support Free Republic operations and compensate Robinson and others for their time.


"Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. Free Republic advocates a return to constitutionally limited government, reserving all government powers not expressly delegated by the constitution to the United States to the States respectively, or the people, emphasizing sovereign state governments, local government, self-government and self-rule, while restricting government powers to only those enumerated in the constitution and maximizing individual rights and liberty as originally envisioned and established by our Founding Fathers and secured and defended by the blood of patriots and statesmen for over two hundred years."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Jim |title=Welcome to Free Republic! Conservatives for God, Family, Country! |url=https://freerepublic.com/home.htm |website=Free Republic |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Jim |title=Reminder: No profanity, no racism, no personal attacks, no threats, no violence, etc. |url=https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3713751/posts |website=Free Republic |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref>
Free Republic operates on an annual budget of approximately $260,000. .


== The Forums == == Site funding ==
The FreeRepublic.com website is funded through individual contributions each quarter through fundraising on the website. The website generates approximately $250,000 each year by its own admission.
=== Format ===
Free Republic's content consists largely of news stories and opinion pieces posted by its active user base, and discussion of these pieces by the users. Users generally post the full text of news stories. This has caused controversy due to the issue of copyright violation, and led to a lawsuit whose settlement is discussed later in this article.


=== Board Users === ==History==
Like most Internet chat forums, anyone can easily register as a user. Free Republic refers to its users as "members," but the site is free, with no fixed membership structure or dues. Some users of Free Republic organize themselves in ad hoc groups to plan local meets (see discussion above).


===1996–2000: Clinton Administration===
There is a member directory, but like most online communities, nearly everyone has a pseudonym. Few users divulge their true identities in their online profiles. However, many freepers meet in person on annual freeper cruises, titled "Freeps Ahoy."
Founded in September 1996 as a sole proprietorship by Founder, Chairman and President James C. "Jim" Robinson<ref>Robinson, James C. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523150304/http://www.psnw.com/~jimrob/resume.htm |date=2007-05-23 }}</ref> of ], Free Republic opened to the general public in February 1997. Robinson filed for ] status on September 11, 1998.<ref>California LP/LLC Search {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111203722/http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowLpllcAllList?QueryLpllcNumber=199825410007 |date=2008-01-11 }} Free Republic LLC</ref> It has always been a for-profit company and thus donations have never been ].<ref>Morrow, Margaret M., J. Case No. CV 98-7840-MMM (AJWx) Los Angeles Times et al. vs. Free Republic et al.</ref>


Free Republic gained popularity during the ] from 1997 till 1999, a time when it was linked on the '']'' as "] Archives," when protests and write-in campaigns were organized through the website. Many were also introduced to the site through an impeachment rally in Washington, attended by over 3000 participants, called the "March for Justice," broadcast live on ] 1998 by ]. Featured speakers included ], ], Reverend ] of B.O.N.D. and ]; ], ] and ] also attended.<ref>Political Research Associates Spring 1999, Volume XIII, No. 1</ref> Other Free Republic events over the years have also been televised by C-SPAN.<ref></ref><ref>York, Anthony April 2, 2001 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929144338/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/04/02/blue/index.html |date=2007-09-29 }} Salon.com, fetched 2006-12-30</ref>
All user accounts include an intra-site mail feature that can send, receive and store private messages to other users, without the use of external personal e-mail.


Drudge dropped the link to Free Republic by February 1999, "because they were doing racist stuff over the ... I click on and I see this headline, '] Baby.'" Drudge quickly restored the link, but later dropped it again for unknown reasons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/mugger021299.asp|title=Mugger|work=jewishworldreview.com}}</ref> As of April 2008 the Free Republic link is back on Drudge.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drudgereport.com|title=DRUDGE REPORT 2015®|work=drudgereport.com}}</ref>
Members can alert each other to articles, posts, or ongoing discussions of mutual interest via ping lists, lists of users interested in a certain subject. Members can also ping each other individually and can use an alert window to be alerted with a sound when someone replies to one of their posts.


In its early years, Free Republic generally allowed its members to post copyrighted news stories in entirety to its forum, regardless of whether permission had been granted by content owners, until the site was sued in 1998 by '']'' and '']'' for copyright infringement. The newspapers obtained a permanent ], although stipulated damages of $1 million were reduced to $10,000 during ] negotiations which allowed the defendants to drop their ].<ref></ref> The case, often cited when arguing ], is called '']''.
As of ], ], Alexa, a company that ranks the Internet's 100,000 most visited sites, and measures their traffic in users per million, estimated that Free Republic reached approximately four hundred users per million each day, and ranked at number 2,017 of all sites. Comparatively, by ]'s estimation, DemocraticUnderground ranked 4,122 and reached 150 per million, Misplaced Pages.org reached over 40,000 thousand per million each day and ranked at 16, Yahoo reached 285,000 and ranked at no. 1, and Google reached 279,000 and ranked at no. 2. Visits at Free Republic tend to spike sharply upward during election seasons and when news breaks which captures its users' interest.


From 1996 to 2000, the bulletin board was virtually unmoderated. This policy was central to the website's "]" defense in the copyright infringement litigation, wherein it stated "(t)he website operated by the defendants, www.freerepublic.com, permits anyone who wishes to post news articles or other items and to post commentary about the article as well ... no ] is made and all views are permitted.".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techlawjournal.com/courts/freerep/19991018mem.htm|title=Document: Free Republic's Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment, 10/18/99.|work=techlawjournal.com}}</ref> This supposed light moderating hand did not prevent the permanent banishment from the site of such "controversial" contributors as crime author Dan E. Moldea, novelist Todd Brendan Fahey, "What Really Happened" website host Mike Rivero, and Internet poet David Martin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dcdave.com/article5/080514.htm|title=See Martin's exchange with Moldea at the end of the article|work=dcdave.com}}</ref>
Note, however, that Alexa may not be a reliable means of determining traffic to a website.
]'s Jeff Stein observed in 1999 that: " swelling number of haters have turned up the volume of death threats, ], name-calling and ] tying ] of ] front-runner ] to ] by the ]."<ref name="Stein"/> Robinson "famously blasted George W. Bush's presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket's biggest supporters."<ref name="observer">{{cite web|url=http://www.observer.com/2007/free-republic-purge-conservative-web-site-bans-giuliani-supporters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070601180620/http://www.observer.com/2007/free-republic-purge-conservative-web-site-bans-giuliani-supporters|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-06-01|title=Free Republic Purge: Conservative Web Site Bans Giuliani Supporters|first=Rebecca|last=Sinderbrand|work=Observer}}</ref> These shifts signalled internal battles comparable to the nomination controversies of 2007 "as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support."<ref name="observer"/>


] and former ] commentator ] was a registered member of Free Republic. Snow was not afraid to 'mix it up' with the Freepers who sometimes disagreed with his political philosophy and who called him a "pansy".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/03/22/blue/index1.html|title=Judicial Watch: Bush wins (again)|work=salon.com|access-date=2007-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214043415/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/03/22/blue/index1.html|archive-date=2007-02-14|url-status=dead}}</ref>
=== Discussion Generals===
Members post articles from news sources and then discuss them with subsequent replies to the original post, and to each other. Comments posted by users of Free Republic are often critical of liberal political figures, institutions, ideology, liberals in general, and the media. Most of the comments are short insults, with some posts of longer length and substance.


Free Republic had been criticized during the pre-moderation period for the actions of several of its members. In 1999, FReepers ran a campaign to make fake donations to the legal defense fund of Julie Hiatt Steele, who had been charged with obstruction of justice during then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. Hundreds of fraudulent<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00941.htm|title=Criminal Resource Manual 941 18 U.S.C. 1343 -- Elements of Wire Fraud|work=usdoj.gov|date=19 February 2015}}</ref> transactions from this campaign cost Ms. Steele around $4000.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/01/30/frpng.DTL|title=FReep This / How the right-wing is making itself heard|first=Joyce|last=Slaton|date=January 29, 2003|work=The San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> Some threatened to ] Clinton, like this from February 2001: "If he keeps on he's going to make me come up there. There is only one solution to the Klintons, two 45 rounds and a nice little spot in Marcy Park."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/02/09/blue/index.html|title=It's going to be a fun four years|work=salon.com|access-date=2006-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225023451/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/02/09/blue/index.html|archive-date=2007-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The Free Republic community is largely united on certain political staples of the conservative movement, such as opposing liberalism, promoting conservative candidates for various elected offices, abolishing or editing some ] laws and stopping the creation of new ones, lowering taxes, reducing personal ], ending abortion, and opposing what its members consider to be part of the "]", particularly ] and the repealing of ]. On some issues, however, the Free Republic membership is divided. Three main groups can be observed on the forum: ], ], and ], with neoconservatism being represented in the large majority of posts. Libertarians arguably remain almost negligible in their numbers on Free Republic, as they are not banned by policy, but widely ridiculed by users with terms such as, "liberal-tarians". A particular example can be found during the ] court battle, when a Libertarian poster argued against ]'s interventionist actions, and was unanimously condemned by hundreds of posters for it. Similarly, opposition to U.S. support for ] is not tolerated. Divisive issues include ], ] control and immigrant cultural assimilation, ], state authority vs. individual rights, and the legalization of ].


When the bar manager of an ] restaurant called ] to notify authorities that an underage ] had attempted to purchase liquor in June 2001, the bar manager's personal information including her home address, date of birth, driver's license number and physical description was posted on FreeRepublic, along with calls for punitive action.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/06/06/blue/index.html|title=New theories on the Gore-Clinton split|work=salon.com|access-date=2006-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225002750/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/06/06/blue/index.html|archive-date=2007-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Clinton threat and some of the bar manager's personal information were removed by Robinson when brought to his attention, and the authors' posting privileges were revoked. He said that the site had had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no-violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/02/09/blue/index.html|title=A poster crosses the line on Free Republic forum|date=2001-02-09|work=Salon.com|access-date=2006-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225023451/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/02/09/blue/index.html|archive-date=2007-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/06/06/blue/index.html|title=The jihad against Chuy's|access-date=2006-12-11|date=2001-06-06|work=Salon.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225002750/http://archive.salon.com/politics/red/2001/06/06/blue/index.html|archive-date=2007-02-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>
An example of the breakdown of members might be discerned from a theoretical poll put out by the forum administrators in early 2006 which asked if its members would continue to vote for the ] if Republicans in the federal government failed to act aggressively on ]. The poll found that only 46% of its registered users would vote for Republicans in the ], 31% would vote for ], 20% would stay home and a marginal 2.5% would vote for the Democrats. ]'s image on the forums is emblematic of the forum users' staunch conservatism. McCain is widely hated by forum members. A recent internal poll illustrated that less than 45% of users would vote for McCain if he were the Republican nominee for president in 2008, with some 10-15% saying they would prefer to sit the election out and another 30% pledging to vote for third party candidates.


=== 2001–2004: Bush's first term and Killian documents ===
Free Republic, like many politically oriented sites, 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 reports or views (usually liberal) are customarily ridiculed and tagged with the words ''BARF ALERT'' after the headline. The "BARF ALERT" has two purposes: to warn readers in advance of news or opinion articles running counter to the prevailing perspective of the site's intended audience, and to protect the poster by distancing him- or herself from those views or news reports. This is often used by "moles" from left-leaning discussion boards who want to present Free Republic users with news that runs counter to their belief system without getting "Zotted".
In January 2001, the forum organized the inaugural "Free Republic Gala and Count the Silverware Ball".<ref></ref> It was attended by radio personality James Golden, who was one of the first high-profile conservatives to invest in the site and the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of B.O.N.D.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112021723/http://home.att.net/~alanj.hall/BushInaugural/PhotoPage3.html |date=2008-01-12 }}</ref>


] at an ] demonstration at ] on October 2, 2004.]]
Another common term is '']'' which refers to the banning of a user for posting unwelcome material. The moderators on Free Republic often ban, without warning or explanation, posters who criticize ], the ] or the ], or who express any opinion which diverges from the site's political purposes, from its discussion boards. Material criticizing the administration of President ] from a non-Republican 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. Generally, the amount of latitude one has to express his views expands significantly as he becomes better known on the site, establishes relationships with other users, and provides evidence of adhering to the rules and stated goals of the site and its owner. There is no warning system on Free Republic, and no explanation is required to ban a user. A poster becomes aware that he has been banned when he attempts to post or reply on Free Republic and is instead presented with the notice: "Your posting privilege has been revoked."
During the ], ], a ] and co-author of the book '']'' that attacked the ] record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, apologized in the national media for comments that he made on Free Republic under the user name "jrlc."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-08-10-book-author-sorry_x.htm|title=USATODAY.com - Anti-Kerry book author sorry for slurs|work=usatoday.com}}</ref>


One of the first responses to "]", the controversy surrounding ]' use of documents of questionable origin during the 2004 presidential campaign, came on Free Republic the night of the broadcast.<ref> Report of the Investigative Panel p 163</ref> When the "Killian memos" (which were allegedly created during the 1970s) were shown during a CBS News broadcast, a Republican lawyer going by the pseudonym of "Buckhead"<ref name="Wallsten">Wallsten, Peter. ''Los Angeles Times,'' 18 September 2004.</ref> mentioned the memos' proportional spacing and made the claim that such printing was "not widespread until the mid to late 90s".<ref>{{cite news| url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002039080_buckhead18.html | work=The Seattle Times | title=The Seattle Times: Nation & World: "Buckhead," who said CBS memos were forged, is a GOP-linked attorney}}</ref> Buckhead's post and some responses spread across the blogosphere rapidly, and were picked up by the Drudge Report the following afternoon.<ref name="Drudge"> Drudge Report Archives. (Retrieved February 5, 2007.)</ref> Within minutes of Buckhead's post, there was some dispute as to whether the Executive line of IBM typewriters had proportionally spaced fonts at the time, arising from a comment on the ] blog. The dispute made headlines when an investigative panel set up to examine ] with the documents "was not able to reach a definitive conclusion".<ref name="Dobbs">Dobbs, Michael, and Allen, Mike. ''The Washington Post,'' September 10, 2004.</ref> Canadian journalist Ivor Tossell later opined that Free Republic was "central to the network of websites that uncovered the forged memos about Bush's Vietnam service that appeared on CBS News and ultimately cost Dan Rather his job."<ref name="Tossell">Tossell, Ivor. "" ''The Globe And Mail,'' 20 October 2006.</ref>
In addition to political discussions, Free Republic has an active Religion forum, which tends to be dominated by discussions of the Roman Catholic Church and the crisis of Anglicanism, with reposts of classic Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant books and sermons.
{{details|Killian documents authenticity issues}}


===Copyright and Fair Use=== ====MD4Bush Incident====
In October 2004, the "MD4Bush" account was created to investigate the source of false rumors that Democratic ] ] had committed ].<ref name="snyder">Snyder, David and Mosk, Matthew. ''Washington Post,'' 11 February 2005.</ref> These rumors were suspected to be coming from the camp of ] ].<ref name="snyder"/> O'Malley was a likely (and eventual) opponent of Ehrlich in the ].<ref name="snyder"/> Using this alias, MD4Bush allegedly lured Joseph Steffen, aide to Ehrlich, who had a Free Republic membership as "NCPAC," into contact.<ref name="snyder"/> MD4Bush then allegedly brought up the O'Malley rumors, and baited Steffen into giving responses on the Free Republic "private message" system, appearing to take credit for spreading the rumors.<ref name="snyder"/>
Because it has been a practice of Free Republic to allow its users to copy and paste copyrighted news stories in their entirety to its discussion boards, Free Republic was sued by '']'' and the '']''. (] and '']'' were part of the original consortium threatening legal action, but they dropped out before the lawsuit was filed.) The tort complaint of $1,000,000 was filed in the 9th District Circuit Court. 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."


Ehrlich fired Steffen when the contents of these messages were published in '']'' on February 9, 2005.<ref name="rivera">Rivera, Ray. ''Washington Post,'' 3 November 2005.</ref> "Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com, said Ryan O'Doherty's Democratic Party address was one of at least three used to operate the identity of MD4BUSH."<ref> ''Baltimore Sun,'' Dec. 16, 2005</ref> Taylor charged that ''Post'' reporter Matthew Mosk's access to the MD4Bush account was a violation of the Free Republic users agreement, and they were "looking into whether the ''Washington Post'' violated the ] when ''Post'' reporter Matthew Mosk accessed the Free Republic account of MD4Bush."<ref></ref>
In a negotiated settlement, Free Republic agreed to remove the posted articles from the sites listed in the complaint, and paid these two newspapers $5,000 each. Neither party was awarded any damages, legal fees or costs. Today, other publishers, such as ], 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 ]), and the site filters submissions against a watchlist of "banned" sources, by request of their ] or as a result of the lawsuit, as a precaution against future lawsuits.
The e-mail address used in October 2004 to open the MD4Bush account was later changed to rodoherty@mddems.org, then changed for a third time. Anyone who had the password to the MD4Bush account could change the e-mail registration address at any time. It is not known how many people may have had access to that password. The e-mail address information obtained does not shed light on the actual users of the MD4Bush account, nor does it reveal whether someone attached the Ryan O'Doherty e-mail address to the account without his knowledge.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wbaltv.com/11investigates/5538206/detail.html|title=I-Team Uncovers MD4Bush E-Mail Addresses|date=26 March 2015|work=WBAL-TV}}</ref>


=== Terminology === === 2005–2009: Bush's second term ===
In January 2005, Free Republic organized an unofficial Inaugural Ball at the Washington Plaza Hotel to celebrate the reelection of President Bush and ] ] and to honor the men and women serving in the ]. The event was promoted to feature then ] Republican Governor ] and his ] band ].<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324052314/http://www.presidential-inauguration.com/freerball.htm |date=2007-03-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10286-2005Jan14.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Inauguration: Free Republic|first=Kristinn|last=Taylor|date=January 19, 2005|access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref>
The Free Republic ] has developed several specific expressions:
* '''Freeper''' is an active member of the Free Republic site.
* '''Freep''' is an event organized by a local Free Republic chapter. Freeps are often presented as responses to protests by various politically ] groups. 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. See ].
* '''Freeping''' is most often the participation in a Freep. For example, if a Freep was organized because of an appearance by Bill Clinton, a group of Freepers would say they were going to Freep Bill Clinton and would then congregate and Freep. Afterwards, one would say Bill Clinton had been Freeped. In some cases, freeping is the act of directing the members to influence an online poll. See ]. However, these could just be considered online freeps.
* '''Freepathon''' is a quarterly fundraising event, aimed to collect donations for running the site.
* '''Freeploader''' is a pejorative term to address those who may not have donated to the site. The term is not part of the official lexicon of the site, but its use is not discouraged by management. Many posters at Free Republic who do donate do not make their donations known as they prefer to donate privately. It has become a source of irritation to some freepers that this practice has begun, as some freepers do not have the financial means to donate, or as mentioned, wish to do so anonymously.
* '''BTTT''' or '''Bump''' means "bump to the top" of the queue of articles to be read.
* ''']''' is an expression for an individual who has been banned.


=== Influencing Polls === ====Dixie Chicks boycott====
{{Rquote|right|It's scary how much power they do have. They can take down someone single-handedly and I don't think Americans are aware of that." — ] of the ], speaking about Free Republic.<ref name="Haysen">Haysen, Kirsten. ''Adelaide Now,'' October 7, 2006. Retrieved February 4, 2007.</ref>}}
Some forum posts are aimed at influencing polls on other websites. Media websites (including newspapers, television networks, and America Online) run occasional "polls" that do not use the sampling methods of formal opinion polls, but instead invite everyone to respond. Known as "freeping" a poll, it involves posting a message thread directing members to vote en masse in an online poll and including a link to the poll with the intended goal of significantly affecting the final outcome. The practice of alerting members of online voting opportunities is not unique to Free Republic and is employed by many other activist websites of all political stripes, however, Free Republic is believed to be the first online message board to try to influence online polls in this manner. The Free Republic’s members have been known to have been involved in vandalism against websites they perceive to be liberal, with administrators often calling for a coordinated vandalism against information websites they perceived to have a liberal bias, primarily related to major racial and political topics. Several administrators have actively endorsed plan’s for these attacks and have gone as far as providing tips on how to evade detection.
The band ] and lead singer ] claim that Free Republic was instrumental in fueling a nationwide ] of their music, which was organized by some former fans and radio stations after Maines made anti-Bush comments in 2003. In their 2006 documentary '']'' as well as in interviews, the Dixie Chicks have often mentioned Free Republic in reference to the boycott, which sharply reduced sales of their ]s and concert tickets.


] grounds on Thursday, April 7, 2005.]]
=== Political Influence ===


Maines was quoted as saying: "It's scary how much power they do have. They can take down someone single-handedly and I don't think Americans are aware of that."<ref name="Haysen"/> "And I think it was originally started by the Free Republic. And they were very organized in calling radio stations across the country and telling them that they would never listen to their station, when they didn't even live in that town." Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic's dominant Washington, D.C., chapter attended the screening of the documentary, hosted by the liberal advocacy group ]. He was invited to join in a discussion after the screening and complimented the director on the film.<ref></ref><ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212083713/http://www.citypaper.com/film/story.asp?id=12989 |date=2007-02-12 }}</ref>
Free Republic posters contributed to breaking "]," the controversy surrounding ]' use of questionable documents during the ]. Nineteen minutes after its broadcast began, poster "TankerKC" questioned the documents on-line, stating they were "not in the style that we used when I came into the ]." Another poster, "Buckhead" (later identified as Atlanta attorney Harry W. MacDougald), made an on-line observation that the documents were in a proportionally spaced font, and stated, "these documents are forgeries," less than four hours after CBS broadcast their story . He ended his "Post 47" on that thread with the words, "This should be pursued aggressively." The following morning, Scott Johnson, a co-author of the Internet blog ] , received an e-mail which "...quoted from and linked to post." He published the quote and a link to the Free Republic thread, saying, "'Hey, anybody else out there among our readers have any information about this?'" The discussion quickly spread across the Internet via blogs, and the Drudge Report and the Associated Press later picked it up. The questioning of the document's legitimacy -- they were found to be 100% identical to how the same documents would look in Microsoft Word, which wouldn't be invented until almost twenty years later -- caused CBS to investigate internally and eventually retract the story.


{{details|Dixie Chicks controversy}}
Also during that campaign, ], co-author of the controversial book '']'' that attacked the ] record of Democratic presidential candidate Senator ], apologized in the national media for homophobic and anti-Islam comments, as well as slurs made against liberal political figures, that he made on Free Republic under the user name "jrlc." The posts were discovered and made public by ], a liberal website . Concerning the remarks, Corsi said, "I don't stand by any of those comments and I apologize if they offended anybody," and, "...the politically incorrect humor I posted on this site is evidently not funny to everyone. Detractors should have interviewed my dog. No matter how I frame a comment, "Chico" has yet to laugh." Subsequently, ], 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.


====Allegations of unfair treatment of Giuliani supporters and others who digress from popular opinions====
==Social Organization and Events==
In 2007, moderators removed the posting privileges of many members who supported the presidential campaign of then current Republican front-runner ]. The '']'' reported:
] at an ] demonstration at ] on ], ].]]
<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Starting in April 2007 ... members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign...<ref name="observer" /></blockquote>
There are local chapters within Free Republic which are organized through ping lists, e-mail, and Free Republic mail.


Robinson himself endorsed ] and was an enthusiastic backer of his campaign.<ref>Hackbarth, Sean. ''Jim Robinson, founder of Free Republic has 'endorsed' Fred Thompson.'' Fred Thompson campaign press release. 3 January 2008.</ref> Robinson has frequently banned fellow conservatives and others who don't completely share his political mindset. Among those claiming to have been permanently banned are several participants in the debate over the violent death of Bill Clinton's Deputy White House Counsel, ]. They include Hugh Turley of FBICover-up.com, David Martin of DCDave.com, and Dan E. Moldea of Moldea.com.<ref>, David Martin, June 10, 2008. See May 31, 2008, email from Martin to Moldea near the bottom of the page.</ref> During and after the ], according to political commentator ], "veryone I knew basically left because of so much childish, immature personal attacks. The propensity there to eat their own. And a lot of the people—most of the people—I knew that were on it left."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/sean_hannity_vs_free_republic/|title=Sean Hannity vs. Free Republic|work=outsidethebeltway.com|date=17 February 2005}}</ref>
The more active chapters ] live protests, which they call "Freeps." Often these are counter protests, as responses to protests by groups who they oppose. "Freepers," as Free Republic's active users are called, will assemble at a predetermined location with signs and banners which are generally designed and hand-drawn by individual members.


====Instigating Birther rumors about Barack Obama====
==Inspiration==
On March 1, 2008, a Free Republic poster made the earliest recorded report on the internet of a rumor that then-candidate ] was secretly born outside the United States, and was falsely claiming to have been born in Hawaii. The poster may have been inspired by a legal hypothetical expressing a similar fact pattern posted at the law blog ] the previous day. The Free Republic poster's claim was then promulgated across other blogs in the months that followed, eventually developing into the ] movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-and-birther-movement-still-no-ther/|title=Hillary Clinton and the birther movement: Still nothing there|work=PolitiFact.com|date=September 20, 2016}}</ref>
Free Republic has spawned a number of other, similar sites in other countries - predominantly English-speaking western countries. The most successful of these has been ], in Canada.


===2009: Obama administration===
== Criticism ==
], the white supremacist who ] at the ] in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2009, posted an article on another site questioning the citizenship of President ] (a view held by so-called "]"); the article was then pasted into a thread on Free Republic. The thread was deleted by moderators after the shooting, but later restored when a review found that it had not violated posting guidelines.<ref>{{Cite news|issn=0740-5421|last=Hesse|first=Monica|title=Notoriety Trumps Preservation as Some Web Sites Scrub Hateful Posts|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2009-06-14|date=2009-06-12|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104031.html}}</ref>
=== Allegations Of Extremism and Bigotry ===
Many posts on Free Republic are devoted to the ridicule of persons or groups perceived as anathema to conservatives. The site's officially stated policy is to remove blatantly racist or bigoted postings, yet epithets such as "]" or "]" are fairly common, and are not grounds for a post to be removed.


In July 2009, after Obama's eleven-year-old daughter ] was photographed wearing a T-shirt with the ], a Free Republic thread featured racially charged comments about Obama's wife and children, using such terms as "] street trash". After the thread was criticized, it was eventually suppressed and placed under review. It was then restored to the site intact. Only after persistent criticism did site administrators remove it a second time.<ref name="sun">{{Cite news|last=Parry|first=Chris |title=Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children|newspaper=]|date=July 12, 2009|url=https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104080736/http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html|archive-date=January 4, 2010}}</ref> In an email response to the incident, Jim Robinson called Obama an "] ] pig."<ref name="sun" />
Free Republic is often accused of being extremist and far-right (even popular conservative talk show host ] has described the site as "fringe" ), and has been criticized for harboring "]" regarding certain groups of people, such as liberals, homosexuals, Muslims, Communist Chinese and illegal immigrants. An example the site's alleged extremism and bigotry can be found in 2005, when a forum poster circulated a petition asking the ] government not to execute two ] teenagers, but was rebuked by forum users for his position (some of the users supported the execution, for various reasons, including allegations that the teenagers were being ], as opposed to simply being homosexual). Some members have also expressed support for ] ] , while others support the Serbian version of history in the 1999 Kosovo War.


In April 2012, after ]'s suspension of his presidential campaign left ] the presumptive Republican nominee, Robinson posted: "FR will never support the abortionist, homosexualist, socialist, mandate loving, constitution trampling liar Mitt Romney,"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2871012/posts|title=Notice: Free Republic has been in full rebellion mode since 2008 and will remain so for the duration|website=www.freerepublic.com|access-date=2017-10-20}}</ref> and indeed, initially, Robinson, the Free Republic site, and many 'Freepers' did not embrace the candidacy of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Robinson posted to the site, "I'd rather shut the place down than be involved in any effort to install abortionist/gay rights pushing ]S like Romney or ] into the White House!! Do NOT push this crap on FR. Take your business elsewhere!!"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2725798/posts|title=NOTICE: FR DOES NOT AND WILL NOT SUPPORT ABORTIONIST, GAY RIGHTS PUSHING BIG GOVERNMENT STATISTS|website=www.freerepublic.com|access-date=2017-10-20}}</ref>
Many Free Republic users attribute these accusations to ] and deny that they have any basis in fact.


==Influencing online polls==
===Cyber Stalking===
Media web sites, including newspapers, television networks, and ], run occasional "polls" that do not use the ] methods of formal ]s, but instead invite all Internet users to respond. Some Free Republic forum messages, usually captioned "Freep this poll!", urge Free Republic members to vote ''en masse'' in these polls, to deliberately skew results and render the polls useless. Members are also urged to "'Freep' C-Span's 'Washington Journal' with telephone calls pointing out media bias."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fairpress.org/handbook.htm|title=fairpress.org}}</ref>


"Whenever a poll is posted on Free Republic.com, everybody goes and votes the right way, and there's nothing wrong with that," says Marinelle Thompson, Freeper and founder of ] group Second Amendment Sisters. "We just do it for a laugh. It doesn't really mean anything." The polls can also be manipulated, said Vlae Kershner, SF Gate News Director (and poll writer): "People are finding a way of getting around our system that only allows one vote, and they're voting hundreds of times. It's not thousands of people voting one way; it's one or two people voting hundreds of times."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/01/30/frpng.DTL|title=FReep This / How the right-wing is making itself heard|work=SFGate|date=30 January 2003}}</ref>
Members of Free Republic have been accused of ].


==Survivalist attraction==
One case involved the owner of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage ] attempted to illegally purchase liquor at the establishment. The owner's name, residential address, date of birth, drivers license and registration information, physical description, and information about her infant child was posted on the Free Republic forums by users. Forum users then advocated violence toward the restaurant's patrons, as well as destroying it physically. .
As evidenced by past threads with over 10,000 posts each, Free Republic posters have had a particular interest in "prepping," from growing gardens to surviving varying periods of lack of access to supplies to living "off the grid."<ref>{{cite web |last1=nw_arizona_granny |title=Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs |url=https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts |website=Free Republic |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=nw_arizona_granny |title=Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist? |url=https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2181392/posts |website=Free Republic |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=nw_arizona_granny |title=Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition |url=https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2299939/posts |website=Free Republic |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref>


==References==
Another example is when the members of Free Republic, along with other conservative web sites participated in the cyberstalking and physical stalking of ] while he was dying of cancer. Freepers claimed that Andy Stephenson did not have cancer, and interfered in the fundraising for his operation and later with the ] benefits for his aftercare and terminal hospital care. Their claims were fanned by several instances of the hospital refusing to answer questions due to ], Stephenson's friends and family refusing to release information due to privacy concerns, and the DU management deleting all threads relating to Stephenson. See: ; see ].
{{Reflist|2}}

*
*
*
*

==See also==
*] - Roughly the liberal equivalent of Free Republic.
*]


==External links== ==External links==
* *
*
* A blog with quotations from the site
* Pitt, William Rivers. "." Editorial. : ] ].
* Pitt, William Rivers. "." Editorial. : ] ].
* Niman, Michael I. ." ArtVoice: ] ].
* Stein, Jeff. Salon, ] ].
* a popular site for critics of Free Republic
*
* at ]
*
* Original FR thread with Buckhead's "Post 47" regarding Rathergate
* credits Buckhead for its story
* lays out timeline of Buckhead and Rathergate
* on source verification, Dan Rather, and CBS
* by Jim Robinson
* - forum catering to participants banned from Free Republic, especially over the immigration issue
* - forum initially for those banned over the issue of publicly defending Roman Catholicism
* - this blog is the subject of the most popular "ping list" on Free Republic


] ]
] ]
]

Latest revision as of 05:39, 21 December 2024

Internet forum for conservatives
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2017)
This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. Please help improve it by rewriting it in a balanced fashion that contextualizes different points of view. (March 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "Free Republic" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed. (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
FreeRepublic
Free Republic logo
Type of siteForum
Available inEnglish
OwnerJim Robinson
Created byJim Robinson, John Robinson
RevenueDonations (not deductible)
URLwww.freerepublic.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired to post
LaunchedFebruary 1997; 27 years ago (1997-02)
Current statusActive

Free Republic is a moderated Internet forum and chat site for self-described conservatives, primarily within the United States. It presents articles and comments posted pseudonymously by registered members, known as "Freepers", using screen names. The site is supported entirely by donations, with pledge drives known as "Freepathons" held each quarter.

Free Republic has been involved in several organized conservative campaigns including against CBS anchor Dan Rather after Rather reported on documents about President George W. Bush's service record which turned out to be forgeries, and against the Dixie Chicks for their antiwar statements. Freepers were instrumental in raising the question of a lack of authenticity in the so-called "Killian memos".

Local chapters and forum policies

There are local chapters "unconnected with Free Republic", organized through ping lists, e-mail, and Free Republic mail. Some are only "ping list" groups, members who include their names in a list to be "pinged" on news articles of a certain nature. Some cover presidential events (daily picture, prayer, and speech threads), some focus on contemporary conservative issues such as the Second Amendment, the anti-abortion movement, or opposing gay marriage. The more active chapters organize live protests, which they call "Freeps." Since the 2000 election, these are often counter-protests, responses to protests by opposition groups, or small rallies.

As concerns policies and purpose, the main page of Free Republic states,

"Opinions expressed on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Free Republic or its operators. Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience."

"Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. Free Republic advocates a return to constitutionally limited government, reserving all government powers not expressly delegated by the constitution to the United States to the States respectively, or the people, emphasizing sovereign state governments, local government, self-government and self-rule, while restricting government powers to only those enumerated in the constitution and maximizing individual rights and liberty as originally envisioned and established by our Founding Fathers and secured and defended by the blood of patriots and statesmen for over two hundred years."

Site funding

The FreeRepublic.com website is funded through individual contributions each quarter through fundraising on the website. The website generates approximately $250,000 each year by its own admission.

History

1996–2000: Clinton Administration

Founded in September 1996 as a sole proprietorship by Founder, Chairman and President James C. "Jim" Robinson of Fresno, California, Free Republic opened to the general public in February 1997. Robinson filed for LLC status on September 11, 1998. It has always been a for-profit company and thus donations have never been tax exempt.

Free Republic gained popularity during the Clinton impeachment from 1997 till 1999, a time when it was linked on the Drudge Report as "Whitewater Archives," when protests and write-in campaigns were organized through the website. Many were also introduced to the site through an impeachment rally in Washington, attended by over 3000 participants, called the "March for Justice," broadcast live on Halloween 1998 by C-SPAN. Featured speakers included Alan Keyes, Bob Barr, Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of B.O.N.D. and Larry Klayman; Ann Coulter, Lucianne Goldberg and Matt Drudge also attended. Other Free Republic events over the years have also been televised by C-SPAN.

Drudge dropped the link to Free Republic by February 1999, "because they were doing racist stuff over the ... I click on and I see this headline, 'Nigger Baby.'" Drudge quickly restored the link, but later dropped it again for unknown reasons. As of April 2008 the Free Republic link is back on Drudge.

In its early years, Free Republic generally allowed its members to post copyrighted news stories in entirety to its forum, regardless of whether permission had been granted by content owners, until the site was sued in 1998 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times for copyright infringement. The newspapers obtained a permanent injunction, although stipulated damages of $1 million were reduced to $10,000 during settlement negotiations which allowed the defendants to drop their appeal. The case, often cited when arguing cyberlaw, is called L.A. Times v. Free Republic.

From 1996 to 2000, the bulletin board was virtually unmoderated. This policy was central to the website's "fair use" defense in the copyright infringement litigation, wherein it stated "(t)he website operated by the defendants, www.freerepublic.com, permits anyone who wishes to post news articles or other items and to post commentary about the article as well ... no censorship is made and all views are permitted.". This supposed light moderating hand did not prevent the permanent banishment from the site of such "controversial" contributors as crime author Dan E. Moldea, novelist Todd Brendan Fahey, "What Really Happened" website host Mike Rivero, and Internet poet David Martin. Salon.com's Jeff Stein observed in 1999 that: " swelling number of haters have turned up the volume of death threats, gay-bashing, name-calling and conspiracy theories tying the father of Republican front-runner George W. Bush to drug-dealing by the CIA." Robinson "famously blasted George W. Bush's presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket's biggest supporters." These shifts signalled internal battles comparable to the nomination controversies of 2007 "as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support."

White House Press Secretary and former Fox News commentator Tony Snow was a registered member of Free Republic. Snow was not afraid to 'mix it up' with the Freepers who sometimes disagreed with his political philosophy and who called him a "pansy".

Free Republic had been criticized during the pre-moderation period for the actions of several of its members. In 1999, FReepers ran a campaign to make fake donations to the legal defense fund of Julie Hiatt Steele, who had been charged with obstruction of justice during then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. Hundreds of fraudulent transactions from this campaign cost Ms. Steele around $4000. Some threatened to assassinate Clinton, like this from February 2001: "If he keeps on he's going to make me come up there. There is only one solution to the Klintons, two 45 rounds and a nice little spot in Marcy Park."

When the bar manager of an Austin, Texas restaurant called 9-1-1 to notify authorities that an underage Jenna Bush had attempted to purchase liquor in June 2001, the bar manager's personal information including her home address, date of birth, driver's license number and physical description was posted on FreeRepublic, along with calls for punitive action. The Clinton threat and some of the bar manager's personal information were removed by Robinson when brought to his attention, and the authors' posting privileges were revoked. He said that the site had had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no-violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

2001–2004: Bush's first term and Killian documents

In January 2001, the forum organized the inaugural "Free Republic Gala and Count the Silverware Ball". It was attended by radio personality James Golden, who was one of the first high-profile conservatives to invest in the site and the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson of B.O.N.D.

Members of the independent D.C. Chapter counter-protest at an anti-war demonstration at Arlington National Cemetery on October 2, 2004.

During the 2004 election, Jerome Corsi, a Swift Boat Vet and co-author of the book Unfit for Command that attacked the Vietnam War record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, apologized in the national media for comments that he made on Free Republic under the user name "jrlc."

One of the first responses to "Memogate", the controversy surrounding CBS News' use of documents of questionable origin during the 2004 presidential campaign, came on Free Republic the night of the broadcast. When the "Killian memos" (which were allegedly created during the 1970s) were shown during a CBS News broadcast, a Republican lawyer going by the pseudonym of "Buckhead" mentioned the memos' proportional spacing and made the claim that such printing was "not widespread until the mid to late 90s". Buckhead's post and some responses spread across the blogosphere rapidly, and were picked up by the Drudge Report the following afternoon. Within minutes of Buckhead's post, there was some dispute as to whether the Executive line of IBM typewriters had proportionally spaced fonts at the time, arising from a comment on the Power Line blog. The dispute made headlines when an investigative panel set up to examine authenticity issues with the documents "was not able to reach a definitive conclusion". Canadian journalist Ivor Tossell later opined that Free Republic was "central to the network of websites that uncovered the forged memos about Bush's Vietnam service that appeared on CBS News and ultimately cost Dan Rather his job."

Further information: Killian documents authenticity issues

MD4Bush Incident

In October 2004, the "MD4Bush" account was created to investigate the source of false rumors that Democratic Mayor of Baltimore Martin O'Malley had committed adultery. These rumors were suspected to be coming from the camp of Governor of Maryland Robert Ehrlich. O'Malley was a likely (and eventual) opponent of Ehrlich in the 2006 gubernatorial race. Using this alias, MD4Bush allegedly lured Joseph Steffen, aide to Ehrlich, who had a Free Republic membership as "NCPAC," into contact. MD4Bush then allegedly brought up the O'Malley rumors, and baited Steffen into giving responses on the Free Republic "private message" system, appearing to take credit for spreading the rumors.

Ehrlich fired Steffen when the contents of these messages were published in The Washington Post on February 9, 2005. "Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com, said Ryan O'Doherty's Democratic Party address was one of at least three used to operate the identity of MD4BUSH." Taylor charged that Post reporter Matthew Mosk's access to the MD4Bush account was a violation of the Free Republic users agreement, and they were "looking into whether the Washington Post violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when Post reporter Matthew Mosk accessed the Free Republic account of MD4Bush." The e-mail address used in October 2004 to open the MD4Bush account was later changed to rodoherty@mddems.org, then changed for a third time. Anyone who had the password to the MD4Bush account could change the e-mail registration address at any time. It is not known how many people may have had access to that password. The e-mail address information obtained does not shed light on the actual users of the MD4Bush account, nor does it reveal whether someone attached the Ryan O'Doherty e-mail address to the account without his knowledge.

2005–2009: Bush's second term

In January 2005, Free Republic organized an unofficial Inaugural Ball at the Washington Plaza Hotel to celebrate the reelection of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and to honor the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces. The event was promoted to feature then Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee and his rock band Capitol Offense.

Dixie Chicks boycott

It's scary how much power they do have. They can take down someone single-handedly and I don't think Americans are aware of that." — Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, speaking about Free Republic.

The band Dixie Chicks and lead singer Natalie Maines claim that Free Republic was instrumental in fueling a nationwide boycott of their music, which was organized by some former fans and radio stations after Maines made anti-Bush comments in 2003. In their 2006 documentary Shut Up and Sing as well as in interviews, the Dixie Chicks have often mentioned Free Republic in reference to the boycott, which sharply reduced sales of their CDs and concert tickets.

Jim Robinson, waving a U.S. flag at right, musters about two dozen other Freepers for the March for Justice II rally at the Upper Senate Park on the United States Capitol grounds on Thursday, April 7, 2005.

Maines was quoted as saying: "It's scary how much power they do have. They can take down someone single-handedly and I don't think Americans are aware of that." "And I think it was originally started by the Free Republic. And they were very organized in calling radio stations across the country and telling them that they would never listen to their station, when they didn't even live in that town." Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic's dominant Washington, D.C., chapter attended the screening of the documentary, hosted by the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress. He was invited to join in a discussion after the screening and complimented the director on the film.

Further information: Dixie Chicks controversy

Allegations of unfair treatment of Giuliani supporters and others who digress from popular opinions

In 2007, moderators removed the posting privileges of many members who supported the presidential campaign of then current Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani. The New York Observer reported:

     Starting in April 2007 ... members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign...

Robinson himself endorsed Fred Thompson and was an enthusiastic backer of his campaign. Robinson has frequently banned fellow conservatives and others who don't completely share his political mindset. Among those claiming to have been permanently banned are several participants in the debate over the violent death of Bill Clinton's Deputy White House Counsel, Vince Foster. They include Hugh Turley of FBICover-up.com, David Martin of DCDave.com, and Dan E. Moldea of Moldea.com. During and after the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, according to political commentator Sean Hannity, "veryone I knew basically left because of so much childish, immature personal attacks. The propensity there to eat their own. And a lot of the people—most of the people—I knew that were on it left."

Instigating Birther rumors about Barack Obama

On March 1, 2008, a Free Republic poster made the earliest recorded report on the internet of a rumor that then-candidate Barack Obama was secretly born outside the United States, and was falsely claiming to have been born in Hawaii. The poster may have been inspired by a legal hypothetical expressing a similar fact pattern posted at the law blog The Volokh Conspiracy the previous day. The Free Republic poster's claim was then promulgated across other blogs in the months that followed, eventually developing into the birther movement.

2009: Obama administration

James von Brunn, the white supremacist who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2009, posted an article on another site questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama (a view held by so-called "birthers"); the article was then pasted into a thread on Free Republic. The thread was deleted by moderators after the shooting, but later restored when a review found that it had not violated posting guidelines.

In July 2009, after Obama's eleven-year-old daughter Malia was photographed wearing a T-shirt with the peace symbol, a Free Republic thread featured racially charged comments about Obama's wife and children, using such terms as "ghetto street trash". After the thread was criticized, it was eventually suppressed and placed under review. It was then restored to the site intact. Only after persistent criticism did site administrators remove it a second time. In an email response to the incident, Jim Robinson called Obama an "American-hating Marxist pig."

In April 2012, after Rick Santorum's suspension of his presidential campaign left Mitt Romney the presumptive Republican nominee, Robinson posted: "FR will never support the abortionist, homosexualist, socialist, mandate loving, constitution trampling liar Mitt Romney," and indeed, initially, Robinson, the Free Republic site, and many 'Freepers' did not embrace the candidacy of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Robinson posted to the site, "I'd rather shut the place down than be involved in any effort to install abortionist/gay rights pushing RINOS like Romney or Giuliani into the White House!! Do NOT push this crap on FR. Take your business elsewhere!!"

Influencing online polls

Media web sites, including newspapers, television networks, and America Online, run occasional "polls" that do not use the sampling methods of formal opinion polls, but instead invite all Internet users to respond. Some Free Republic forum messages, usually captioned "Freep this poll!", urge Free Republic members to vote en masse in these polls, to deliberately skew results and render the polls useless. Members are also urged to "'Freep' C-Span's 'Washington Journal' with telephone calls pointing out media bias."

"Whenever a poll is posted on Free Republic.com, everybody goes and votes the right way, and there's nothing wrong with that," says Marinelle Thompson, Freeper and founder of gun rights group Second Amendment Sisters. "We just do it for a laugh. It doesn't really mean anything." The polls can also be manipulated, said Vlae Kershner, SF Gate News Director (and poll writer): "People are finding a way of getting around our system that only allows one vote, and they're voting hundreds of times. It's not thousands of people voting one way; it's one or two people voting hundreds of times."

Survivalist attraction

As evidenced by past threads with over 10,000 posts each, Free Republic posters have had a particular interest in "prepping," from growing gardens to surviving varying periods of lack of access to supplies to living "off the grid."

References

  1. O'Driscoll, Patrick (March 31, 2003). "Conservatives 'fed up' with protesters". USATODAY. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  2. ^ "Free for all at Free Republic". Salon.com. 1999-07-13.
  3. "Complete report" (PDF). CBS News.
  4. "Free Republic's Reply Memorandum." Los Angeles Times v. Free Republic. U.S. District Court, C.D.Cal., Case No. 98-7840. November 1, 1999.
  5. "Document: Declaration of James Robinson in LA Times v. Free Republic, 10/_/99". techlawjournal.com.
  6. Robinson, Jim. "Welcome to Free Republic! Conservatives for God, Family, Country!". Free Republic. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  7. Robinson, Jim. "Reminder: No profanity, no racism, no personal attacks, no threats, no violence, etc". Free Republic. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  8. Robinson, James C. Biographical Resume Archived 2007-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
  9. California LP/LLC Search Number 199825410007 Archived 2008-01-11 at the Wayback Machine Free Republic LLC
  10. Morrow, Margaret M., J. Tentative Order Case No. CV 98-7840-MMM (AJWx) Los Angeles Times et al. vs. Free Republic et al.
  11. Political Research Associates The Public Eye Spring 1999, Volume XIII, No. 1
  12. fetched 2006-12-30
  13. York, Anthony April 2, 2001 Katherine Harris, woman of the year? Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine Salon.com, fetched 2006-12-30
  14. "Mugger". jewishworldreview.com.
  15. "DRUDGE REPORT 2015®". drudgereport.com.
  16. Techlawjournal.com
  17. "Document: Free Republic's Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment, 10/18/99". techlawjournal.com.
  18. "See Martin's exchange with Moldea at the end of the article". dcdave.com.
  19. ^ Sinderbrand, Rebecca. "Free Republic Purge: Conservative Web Site Bans Giuliani Supporters". Observer. Archived from the original on 2007-06-01.
  20. "Judicial Watch: Bush wins (again)". salon.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-14. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  21. "Criminal Resource Manual 941 18 U.S.C. 1343 -- Elements of Wire Fraud". usdoj.gov. 19 February 2015.
  22. Slaton, Joyce (January 29, 2003). "FReep This / How the right-wing is making itself heard". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  23. "It's going to be a fun four years". salon.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
  24. "New theories on the Gore-Clinton split". salon.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
  25. "A poster crosses the line on Free Republic forum". Salon.com. 2001-02-09. Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
  26. "The jihad against Chuy's". Salon.com. 2001-06-06. Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
  27. Class of 67 Class Notes 03/21/2001
  28. The FreeRepublic Inaugural Ball & Count The White House Silverware Party Archived 2008-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
  29. "USATODAY.com - Anti-Kerry book author sorry for slurs". usatoday.com.
  30. CBS News Report of the Investigative Panel p 163
  31. Wallsten, Peter. "Blogger alleging CBS memos as frauds is GOP lawyer." Los Angeles Times, 18 September 2004.
  32. "The Seattle Times: Nation & World: "Buckhead," who said CBS memos were forged, is a GOP-linked attorney". The Seattle Times.
  33. " '60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake." Drudge Report Archives. (Retrieved February 5, 2007.)
  34. Dobbs, Michael, and Allen, Mike. "Some Question Authenticity of Papers on Bush." The Washington Post, September 10, 2004.
  35. Tossell, Ivor. "Free Republic: glass ant farm for zealots" The Globe And Mail, 20 October 2006.
  36. ^ Snyder, David and Mosk, Matthew. "Uproar Brings Focus on Role Of Bloggers." Washington Post, 11 February 2005.
  37. Rivera, Ray. "Ehrlich Firing Probe Advances." Washington Post, 3 November 2005.
  38. "Democrat's e-mail address tied to postings." Baltimore Sun, Dec. 16, 2005
  39. Sprueill, Stephen. "Did the Washington Post Violate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act?" National Review Online, November 10, 2005.
  40. "I-Team Uncovers MD4Bush E-Mail Addresses". WBAL-TV. 26 March 2015.
  41. Free Republic Inaugural Ball 2005 Archived 2007-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
  42. Taylor, Kristinn (January 19, 2005). "Inauguration: Free Republic". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  43. ^ Haysen, Kirsten. "Not Ready to Make Nice." Adelaide Now, October 7, 2006. Retrieved February 4, 2007.
  44. Washington Whispers - Nation & World (usnews.com)
  45. Film: Shut Up and Sing Takes A Candid Look At Pop Music's Most Fearless Women | 12/6/2006 Archived 2007-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  46. Hackbarth, Sean. Jim Robinson, founder of Free Republic has 'endorsed' Fred Thompson. Fred Thompson campaign press release. 3 January 2008.
  47. The Improbability of the D.C. Madam's Suicide, David Martin, June 10, 2008. See May 31, 2008, email from Martin to Moldea near the bottom of the page.
  48. "Sean Hannity vs. Free Republic". outsidethebeltway.com. 17 February 2005.
  49. "Hillary Clinton and the birther movement: Still nothing there". PolitiFact.com. September 20, 2016.
  50. Hesse, Monica (2009-06-12). "Notoriety Trumps Preservation as Some Web Sites Scrub Hateful Posts". The Washington Post. ISSN 0740-5421. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  51. ^ Parry, Chris (July 12, 2009). "Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on January 4, 2010.
  52. "Notice: Free Republic has been in full rebellion mode since 2008 and will remain so for the duration". www.freerepublic.com. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  53. "NOTICE: FR DOES NOT AND WILL NOT SUPPORT ABORTIONIST, GAY RIGHTS PUSHING BIG GOVERNMENT STATISTS". www.freerepublic.com. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  54. "fairpress.org".
  55. "FReep This / How the right-wing is making itself heard". SFGate. 30 January 2003.
  56. nw_arizona_granny. "Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs". Free Republic. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  57. nw_arizona_granny. "Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist?". Free Republic. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  58. nw_arizona_granny. "Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition". Free Republic. Retrieved 21 July 2021.

External links

Categories: