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Free Republic is a moderated Internet forum and activist site for Republicans, neoconservatives and conservatives, primarily within the United States. Founded in 1996 by James C. "Jim" Robinson of Fresno, California, Free Republic calls itself "the premier on-line gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web."

Founder's 2004 statement

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. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our borders, our Constitution, and our national sovereignty.

History

Prior to founding Free Republic in 1996, Robinson had been an active participant on the Whitewater Scandal bulletin board hosted by Prodigy. Frustrated with their censorship and the fact that it was accessible only to Prodigy subscribers, Robinson decided to start his own politically themed forum on the still-young internet. He launched Free Republic in September 1996.

Free Republic gained popularity during the Clinton impeachment controversy in 1998 and 1999, when protests and write-in campaigns were organized through the website.

Originally libertarian in outlook, after the 9/11 attacks, Robinson and Free Republic members rallied to support President Bush. Members who questioned Bush's conservative credentials were challenged by Robinson and other members and criticized in light of the ongoing war on terrorism. As disagreements between members heightened, the site's moderators increased censorship of posts and banned numerous members, including some with lengthy histories on the site.

During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, Free Republic members worked to discredit alleged forged memos about U.S. President George W. Bush's National Guard service.

Death threats and inappropriate calls to action by a minority of the site's members have garnered criticism from the media and blog-watchers.

Forums

Format and policy

Some posts on Free Republic are devoted to the ridicule of persons or groups perceived as anathema to conservatives, such as U.S. Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton of New York, Barbara Boxer of California, and the National Organization for Women. Even some Republicans, such as Senator John McCain of Arizona and former Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have been singled out for attacks. Members have largely rejected the McCain-Feingold Act and questioned why President Bush did not veto the campaign finance limitation measure in 2002. Free Republic has an official policy which requires the removal of blatantly racist or bigoted postings.

It is not uncommon for users, who often refer to one another as "Freepers", to be purged for advocating views contrary to the goals of Free Republic. For example, in February 2005, in response to differences of opinion about immigration policy, a number of posters who advocated immigration controls were removed. Many of these posters had a long history on the site.

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 everyone to respond. Some Free Republic forum messages, usually captioned "FReep this poll!", urge Free Republic members to vote en masse in these polls. The goal is to influence polls to reflect the aggregrate votes of Free republic members. In addition, some members find ways to avoid systems that only allow one vote and, instead, vote hundreds of times.

Social organization and events

There are local chapters within Free Republic, organized through ping lists, e-mail, and Free Republic mail.

The more active chapters organize live protests, which they call "Freeps." Often these are counter protests, responses to protests by opposition groups. "Freepers" assemble at a predetermined location with signs and banners, usually designed and hand-drawn by individual members.

One such Freep was described by reporter by Kerry Lauerman for Salon.com in 2001. A number of Freepers paid $20 each to attend the conference at which conservative politicians and thinkers of varying pedigrees spoke to the issues that most interested the audience; the rights of man, the problems with the news media, and striper lakes. The climax of the evening was the presentation of a large Confederate flag, to "Bob Johnson, from Los Angeles, for spearheading the Free Republic Network."

In 2005, Free Republic helped to organize and stage a 'Freep' in Washington, D.C., intended to show support for the troops and opposition to the antiwar protest of September 24, 2005, which drew an estimated 100,000. Free Republic's D.C. chapter leader and frequent spokesperson for the group, Kristinn Taylor, was quoted as having said that Free Republic was "prepared for 20,000 people to attend the pro-military rally, billed as a time to honor the troops fighting, the war on terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world." Instead of the 20,000 expected, only an estimated 100 reportedly attended.

In 2005, Free Republic started staging counter-protests at Walter Reed Army Hospital in opposition to the antiwar group Code Pink. Walter Reed is home to many soldiers recuperating from serious injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Code Pink protests reportedly included mock caskets and signs which said "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist Here and Die for Halliburton," sentiments offensive to many Free Republic members. Ever since Free Republic's District of Columbia chapter and other groups organized these counter-protests, Code Pink's protests at Walter Reed have reportedly been less well-attended.

Free Republic Inaugural Ball

In January 2005, Free Republic hosted an Inaugural Ball at the Washington Plaza Hotel with the intention to "celebrate" the reelection of President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney and to "honor our men and women serving in the Armed Forces." The event featured then Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee and his rock and roll band called Capitol Offense.

Political influence

Free Republic posters, notably "TankerKC" (later identified as active Air Force officer Paul Boley) and "Buckhead" (later identified as Atlanta GOP lawyer Harry W. MacDougald) contributed, along with members of the blogs Powerline and Little Green Footballs, to breaking "Memogate," the controversy surrounding CBS News' use of questionable documents during the 2004 presidential campaign. The discussion quickly spread across the Internet via blogs, and the Drudge Report (attributing Powerline), and the Associated Press later picked it up .

During the 2004 U.S. Elections, 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." The posts were discovered and made public by Media Matters for America..

Current White House Press Secretary and former Fox News commentator Tony Snow was an active poster on the forum before he accepted his position with the Bush administration, at which time all his posts and his account were deleted. Many of the posts have been archived and show that Snow was not afraid to 'mix it up' with the outspoken Freepers who sometimes disagreed with his political philosophy.

The band Dixie Chicks and lead singer Natalie Maines claim that Free Republic was instrumental in fueling the boycott of their music by many fans and radio stations organized after Maines made anti-Bush comments in 2003. In their documentary Shut Up and Sing as well as in interviews, the Dixie Chicks have often mentioned Free Republic by name in reference to the boycott. Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic's D.C. chapter attended the screening of the film 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.

Controversial aspects

Ivor Tossell of the Globe and Mail called Free Republic "the worst site on the Internet, political-rhetoric division" and "an exercise in political extremism that, despite being something of an anthropological train wreck, keeps popping up square in the mainstream."

Free Republic has also been criticized for the actions of a small minority of members who made death threats against former President Clinton and threats against the owners of a restaurant who notified authorities when an underage Jenna Bush attempted to purchase liquor illegally at the establishment. 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." Threats and other policy-violating posts have been removed by Robinson when brought to his attention. He insists that the site has had to "delete relatively few posts" over time for violations of its "no-violence" policy despite Free Republic's popularity and ease of registration.

Many members discussed preparations for organizing an intentional backlash against Asian and Arab-Americans in the aftermath of a hypothetical Islamic terrorist attack on America. Several members were contacted by the FBI and American Islamic activists.

Copyright lawsuit

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 eventually prevailed in the courts. The case, often cited when arguing cyberlaw, is called L.A. Times v. Free Republic. Free Republic members called the lawsuit as a conspiracy by the "liberal media" to "stifle" the organization, and Robinson referred to the suit as "a life and death struggle with elements of the socialist propaganda machine."

References

1. Freerepublic.com - Founder's 2004 statement
2. "About Free Republic", Fetched 12/30/2006
3. ^ Scalon, Sean Chronicles Magazine on Free Republic December 2002 Issue
4. Tossell, Ivor "Free Republic: glass ant farm for zealots
5. "Free for all at Free Republic". Salon.com. July 13, 1999.
6. Free-for-all at Free Republic
7. Freerepublic.com - Guidelines
9. "FReep This"
10. Wallsten, Peter, Blogger alleging CBS memos as frauds is GOP lawyer, Saturday, September 18, 2004, Los Angeles Times
11. "A poster crosses the line on Free Republic forum". Salon.com. Feb. 9, 2001. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "Free for all at Free Republic". Salon.com. July 13, 1999.
13. "The jihad against Chuy's". Salon.com. June 6, 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-11.

External links

• Official website
• 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" Salon, 13 July 1999.
• Lauerman, Kerry. "They're here, they're mad, get used to it." Salon, 24 June 2001.
• York, Anthony. "Free Republic defends Salon." Salon, 18 July 2001.

• Internet forums
• Political websites