PROPOSAL: Online Independent Media Voting Truth Alliance

Tuesday, 29 July 2003, 12:38 am
Press Release: The Scoop Editor

Dear Online Media Providers,

Here at Scoop we have some ideas for developing the USACOUP page into the basis of an Independent Media Voting Truth Alliance.

This would work around reciprocal link agreements with the likes of DemocraticUnderground, Truthout, WhatReallyHappened, Buzzflash, FromTheWilderness, Rense etc. Basically – all those courageous online media who have as yet not been afraid to tell the truth about black box voting machines.

The alliance I propose will revolve around this page

http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup

THE FORM OF THE ALLIANCE – WHAT YOU DO - WHAT WE DO

It will consist simply of graphical links to all the other websites in the alliance – linking to their homepages – or to features on E-Voting if they prefer and have one. In return members of the Alliance agree to maintain a "prominent front page" link back to the "A Very American Coup" page.

AND THAT'S IT…

Plus of course Scoop keeps updating the page with links to stories about E-Voting from Truth Alliance members and others. Making it a win-win arrangement.

And Scoop will continue to probably lean heavily on the wonderful team of people at the DemocraticUnderground.Com too.

We will build this page to become the key source for breaking news and views about E-Voting issues, which - let's face it - will only grow in importance as we countdown to November 2004.

THE OBJECTIVE – TRUTH PREVAILS – BENEFITS FOR ALL

TRUTH PREVAILS - Here at Scoop we want this page to become the authoritative source on this story.

That way it will be Bev Harris and the Independent Media that is telling the story and not anyone else who may choose to tone down the harsh realities in this area, or seek to distract America from the search for a solution to this problem.

Many more sites on this subject will no doubt get built. Several already exist and many of these are already linked on the USACOUP page. But we hope that Scoop's page one will become the source. That is, the source of the truth about a terrible failure in America's democratic system.

BENEFITS FOR ALL - This is an incredible opportunity in Online Indymedia history.

Here is a story that - so many people have been talking about online for years - which the mainstream have ignored resolutely to the extent that they even failed to report properly into the failure of the VNS system in November 2002.

They cannot fail now to recognise that we were right and they were wrong on this. And this is a credit to us all. And it is a credit to the power of prayer, hope and love. And it is an opportunity for online media to move into the mainstream.

If we do achieve this objective – creating an authoritative online news source on a huge story – then we will have the news equivalent of an authoritative news source for a story as big as the Iraq war (but which the media that squirm have till now refused to tell us about).

And with that exposure – the Online Indymedia Community As A Whole – can begin to make a difference to the millions of people who have till now been getting their news solely from CBS, CNN, the BBC, Yahoo, The NYT, Washpost etc etc etc…

Scoop wants all the new readers of who arrive at the American Coup page to find a whole new world of media. This new media, a fiercely independent, free and wonderfully rich media already exists - and it is us.

WE NEED TO MOVE FAST

The moment to get this going is RIGHT NOW! When the mainstream media finally publishes Scoop's name - and stops calling this story a fluke - then we will have an audience potential of millions, and the audience will most probably come in a spike – so I want the Alliance to be ready.

Therefore I Propose: What You Do… What We Do

Please put a prominent link on your front page to

http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup

1 – If you think you warrant a graphical link send your graphic to editor@scoop.co.nz - 200 pixels wide 30 deep. Subject Line: VOTING TRUTH ALLIANCE. Include the link you wish us to link to, and an indication of your traffic levels.

(We will post graphical links to the top 20 referrers. And text links to everybody else with a legitimate contribution on this. And we will tune the position of the reciprocal links at the USACOUP page on the basis of actual referrals. I will provide referral data here at DU to back up the decisions on this.)

2 - If you have the capacity to do so please take an auto-updating mirror of:

http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup

Not just in case we fall over due to traffic – in the long term we cannot really deal with the levels of traffic we expect on this story at Scoop - not over a transpacific cable. Some of you will have much faster transmission speeds to your readers than us.

Please get the news of this offer out to your favourite online media providers…

I will advise on this thread when people join the alliance… bookmark this page. I will link it on USACOUPpage too.

The first member of the Alliance is WhatReallyHappened.Com, and I would like to acknowledge that it is Michael Rivero's phenomenal support and encouragement – and his absolutely awesome website - that have inspired this idea.

Finally I dip my hat to another Michael, Mike Ruppert who has with his From The Wilderness NewsPaper Advertising Campaign been blazing the trail in this area. Namely, the search for an Indymedia breakthrough with news consumers. If you look closely at Michael's adverts you will find the Scoop URL…. And Michael elected to do that for nothing! Not even a shameful appeal for lots of links to his website. That's what I would call putting some genuine soul into your pocketbook

Alastair Thompson
Scoop Media
New Zealand

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