As recently as six months ago I was a disinterested consumer. I had chosen not to vote all of my life, and I generally accepted what the evening news said as true.

Then I discovered the Independent Media, and have been overwhelmed with how professional and well organized the group is. Radio, TV, Internet, it seems the IMC has all of the bases covered and is a real resource to a politically interested community. (You're not just talking to yourselves here guys, you're bringing in new people, I can vouch for that)

Then, following the painful end to the Philly RNC demonstrations I've begun to see a rash of fake posts and editing problems from the IMC. It's not impossible to tell a fake post from a legit one, but they help to discredit the organization as a whole.

I propose that all IMC groups adopt the system used by the Philadelphia IMC site, and provide an Editorial and News section to seperate the fact from the opinion. Further, readers must bother to rate stories that do show up based on the sources the author cites and the credibility they create. Should a story be submitted to news that is out-and-out fact-less opinion, it should be sent to where it belongs.

The IMC may just be too busy for all of this. If so, let me be the first to volunteer with this process. No one will be silenced, but the printing of obvious undefendable lies as news is intolerable.

Thanks for reading!