Thoughts on Lies.com
I’ve been catching some criticism in the comments lately, which is nothing new, but these criticisms have been different, in that they’ve actually hit home. Specifically, people have been complaining about the one-sided nature of the stuff I’ve been posting, criticizing my far-left, anti-war, anti-Bush slant, and doing so in fairly thoughtful terms, not just repeating things from a right-wing talk show.
While I don’t plan to abandon my views just because some people disagree with them, I do think it would be interesting to have more points of view represented here. In pursuit of that, I’ve emailed invitations to a few of the people who’ve been offering up criticism in the comments, as well as to The Web Walker, who had a history of contributing his own decidedly not-mine views back in the site’s early days.
So we’ll see what comes of that. In the meantime, if you disagree with some or all of the views I express here, and you think you could offer an additional perspective that would help the site do a better job of being whatever it is that it seems to be becoming, let me know, and I’ll think about adding you to the list of people who can post stories on the site. Thanks.
Oh, and I’m also going to try to cut down on the extensive blockquoting within the items I post. If I’m posting it, it’s because I think the whole thing is worth reading. If I feel like commenting on specific aspects of it, I’ll just comment on them, without necessarily duplicating the material inline. I think that works better from a reader’s point of view, even if it does mean some references are going to get pretty obscure as the linked-to items fall prey to link rot.
April 30th, 2003 at 12:54 pm
I think your site is fantastic the way it is. I guess I wouldn’t mind an occasional well-reasoned conservative viewpoint, sort of like they did with Ainsley Hayes on “The West Wing.” But I have mixed feelings about it. With Fox News and Ann Coulter and Rick Santorum and all the rest these days, it’s nice to have an unapologetic, articulate lefty voice to listen to. I hope you don’t lose that.
April 30th, 2003 at 3:42 pm
As someone who can (and does) post things to the main page, I’ve acctually been avoiding the political stuff — partly because my views are quieter, simpler subset of jbc’s — but mainly because that’s not really the stuff that got me hooked into lies.com years ago. I’m much more interested in the general “absurdism” stories, not just about politics.
I welcome as many viewpoints from as many authors as jbc wants to allow to post (it is afterall his site. He pays for it, and it doesn’t cost anyone else anything to use it, so fuck them if they don’t like the content.) But if we’re taking votes, I’d encourage people in general to submit/post items of interest with more breadth then just the war, or politics, or the media’s take on the war & politics, etc…
April 30th, 2003 at 5:15 pm
I agree that there should be a bit more non-war stuff, even the mainstream media has tired of it and are moving on to other things. However, the site _IS_ still caled lies.com, and let’s face it, pretty much anything Bush does includes some type of lie.
Actually, by that logic, a whole bunch of articles shouldn’t be here, but that’s another subject entirely. I like a lot of the links I find hee, even if there isn’t a particular lie about them.
As for allowing concervatives to do articles — the only problem I see here is that, aside from The Web Walker, the right-wingers here are representative of concervatives elsewhere. They seem to take everything as a personal assault and get all self-righteous, often insulting those with different views. hossman has a good point in his post. JBC pays for all of this, and as slanted as some think it way be, it’s still more objective and truthful than U.S. media. I beg you, JBC, don’t compromise to satisfy the masses. That isn’t what this site is about. Only do this if you want to, and keep in mind that no matter the variety of views presented some people are always going to complain.
If this is going to happen, though, perhaps the site also needs a referee/editor to remove posts (or assaultive chunks of them) and give a reason why. I’ll volunteer. I admit that I credit JBC as helping shaped my writing as it is today, but above all else I’m objective. There are things he’s written that, while I agree with the viewpoint, I think they’re a bit crass and should at the very least be rephrased. I’ve also agreed with some of the conservative counter-points, but again, they really do need to be rephrased most times.
Ah well, I’ve had my rant. Time to play Subspace!
April 30th, 2003 at 11:17 pm
I think it’s a great idea. I’m always a bit excited when I see comments accumulate beneath a posting here; as has been mentioned here before, the best possible thing we can do right now is try to engage in some rational, thought-out debate. The more of that here, the better.
I like lies.com for being the waggling accusatory finger pointed at those would rather just smile for the camera and pat the media on the head. Although I seem to be looking for hope with the Democrats these days, I think a lot of the liberal vs. conservative rhetoric is thoroughly irrelevant. I’ll be just as happy to deride our next Democrat president who decides he’s too good to answer to the American people. Hell, I’m happy deriding movie stars and pop idols as well.
Be skeptical and don’t forget that you’re allowed to laugh at anything you want to.
May 2nd, 2003 at 5:53 pm
Lies.com might need a more balanced view if you are using it as your only source of news.
But I strongly suspect that I’m not the only one who uses it as something of a reality check on the mainstream media. In this regard, its value is derived from covering current events that have other news sources talking too.
The beauty of having multiple conflicting sources of information is that you it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with any single source. You are just forced to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions, which many in America seem to have forgotten how to do lately.