Censorship at Independent Political Report

I was recently asked to do a news report at Independent Political Report, a decent outlet for third parties to get their news published. The report was in reference to Alex Jones making an ass of himself at a recent event in Texas that the Libertarian Party there had co-sponsored to protest the closing down of some gun shows. This is the article that I had finally cut it down to:

Alex Jones clashes with Libertarians at a 2nd Amendment demonstration

February 11th, 2010 · 48 Comments

Note: This article has been updated with new information.
Trouble started at a recent rally to protest infringements to the 2cd amendment set up as a joint effort by a few political activist organizations TAG (Texans for accountable government),  The Ladies Liberty Alliance, and the Liberty restoration project. The event was also co-sponsored by the Libertarian party of Texas. Current LP national Director Wes Benedict was an original founder of TAG; current Texas LP Director Robert Butler is a board member. The rally was underway by the time Alex Jones showed up with his own megaphone and started shouting over top of the speakers at the protest.  There are several videos on Youtube taken from the scene that day. But some of the highlights include Alex Jones arguing with the organized protesters saying “You don’t know what your doing.” and to “Get out of my face!”. In addition to calling current Texas Executive Robert Butler who sits on the board of directors for TAG “A gay lawyer.”
This Youtube video includes excerpts from Alex’s radio show where he claims that it was his rally that was disrupted along with highlights of some of the various videos taken of this event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbfAXuqRbvk&feature=player_embedded

As the video plainly shows, the protest was already underway when Mr. Jones arrived with his entourage and started speaking on his own megaphone making it difficult for the people assembled to hear the speakers.
On his radio show he thanked all his listeners that in his words made the event such a success, but the video also clearly shows that he showed up with less then a dozen people and that the rest of those assembled were gathered by the organizations that put together the rally.
In response to the difficulties of this incident an apology was issued by treasurer and founder of TAG, Chuck Young.
“Dear Chiefs Acevedo and Carter,
I’m writing this to offer my most sincere apologies for the boorish behavior of Alex Jones during the
recent 2nd amendment protest at APD HQ.
Mr. Jones was not invited by us and is not associated with TAG in any way. I found his actions divisive,
immature, rude, hateful, and provocative in the worst sense of the word. I was especially aggrieved at
Jones’ hysterical antics because, as the video record shows, I started the rally with (roughly) the following
statement:
“I’m here today armed with nothing but the Constitution. In addition to our right to bear arms, this great
document preserves our right to peaceable assembly. The operative word there is PEACEABLE – lets
keep it that way!”
While we at TAG may oppose APD on various points of policy, I want you to know that we, and I myself,
respect and appreciate the consummate professionalism with which you and your officers have always
conducted yourselves, in every single dealing I and other TAG principals have had with you.
Regards,
Chuck Young”
In an email from Chuck Young I received after initially publishing this article Mr. Young said the following: “We almost never do street actions without accompanying lobbying. Jones KILLED the lobbying, because the mainstream types whom we were working with (GOP, NRA) got scared off. So he literally made sure that nothing happened in
terms of any substantive policy change.”

There was some disagreement between myself and Paulie Cannoli, and then finally Trent Hill about this article and whether or not it was "editorial" or not. I made several edits to the point that it started to feel like I was writing for Fox News.

After some nasty and unprofessional exchanges between myself and Trent Hill he deleted the article and removed me as a writer from Independent Political Report. After I had made multiple requests to speak to him privately about the article and it's content he finally got around to emailing me to inform me of this. In his email he said that he had gotten several complaints about the article. I honestly feel as though this decision was must made to bow to the pressure of various people who support Alex Jones who didn't like him exposed. It's not the first time that Trent Hill has acted to stonewall me at IPR, the first time being when I exposed Chuck Baldwin as a theocrat.

In response to this I will be making an effort to create a new media outlet for third party and other activist news.

Comments

forrest33:

This may seem a little outlandish, but I have a feeling that the second amendment is being suppressed not only because of the agenda of an increasingly fascist police state we got going in this country, but also from pressure from home security corporations. A couple of years ago my condo was broken into while I was at work, and when I was talking to the customer support woman, I said something along the lines of “good thing I wasn’t there when they broke in, or else I would have got to use my S&W .45.” After what I thought was just me trying to be funny, the woman went into corporate robot mode on me, spewing out all this crap about their policies on people that use firearms and all this crap. To make a long story short, the policies of adt home security systems (I linked it so you could read them yourself) simply that they simply don’t want you to possess a firearm. The reasons why they wouldn’t want this are obvious considering they are a security business that profits by how much of THEIR security we need. What kind of country is this where our amendments take a back seat to corporations and their precious little profits?

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inDglass:

"In response to this I will be making an effort to create a new media outlet for third party and other activist news."

I am creating in association with IndyTruth a news blog focused on libertarian and third party politics and activist news. Much of the content would be in press release format and would promote the work of any activists, candidates, or parties promoting liberty. I would open the content for other newspapers and blogs, whether independent or MSM, to freely reprint the material so that the message gets out to more people.

This format and mission means posts would have to be strictly free of editorializing. It should professionally promote the work of people in our movement in a voice that other periodicals would be comfortable printing as news. Would you or anyone else be interested in contributing to the project?

VTV:

Sure. What we want to do is also provide a central hub where projects like yours can be linked. And to offer the same thing for the various independent radio shows.

inDglass:

Radio shows are part of the plan too. I want to start writing up releases about important interviews and other segments and uploading the recording along with it. That way when independent radio hosts produce this informative material we can get it out to a wider audience.

I will get the template finished soon and it will make more sense. Then I'll be looking for help producing content!

Thomas L. Knapp:

1. The article editorialized. Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, or that Mr. Hill's position on it is the best one to take, but it did editorialize.

2. A site owner deciding not to host an article at his site is not "censorship." "Censorship" is the use of legal authority (i.e. monopoly force) to prevent publication of an article anywhere.

VTV:

I don't agree. And I am not alone.

planetaryjim:

Paulie is a jerk and not to be trusted, in my experience.

Trent is not always a jerk, but clearly has an agenda. I don't find IPR very useful. Your mileage may vary.

VTV:

So to be sure I wasn't over-reacting I showed my article to Jason Seagraves (The original owner and editor of IPR) and he said:

"I see absolutely not one bit of editorializing in that article. Not one bit. It was a good article."

He also went on to tell me that he has has his own problems with the ego of one Trent Hill.

I have also been receiving word that some members of the Texas LP are not at all happy with the censorship.

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