[IMC-US] Meeting tonight, feature process point, general update + your extra special racist quotes for the day

[ekearns at umich.edu]

Muna,
I think you bring up an excellent point about features. We should definitely
talk about this tonight at the meeting.
And don't worry about your recent lack of participation. Sort out your other
priorities first and then come back to us.indy when you're ready. We like it
when you are fresh and energized, not burned out.
x, emily -michiganimc.


Quoting muna rva imc <muna at richmondindymedia.org>:

>
> I've been pretty quiet when it comes to email lately, in part because I'm
> completely overloaded with it. I apologize for my listserve absence.
>
> I'm not certain I'll be able to make tonight's meeting. 11pm to 1am last time
> was a bit gruelling, and it's somewhat difficult for me to get computer
> access
> that late at night. I do hope it happens. I would love to see a May Day
> feature. I will try to be there if possible.
>
> One thing I'd like to chime in on concerning features:
>
> Personally, I think just about every proposed and actual feature I see on
> indymedia.us is terrific. Thus in some ways our processes of self-selection,
> or
> promotion-without-proposal work great, because we've got excellent admins
> pulling from excellent local features. I love the idea of collaborative
> features and hope to get out from under the pile of work I'm presently buried
> in to help out with that.
>
> There is, however, one big glaring problem I see when it comes to our
> features.
> Sometimes we go for days with nothing new. Sometimes we slam the front and
> center column with four or five new features in a row. Both of these things
> are
> big problems when it comes to maintaining and building readership, and giving
> stories the attention they need and deserve.
>
> I would like to see a process where we provide consistent features in an
> appropriately staggered way. I think we probably could have one feature a
> day.
> I think this could happen with some simple process points and scheduling
> committments. For example, we've got about 20 folks with admin abilities to
> promote features. If people just had days when they're among 3 or 4 folks
> designated to perform the simple task of promoting features, then we could
> end
> the confusion of good stories sitting on the wire while we run no feature for
> days.
>
> With that said, I'm always very hesitant to make suggestions while I myself
> am
> behind on following up on commitments. I've got several things I need to do
> for
> this group, things I committed to a while ago. Forgive me while I try to
> catch
> up. Hopefully, though, a suggestion like you see above would help alleviate
> work/confusion.
>
> I'm carrying a heavy load right now. I missed the last IRC meeting because of
> a
> statewide Virginia Anti-War Network meeting. I'm the only Arab-American on
> the
> steering committee, so in some ways I've got some real important stuff to
> hold
> down. Richmond Indymedia's also has just wrapped up a semester of tons of
> university presentations, and now we've (fortunately) got the task of
> successfully incorporating several new editors and volunteers.
>
> Anyone seen the latest Left Turn? It's got an at once both terrific and
> terrifying article called "The Making of the Arab Menace." In it Rayan
> El-Amine
> lists some quotes from corporate media assholes. It's some stuff that's got
> me,
> your humble Palestinian in the South, petrified and depressed and all the
> more
> invested in indymedia. Enjoy:
>
> "O’Reilly on killing Afghanis: “Life expectancy in Afghanistan is a little
> over
> 40; killing someone there is not like killing people here.”
>
> Rush Limbaugh on the guards at Abu Ghraib: “I’m talking about people having a
> good time
you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of the need to
> blow some steam off.”
>
> Don Imus from MSNBC on the death of Yasser Arafat: he is “stinky
. a rat
.All
> Palestinians look like him” and people attending his funeral are a “bunch of
> animals.”
>
> Jack Cafferty on CNN’s American Morning on Iraqi women prisoners: “Given the
> way
> these mutants treat women in their societies, the women are probably better
> off
> in US custody.”
>
> Radio show host Mark Williams on Palestinians: “Yasser Arafat was a
> blood-soaked, sub-human, vile, reprehensible, murderous animal
If there is a
> crueler pile of camel manure than Palestine, and then it has got to be the
> total fiction of a Palestinian people.”"
>
> x,
> m.
>
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