News portal for independent media

August 11, 2006 12:39 PM

Blue Pill Red Pill This site just launched recently, by the looks of it. It bills itself as a "national database of all news critical, independent, and investigative this side of the galaxy." Seems to be a way of introducing people to verified and rated independent media sources, rather than aggregating content or providing articles itself. I haven't seen much like it out there.
posted by tb0n3 (26 comments total)

Well, it has a link on its first page of news claiming that the Israelis knew of 9/11 in advance, but didn't warn U.S.-- so I'm skeptical of its "independence" already.
posted by Maias at 12:49 PM on August 11, 2006

someone spent a lot of time and effort making a site thats content seems rediculous. Was this site made by Dylan Avery?
posted by Addiction at 12:50 PM on August 11, 2006

This smells fishy.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:51 PM on August 11, 2006

Boo.

That has to be the most poorly imagined piece of something I've seen all day.
posted by jsavimbi at 12:52 PM on August 11, 2006

From the front page:

Think about what Lennon stood for. Think about what Lennon died for.

What chumps.
posted by argybarg at 12:59 PM on August 11, 2006

This page is way too cool for school.

Seriously, what the hell is this. I can barely navigate this stupid site. I stupidly assumed the "Red Pill" and "Blue Pill" buttons at the bottom would link to right and left leaning independnet news sources respectively.

Instead, blue pill takes you to a CNN knockoff site called Corporate Christian Network, because CNN is controlled by the Christian Right???

That, and the references to the Matirx (a crappy film, sorry, it would have more credibility making Westworld references) make me think this fpp belongs in as a comment in the tinfoil hat thread.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:00 PM on August 11, 2006

You are sick of ABC, FOX, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post et alii dropping the issues that matter to Americans: the Iraq war, the Bush administration legalizing torture, a Congress ransacking our democracy, a president proclaiming himself king.

They're about as "independent" as Fox News is "fair and balanced". Plus I find it slow.
posted by GuyZero at 1:05 PM on August 11, 2006

"Uncensored. Open-source. Spin-free. Critical."
Don't forget: "Completely ridiculous."

Even if you've reversed the direction, it's still spinnin'...
posted by Milkman Dan at 1:08 PM on August 11, 2006

Think about what Lennon stood for. Think about what Lennon died for.

I love these stupid statements. What did Lennon stand for? I don't know, he was a rock star, so maybe he stood for attention-seeking behavior. What did he die for? A fan who gave Lennon his undivided attention. What the hell was the point of this sentence again?
posted by Pastabagel at 1:08 PM on August 11, 2006

Sorry, I jsut realized that the goofy CCN page is part of the blue pill red pill site. Which means that a handful of people wrote all that crap, photoshopped all those pictures, and faked all those ads. With the dollar signs after the numbers. E.g. 2.87$

That's a whole lotta crazy.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:15 PM on August 11, 2006

< .de-rail> I'm confused as to why Blue = Democrat and Red = Republican. It seems to me that the "blue bloods" would be more akin to the Republicans and the "blood of the worker" would be more akin to the Democats. < ./de-rail>
posted by parilous at 1:20 PM on August 11, 2006

Its a joke site people, like the Onion. If you missed that..I'm scared for you.
posted by Osmanthus at 1:25 PM on August 11, 2006

i thought jokes were funny.
posted by Addiction at 1:27 PM on August 11, 2006

If it's a joke, the registrant (and apparent designer) carried it to their personal site.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:31 PM on August 11, 2006

Alt-F
posted by edgeways at 1:41 PM on August 11, 2006

This is so, so, so badly done. So badly designed. So badly written. It's ... conceptually okay, sort of. It hits all the notes, as though the designer/writer had read a great book on the topic of design and writing, but still has absolutely no idea what they're is doing.

This is sort of like dressing up a bad drama by giving it really high production values, but the crew, the cast and the script are all still so horrible that it'll never matter.

Maybe this is just a shining example of how being on the left, and being completely unable to communicate and organize, go together.
posted by blacklite at 1:49 PM on August 11, 2006

PepsiBluePillRedPill?

Sorry, couldn't help myself. FPP+Delirious Content=Why Would Somone In Their Right Mind Post This? (WWSITRMPT).
posted by VulcanMike at 2:24 PM on August 11, 2006

I'm confused as to why Blue = Democrat and Red = Republican

It's actually supposed to be blue=incumbent and red=challenger. So blue democrat/red republican was right for 1996 and 2000. But after the FUBARed 2000 election the terms red state/blue state sank into the conventional wisdom and the media erroneously began to associate the colors with particular parties.
posted by H-Bar at 2:42 PM on August 11, 2006

Like a flock of birds, like a horde of orcs, Republican party loyalists exert enormous peer pressure onto their own group to 'stay the course'. You support what you are told, that's the way you want it. By relieving yourself from critical thought, you become a politicized lemming, a Christian soldier manipulated by right-wing pundits and corporate news shows on cable. This is your personal definition of freedom: freedom from thought, freedom from being free. No more messy and complicated decisions to make regarding candidates or issues. That process saves significant time over actually informing yourself in regards to civics, history, politics, America, and the world.

Boy, if this is a joke, it's an awfully poorly-executed (and patronizing) one.
posted by blucevalo at 2:49 PM on August 11, 2006

H-Bar wrote: It's actually supposed to be blue=incumbent and red=challenger.

Wow, I never knew that! Thanks for the explanation; that makes so much more sense.
posted by parilous at 2:57 PM on August 11, 2006

Actually, that's not true. The networks chose blue for Democrat and red for Republican so as not to be called biased for linking the left to the red.
posted by Maias at 3:25 PM on August 11, 2006

Yeah. Blue = Liberal (right), Red = Labor (sort of left) is the way they do it in Australia, and I believe it's because of the traditional association of the Labor Party with socialism and the Liberal Party with blue-bloodedness. I think it's the same for the British Labour Party. Although Tony Blair doesn't like red so much.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 3:38 PM on August 11, 2006

I want my bandwidth (and time) back. Crap.
posted by words1 at 4:43 PM on August 11, 2006

Its a joke site people, like the Onion. If you missed that..I'm scared for you.
posted by Osmanthus at 4:25 PM EST on August 11 [+] [!]

I missed it. See, your analogy doesn't work because the Onion is funny. This site, on the other hand, is an abortion.

I echo words1. I demand my packets pack.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:27 PM on August 11, 2006

packets back. Somebody just shoot me now...
posted by Pastabagel at 6:29 PM on August 11, 2006

A useful bookmark. Thank you. (Once you get to the right...I mean red...part).
posted by kozad at 8:08 PM on August 11, 2006