OpEdNews » OpEdNews.com: An interview with Rob Kall

Tags for This Article:

Populum Tag Cloud Control Panel
	Fine tune your search to access content

Articles	Links
Diaries	Products
Events	All

All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs

From:
Month Day Year

To:
Month Day Year

Alphabet Popularity	Count ON Count OFF
This Level	Sub-levels

Tag(s): Alternative; Community; Democracy; International; Internet; Interviews; Iraq; Journalism; Media; OpEdNews; (more...) Philadelphia; Wars (less...)
Add to My Group

January 14, 2008 at 09:35:25

Headlined on 1/14/08:
OpEdNews.com: An interview with Rob Kall

by Hans Bennett Page 2 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

SAVE FAVORITES

VIEW FAVORITES

View Ratings | Rate It

RK: Commondreams accepted the first article I sent them, then ignored the next ten. As a reasonably successful freelance writer in the print world, I was accustomed to at least getting rejection letters. But online, being ignored is the usual. I made sure that when we built opednews.com, we designed it so all article submitters DO get responses-- rejections or acceptances, even notification if an article is promoted to headline or top of column status.

Other sites that have inspired opednews.com include: dailykos.com, mydd.com , counterpunch.com, thenation.com , tompaine.com, buzzflash.com, consortiumnews.com , Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com , truthout.org, rawstory.com, whatreallyhappened.com , myspace.com, facebook.com

Unlike most progressive sites, we're working to build our site to tap many of the web 2.0 functions you see on social networking sites.

HB: What else is OpEdNews doing?

RK: OpEdNews is a non-profit organization designed to support local and international news. We have "inside pages" for every county in the US, every country in the world, every province in Canada, and we can add locales easily. We regularly have articles dealing with Waziristan, Pakistan, the Congo, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ramallah, and many other locations. Our goal is to support alternative media everywhere, with local specificity and pages.

We also have an exceptional system for organizing our content, with unique cloud tag control panels for all levels of our directory and for every article.

This year we were funded to build what we call Congress pages. These provide a page for every member of congress, so articles, diaries and comments can be posted to those pages.

We're always happy to welcome new writers, diarists and commenters to our community. You don't have to be famous, but you do have to write well and bring up new ideas or angles on contemporary issues.

HB: “Commenters”?

RK: In the new media, people who comment on articles in the space below the article are an essential, integral part of the journalistic process. I will often publish a writer who I disagree with, who I may even doubt some claims because I believe that on OpEdNews, the community will fill in the gaps, dispute claims, and correct inaccuracies. WE are the media. That is a huge difference between media that are top-down, and who present a product that cannot be commented upon.

Getting legitimate criticism is part of the new media. You have to deal with it. I think, overall, it's great for journalism and getting to the truth and all the nuances of issues and stories. My philosophy is that a story doesn't have to be complete, doesn't have to cover all the bases, because we have thousands of members who can fill them in. After a lot of discussions, I've come to the conclusion that OpEdNews is, among high traffic sites, the most open and least censored site, in terms of the wide range of issues allowed to be discussed on the web.

We are seeking grant funding from foundations for general support and for several projects involving building an extremely high quality media that is peer reviewed, and also a social networking media site for students.

1 | 2

insubordination.blogspot.com

	Contact Author
	Contact Editor
	View Other Articles by Author

Bookmark this page: (what's this?)

(More...)

9 comments

It is never the masses that make the difference, it is always the individual which makes the difference. Thank you for letting me be myself today.
Jeanette DoneyIt is never the masses that make the difference, it is always the individual which makes the difference. Thank you for letting me be myself today.

Thank you for the food for thought

I didn't realize the capacity and tools of OpEdNews. My gosh, what unused potential!

by Jeanette Doney (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 304 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 10:51:23 AM

Hans Bennett is a Philadelphia photojournalist mostly focusing on the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners. An archive of his work is available at insubordination.blogspot.com and he is also co-founder of "Journalists for Mumia," created to challenge the long history of corporate media bias, whose website is: Abu-Jamal-News.com
Hans BennettHans Bennett is a Philadelphia photojournalist mostly focusing on the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners. An archive of his work is available at insubordination.blogspot.com and he is also co-founder of "Journalists for Mumia," created to challenge the long history of corporate media bias, whose website is: Abu-Jamal-News.com

thanks

Hi, thank you... Glad you liked it. This website really does have a lot, and hopefully this interview can help spread the word, increase contributors, and make it even better. Please help spread the word to friends, family, and fellow activists & writers.

Best,

Hans

by Hans Bennett (19 articles, 58 quicklinks, 62 diaries, 104 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:12:03 AM

I am a Musician, political Junkie, Father, Husband, who cares very much about the United States of America and what is being done to the Ideals and citizens of this great Nation.

I want to restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to what the founders of this nation intended to protect us from.

I was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y. and I now reside in Florida. I am tired of the media being manipulated by Faux News and right wing propaganda that leading our Democracy i...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Michael ChaversI am a Musician, political Junkie, Father, Husband, who cares very much about the United States of America and what is being done to the Ideals and citizens of this great Nation.

I want to restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to what the founders of this nation intended to protect us from.

I was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y. and I now reside in Florida. I am tired of the media being manipulated by Faux News and right wing propaganda that leading our Democracy i...

to see more of bio, click on member name

definitely on my daily must read list

OpEd is definitely on my daily must read list to get the real news. I urge everyone support this site.

by Michael Chavers (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 174 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 2:47:18 PM

A political junky from childhood cut my teeth on vietnam era protests.Have lived in Bucks county all my life.My favaorite saying" Good ani't cheap and cheap ain't good,never has been never will be"
tjbA political junky from childhood cut my teeth on vietnam era protests.Have lived in Bucks county all my life.My favaorite saying" Good ani't cheap and cheap ain't good,never has been never will be"

oped

How's that Tina Turner song go something like "simply the best, better than all the rest" or something like that.

by tjb (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 212 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 3:01:27 PM

I have achieved nothing of consequence apart from raising children in a way that they would excel where I failed. And they are on good tracks.
ramsheyiI have achieved nothing of consequence apart from raising children in a way that they would excel where I failed. And they are on good tracks.

OpEdNews A Gift Of God

OpEdNews is a gift of God . It is a light illuminating our latter day Dark Ages. It is also a thorn in the eyes of the Power that be. There is no doubt that HR1955 's first onslaught will target freedom lovers and concerned citizens such as those assembled here and the site itself. Let us be extremely alert and watchful. Mercenary trolls are harbingers of thought police and censorship and much worse.

Good luck to Rob for his Peace Crusade.

by ramsheyi (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 4:56:30 PM

By William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, ...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Bill DouglasBy William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

THANK YOU ROB !!

Thank you Rob, since writing for OpEd, and reading the great articles, I've posted OpEdNews all over the internet to share articles with others.

Thanks for a great resource!!

by Bill Douglas (68 articles, 2 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 434 comments) on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 3:00:01 AM

Peter Dearman is a teacher living in Taiwan. He is concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.
Peter DearmanPeter Dearman is a teacher living in Taiwan. He is concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.

Great interview Rob

Interviews always capture something a little better. After reading it, I really felt like I could see your big picture more clearly. It's inspiring, and you deserve to feel a great sense of accomplishment. I agree with your assertions that OpEdNews already is a very important site, that it truly is open to all who are civil and can express themselves clearly, and that it has never ceased to keep evolving at a slow but steady rate that seems a sensible bet to win the race against the MSM behemoth.

Are there any other sites that will, in good faith, display an article by a relatively unknown writer overtop of one by a nobel prize winner, both submitted by writers that felt pleased by the straightforwardness of the whole process.

by Peter Dearman (9 articles, 19 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 124 comments) on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 11:59:43 AM

Brett Paatsch is an Australian born secular humanist with degrees in management and science and an interest in politics. He is a former pro-American that wishes to be pro-American again and thinks the impeachment and repudiation of President George W Bush for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 is necessary to reestablish trust in American signatures on international treaties and confidence in the global rule of law.
Brett PaatschBrett Paatsch is an Australian born secular humanist with degrees in management and science and an interest in politics. He is a former pro-American that wishes to be pro-American again and thinks the impeachment and repudiation of President George W Bush for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 is necessary to reestablish trust in American signatures on international treaties and confidence in the global rule of law.

But has the policy on not moderating diaries just changed?

"RK: To qualify as a legitimate media site, we must moderate articles. So if you submit an article, it will go into our article queue, to be evaluated by one of our volunteer editors. We see an average of 40 to 60 a day. But we also offer diaries, and there is no moderation on diaries. I think we're one of only a very few sites that do both."

This diary entry refers to another diary entry that the writer wanted deleted and it has been deleted.

So has the policy on there being "no moderation on diaries" now changed?

by Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 1010 comments) on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 9:03:52 PM

I admit to the following
I am a Viet Nam Vet
I am a Viet Nam Vet Against War
I have not trusted a thing about the Governtment
since The 1963 coup murder of JFK
Power to the People
that where it belongs
GleamerI admit to the following
I am a Viet Nam Vet
I am a Viet Nam Vet Against War
I have not trusted a thing about the Governtment
since The 1963 coup murder of JFK
Power to the People
that where it belongs

Eye of the Beholder

The preponderance of the articles denotes a stance.

You , while claiming to be a source of information the Main Stream propagandist avoids, only go as far as your rope lets you.

You site is filled with propaganda.

Note all the "political" articles, all,(that I have seen), every one Democat or Republican,

this is what you call a contest, but what I call a great illusion,

there is no salvation to be found in the belly of the beasts that enslave us.

You may think of yourself as a "progressive" , thats what propagandist claim,where is the progress? In what direction does your "progressive aganda" take us?

Right back to the dog and pony show call USA democracy.

You need writers who understand the sham of the illusion

Who get the fact that the "Electoral College" destroys "one man , one vote"

Who sees the blatent collusion of the "Two Winged" party

Who does not run polls asking who won the debate?
Who won? not the American people

There is no debate,there is not "a nickles worth of difference"

You forward this illusion. You partake in the misdirection You are responsible

You are part of the solution or your part of the proplem,so save crowning yourself with laurels

It only works on the sheeple

by Gleamer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 11:58:16 AM