Monday, May 07, 2007

ePluribus Investigates - An opportunity to make the news






We all recognize the Latin words “E Pluribus”; along with “Unum,” they grace almost all of our currency. In Latin, according to Wikipedia, this motto means “Out of many, (is) One," or "From many, (comes) One."

Thanks to my friend and political ally, Dan Ashby, co-founder of ElectionDefenseAlliance.org, I now know about ePluribusInvestigates.org. Why in the world do I need more online resources? What’s different about this one? While I wait a week or two to be “vetted”, allowing me full access to the website, this is what I’ve discovered about ePluribusInvestigates.org:

1. It’s a “collaborative journal,” which means I can contribute something to the overall effort. Its goal is to research issues of common concern and encourage the highest standards of ethics and journalism, something sadly lacking in the mainstream media.

2. I was given the opportunity to pick what service I want to offer. I chose editing.

3. The site offers us a Citizens Journalism Toolbox, a collection of resources to help us improve our "news" writing skills.

4. ePluribusInvestigates.org is organizing the incredible amount of information that is becoming available regarding the Department of Justice’s infamous “purged prosecutors” as well as those Bushies who have retained their U.S. attorney positions. As I posted on March 23, Ten Top Reasons I'm Staying on the Purged Prosecutor Story, I’m paying attention to this issue. I have countless articles in numerous files, but it’s hard to stay organized and caught up. I’m hoping EpluribusMedia.org will help.

If you are interested in the goal of ePluribusInvestigates.org to collaboratively create accurate “unspinned news,” check it out. The links on the left side of the home page are available to the public.

(logo is from ePluribusMedia, home to ePluribusInvestigates)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice write up. I'm one of those who adds to that messy stack of a million pages over at ePI (investigate) site.

Here's my tips for beginners...

Get Scrapbook extension for Firefox. It's the best way I've found to do internet research. You basically are saving webpages you encounter into a scrapbook folder on your harddrive. And you can move these around into categories (folders), add text notes, and search it like your own mini-google.

Unfortunately this doesn't get linked back into ePI, but easy to copy and paste later when you find a collection of useful links. You have the page and also the link you found the page at, and all of this can be done "offline".

You can also share your scrapbook with others and also scrapbook relevant ePI pages, so then you can search those more easily.

I should just msg you on ePI.. but this was quicker and I don't have to do any figureing on who the new user is. Welcome.