FACTOID # 119: The United States has the world's highest number of McDonald’s restaurants per capita. Americans also die of obesity more often than any other nation, with more deaths than Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria and Canada combined.
 
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Encyclopedia > SourceWatch
SourceWatch's logo features a magnifying glass through which its name can be seen.
SourceWatch's logo features a magnifying glass through which its name can be seen.

SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia) describes itself as "a collaborative project that aims to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests." Image File history File links SourceWatch logo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A logotype (from the Greek λογότυπο), commonly known as a logo, is the graphic element, symbol, and icon of a trademark or brand, which is set in a special typeface or arranged in a particular way. ... A magnifying glass A magnifying glass is a single convex lens which is used to produce a magnified image of an object. ... Public relations is the art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key publics. ... This article is about the institution. ... Public Opinion is a book on media and democracy by Walter Lippmann. ... Public policy is a policy or set of policies which forms the foundation of public law. ... A corporation (usually known in the United Kingdom and Ireland as a company) is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name... Advocacy is an umbrella term for organized activism related to a particular set of issues. ...


The stated SourceWatch policy for WikiWiki editors is "fairness and accuracy" rather than a neutral point of view policy. [1]. The project's sponsor is the research group Center for Media and Democracy; Bob Burton is SourceWatch editor [2] and the main contact for the project and provides a degree of oversight as an analyst on public relations. shut up chris See also Wikipedia:Neutral point of view Wikipedias neutrality policy. ... Research is often described as an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting and revising facts. ... The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is an American-based media research group founded in 1993 by environmentalist writer and political activist John Stauber. ... Wikipedia:Pelican Shit in progress ...


The directory is available on the web as a Wiki, maintained by a community of interested users worldwide. When SourceWatch began, any visitor to the site could edit existing articles and create new ones. In April, 2006, however, SourceWatch changed its policy to require that users register and log in before editing. (Unregistered visitors can still read all the material.) SourceWatch was started on January 15, 2003 and publicly launched with 200 articles on March 10, 2003. Conservative estimates put the number of articles in SourceWatch at over 5000 as of July 2004,[3]. Content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The wiki is a shorter form wiki wiki (weekie, weekie) which is from the native language of Hawaii (Hawaiian), where it is commonly used as an adjective to denote something quick or fast (Hawaiian dictionary). ... January 15 is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... GNU logo (similar in appearance to a gnu) The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. ...


Since the SourceWatch style is to often extensively quote other news articles, the SourceWatch article will, in many cases, have extensive external links.

Contents


Criticism of SourceWatch

SourceWatch has a generally liberal and left-wing outlook on issues, and most of the project's investigative and critical articles are aimed and directed at what SourceWatch perceives to be prominent conservatives, those that are right-of center and Republican Party organizations and individuals. Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. ... This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. ...


Sourcewatch has been criticised by conservatives and opponents of environmentalism for its political stance. Alan Caruba, who describes himself as a critic of "environmental propaganda' writes "Source Watch is a project of the Center of Media & Democracy, a left-wing organization that devotes a lot of time to attacking the public relations profession in general and conservative writers in particular."[4]. Alan Caruba is a public relations advisor, a critic of environmentalism and founder of the National Anxiety Center. ...


The website ActivistCash.com, operated by industry lobby group the Center for Consumer Freedom, describes the Center for Media & Democracy, the organisation behind SourceWatch, as "a counterculture public relations effort disguised as an independent media organization... it is essentially a two-person operation" run by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. ActivistCash adds "If someone in a shirt and tie dares make a profit (especially if food or chemicals are involved), Rampton and Stauber are bound to have a problem with it." [5] The Centre is funded by organisations, described by ActivistCash as 'leftwing', such as the Homeland Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America, the DJB Foundation, the Carolyn Foundation, and the Foundation for Deep Ecology.CMD Financials. ActivistCash. ... The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), formerly called the Guest Choice Network, is a non-profit U.S. advocacy group funded by the food, alcohol, and tobacco industries, and more than 1,000 concerned individuals, according to its website. ... The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a media research group founded in 1993 by environmentalist writer and political activist John Stauber. ... Sheldon Rampton (born August 4, 1957) is the editor of PR Watch, and the author of several books that criticize the public relations industry and what he sees as other forms of corporate and government propaganda. ... John Stauber is an American writer and political activist who co-authored five books about propaganda by governments, private interests and the PR industry. ... The DJB Foundation was set up Wilbur Hugh Ferry and his second wife, Carol Underwood Bernstein. ...


In April 2001, The Village Voice, in a review of Rampton and Stauber's book wrote: “These guys come from the far side of liberal. Saying so is not to detract from their exhaustively detailed reportage and calmly convincing tone; indeed, the book is generally light on rhetoric, and there's hardly a radical quoted. But the public stranglehold of corrupt experts is framed as a crisis of "democracy," which the authors see as not just freedom from having your mind messed with, but also a level of engagement that drives citizens to become their own experts.” [6] The Village Voice is a weekly newspaper in New York City featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City. ...


Much like other Wiki-systems, content disputes arise on SourceWatch. SourceWatch administrators have been accused of preventing other members from making edits that the administrators are opposed to. Another criticism of SourceWatch is that it opposes contributors changing or deleting information on the basis that it is old and therefore irrelevant. SourceWatch policy is that relevant information does not cease to be relevant merely because time has passed, but some critics disagree with this policy. SourceWatch has also been critical of Wikipedia for not always referencing its sources. [7].


SourceWatch on Wikipedia

In its article of Wikipedia, SourceWatch states: "Some aspects of wiki systems may be inherently unreliable. In wikis such as Wikipedia with no formal fact-checking process, it can be a matter of luck when explicit plagiarism or inaccurate statements are discovered. While advocates of Wikipedia have stated in news interviews their hope that the project's popularity will attract a large number of concerned users who will find content that doesn't serve the wiki's purpose, verification problems can be independent of the number of users if the percentage of erroneous entries remains proportional among a growing total number of users." [8]


In it's criticism of of Wikipedia, SourceWatch commented "You should consider the authoritativeness of the external website when giving a citation. For example, many Wikipedia articles are themselves extremely poorly referenced, and so Wikipedia is not considered an authoritative source for external references." [9]


See also

Media Transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means. ... In the physical sciences, specifically in optics, a transparent physical object is one that can be seen through. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Sourcewatch's Path to 911 article | TPMCafe (1021 words)
Sourcewatch generally is perceived to be center/left politically (there are exceptions, as verifiable facts is a predominate intent of the site, and there are many editors whose work cannot be easily tagged within the political linearity), which was originally started as a media watch wikiweb.
SourceWatch is the proud host of Congresspedia, a "citizen's encyclopedia of the U.S. Congress" and a joint project of the Center for Media and Democracy and the new Sunlight Foundation.
Sourcewatch members noticed structural problems in wiki-styled knowledge base implementations before many of the publications pointing out wikipedia's inherent problems were created, and took steps early in an attempt to not be a vector for disinformation dispersal on the web.
SourceWatch - SourceWatch (1610 words)
A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy.
SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests.
SourceWatch began as the "Disinfopedia" in February 2003.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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