I have been meaning to write about a site I visit regularly, but hadn’t gotten around to yet. I know it’s going to be controversial, so I am asking your help to write it. Below you will find my intro to the site. I then would like you to go comment and let everyone know what you think of it. Feel free to highlight specific items; remark on things you like, don’t like; make constructive critiques. If you are reading this via e-mail, please visit the link and participate, too.
The site is TheMemoryHole.org and its motto is “Rescuing knowledge, freeing information.” It’s run by Russ Kick, a freelance journalist and author or editor of such books as “50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know”; “Everything You Know is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies”; and “Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies” (as well as “Hot Off the Net: Erotica and Other Sex Writings From the Internet” — but that’s another story). The purpose of the site is to “preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known,” including government files, corporate memos, Congressional testimony, photographs, video, and sound recordings; news articles; and books. The site’s “emphasis is on material that exposes things that we’re not supposed to know (or that we’re supposed to forget).”
What can you find there? Apart from a prominent call to “all insiders, whistle-blowers, researchers, journalists, and others” to send in important, sensitive documents, you will find all manner of items dealing with information that should be of interest to journalists and government watchers. Among the recent items that Kick claims are exclusive to the site:
• Suppressed FBI Report on Dismissed Agents
• Complete audio of firefighters’ trapped in the World Trade Center on the morning of the 9/11 attacks
• Inventories of George W. Bush’s Gubernatorial Papers
You might also want to check out these in-depth sections:
• The MemoryBlog – a regularly updated blog of new items
• FOIA Case Logs – see other FOIA requests
• 9/11 section – which features several items about the attacks
So, what do you think of the site? Help me complete this column by posting your comments.
Send me new column tips at poynter@sree.net.
Sree’s Links:
SAJA’s 10th Anniversary Convention and Job Fair is June 17-20, 2004 at Columbia University in NYC & the SAJA Journalism Awards entry deadline is Friday, April 9 – EXTENDED POSTMARK DEADLINE! You don’t have to be South Asian to attend or to enter the contest.
