OpEdNews
Encyclopedia
OpEdNews is a United States
-based progressive
/liberal news
, activism
, and opinion website
founded in 2003. The site claims 350 to 800,000 unique visitors, around 70 million hits every month, having over 44,000 registered members. As of November, 010, technorati
ranks Opednews.com among the top 100 blogs over all, out of the more than 1.2 million it tracks.
It is a hybrid news, community blog
and article aggregation site which publishes opinion-based articles, news stories and diaries while its mission, according to the site, is to "provide a content management, social networking website that supports progressive communications resources and tools for activism and advocacy organizations". Being a news-source for many mainstream media
, independent websites and blogs, OpedNews calls itself "a Drudge Report
for progressives".
, arts
(movies, books, music
, theater, etc.,) sciences, health
, Mass media
, business
, technology
, sports, travel
, citizen journalism
and various strange and unusual stuff. The site is non-partisan but left-leaning, hosting some of the most prolific article-writers. It is Left
biased and readers should expect to read the site as a left-wing site with a left wing perspective.
OpEdNews uses a custom built content management system Architected by founder Rob Kall, produced by populum.com. It includes features not found in other blog/media content management sites, such as being one of the 4500 websites approved by Google
news, which means that all articles are indexed by Google NEWS almost immediately as they come online.
Additionally, any author can include action pages custom designed for their Op-Ed
articles, something which according to the site "is a unique innovation that no other website on the planet has". Other features include:
A partial list of some of the thousands of writers on OpEdNews. Most post directly, some have given permission to reprint.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based progressive
Progressivism in the United States
Progressivism in the United States is a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century and is generally considered to be middle class and reformist in nature. It arose as a response to the vast changes brought by modernization, such as the growth of large...
/liberal news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
, and opinion website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
founded in 2003. The site claims 350 to 800,000 unique visitors, around 70 million hits every month, having over 44,000 registered members. As of November, 010, technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
ranks Opednews.com among the top 100 blogs over all, out of the more than 1.2 million it tracks.
It is a hybrid news, community blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
and article aggregation site which publishes opinion-based articles, news stories and diaries while its mission, according to the site, is to "provide a content management, social networking website that supports progressive communications resources and tools for activism and advocacy organizations". Being a news-source for many mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
, independent websites and blogs, OpedNews calls itself "a Drudge Report
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many...
for progressives".
Editorial Philosophy
OpEdNews goal is to be holistic, to cover politicsPolitics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
(movies, books, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, theater, etc.,) sciences, health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, Mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, sports, travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
, citizen journalism
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
and various strange and unusual stuff. The site is non-partisan but left-leaning, hosting some of the most prolific article-writers. It is Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
biased and readers should expect to read the site as a left-wing site with a left wing perspective.
OpEdNews uses a custom built content management system Architected by founder Rob Kall, produced by populum.com. It includes features not found in other blog/media content management sites, such as being one of the 4500 websites approved by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
news, which means that all articles are indexed by Google NEWS almost immediately as they come online.
Additionally, any author can include action pages custom designed for their Op-Ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
articles, something which according to the site "is a unique innovation that no other website on the planet has". Other features include:
- user submitted polling with crosstab analysis of demographics
- support for groups, so content, when submitted can be shared on group pages
- event announcements
- calendars
- comprehensive member pages/archives
- content popularity statistics based on a page views, number of comments, number of emails sent, and ratings.
- a unique tagging system that analyzes content item words and then suggests tags that exist in the directory.
- an article submission queue managed by volunteer editors
- comment flagging and management system
- a news page for every member of congress (partially funded by a grant from the Sunlight Foundation)
- a page for every nation in the world, every county in the US, every province in Canada and every US metro area, with the ability to add pages for any neighborhood.
- RSS feeds for every member, every tag, ever locale
- twitter API integration, making it easy for members and non-members to tweet articles and add comments tied to the tweets.
- multiple levels of editor, admin, sysadmin control panel access options
- a quotation database
Writers/Editors/Columnists
Senior Editorial Board (see masthead):- Rob Kall (Editor-in Chief)
- John Moffett
- Cheryl Biren-Wright
- Linda Milazzo
- Mikhail Lyubansky
- Walter BraschWalter BraschWalter M. Brasch Ph.D., is an American social issues journalist and university professor of journalism. He is the author of a weekly syndicated newspaper column and the author of 17 books. He is an award winning former newspaper editor in California, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio.-Philosophy of...
- Joan Brunwasser
- Josh Mitteldorf
- Scott Baker
A partial list of some of the thousands of writers on OpEdNews. Most post directly, some have given permission to reprint.
- Paul Craig RobertsPaul Craig RobertsPaul Craig Roberts is an American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and...
- Jeff CohenJeff Cohen (media critic)Jeff Cohen is a journalist, media critic, professor, and the founder of Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting , a media watchdog group in the US. He was formerly a lawyer for the ACLU and authored or co-authored five books that criticize media bias, mainly written with Norman Solomon...
- Medea BenjaminMedea BenjaminMedea Benjamin is an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink and, along with her husband, activist and author Kevin Danaher, fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange...
- Steve Bhaerman
- Ellen Brown
- Marjorie CohnMarjorie CohnMarjorie Cohn is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild.In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers...
- Michael Collins
- Sheldon Drobny
- Sibel Edmonds
- Bob Fitrakis
- Glen Ford
- Al GoreAl GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
- Thom HartmannThom HartmannThom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...
- Bev Harris
- Earl Ofari HutchinsonEarl Ofari HutchinsonEarl Ofari Hutchinson is a journalist, author, and broadcaster.Hutchinson is also the author of nine books about the African American experience. He serves as the President of the National Alliance for Positive Action, and is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Blacknews.com and...
- Robert Jensen
- Dave Johnson
- Congressman Dennis KucinichDennis KucinichDennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
- Stephen Lendman
- Rabbi Michael LernerMichael Lerner (rabbi)Michael Lerner is a political activist, the editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine based in Berkeley, California, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue of San Francisco.-Family and Education:...
- Steven Leser
- Paul Rogat Loeb
- Ray McGovernRay McGovernRaymond McGovern is a retired CIA officer turned political activist. McGovern was a Federal employee under seven U.S. presidents over 27 years, presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them.-Early life:...
- Robert McElvaine
- Mike MalloyMike MalloyMichael Dennis Malloy is an American radio broadcaster from Atlanta, Georgia. Previously his show has been carried by WSB Atlanta, WLS Chicago, the I.E. America Radio Network, the Air America Radio network, Nova M Radio and the On Second Thought network. He is now self-syndicated...
- Jason Miller
- Mark Crispin MillerMark Crispin MillerMark Crispin Miller is professor of media studies at New York University, and the author of the book: Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform...
- Robert Naiman
- Georgianne Nienaber
- Rory Oconnor
- Siv O'Neal
- Stephen Pizzo
- Michael Richardson
- Senator Bernie SandersBernie SandersBernard "Bernie" Sanders is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives...
- Danny Schecter
- Andrew Schmookler
- Cindy SheehanCindy SheehanCindy Lee Miller Sheehan is an American anti-war activist whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President...
- Roger Schuler
- Stephen Soldz
- David SwansonDavid SwansonDavid L. Swanson is an American activist, blogger and author.-Education:Swanson obtained a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Virginia in 1997.-Career:...
- Nancy Tobi
- Dean Lawrence Velvel
- Robert WolffRobert WolffRobert Wolff may refer to:*Bobby Wolff , American bridge player*Bob Wolff, radio and television broadcaster*Robert Paul Wolff , political philosopher-See also:*Robert Wolf *Robert Wolfe...
- Mickey ZMickey ZMichael Zezima is a writer, editor, blogger and novelist living in New York City. He writes a bimonthly column, "Mickey Z. Says", for VegNews magazine and he has also appeared on the C-SPAN network's Book TV program...
- Kevin ZeeseKevin ZeeseKevin Zeese is an American political activist who has been a leader in the drug policy reform and peace movements and in efforts to ensure a voter verified paper audit trail. He was on the ballot as the nominee of the Maryland Green Party for a U.S. Senate seat during the 2006 election, receiving...
- Dave Zirin
Awards
- Bloggers Choice Awards 2007
- Nominated 2008: "Best Political Blog"