Founded in 1999 to provide a platform for the Seattle anti-globalization riots
Justifies Palestinian terrorism
Supports the open-borders movement
The Independent Media Center (a.k.a. Indymedia, or IMC) is an Internet-based, news and events bulletin board with local pages in most of the world's major cities. Composed of more than 150 individual and autonomous centers scattered around the globe, IMC describes itself as "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth." Positioning itself as a counterbalance to the "corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity," Indymedia's content derives entirely from the collective input of several hundred volunteer freelance "journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage." Though each IMC is an autonomous entity that manages its own finances and makes its own editorial decisions, Indymedia represents an invariably leftist, anti-capitalist perspective and serves as a mouthpiece for anti-globalization/anti-America themes.
IMC was established in 1999 for the express purpose of providing a publicity platform for the anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) riots which ravaged the city of Seattle that year. The Seattle IMC covered those events via the first Indymedia website as well as a printed publication called The Blind Spot.
Four years later (in November 2003), the Austin Indymedia Center published an article calling on everyone "from anarchists to family farmers" to stage similar anti-WTO demonstrations against upcoming free trade talks in Miami. Exhorting readers to rise up "[i]n the defiant spirit of Seattle's 1999 World Trade Organization protests … to derail the trade meetings and map out alternatives to corporate globalization," the article said that "Miami will be overflowing with people who know that another world is possible." A Pittsburgh Indymedia article from the same time period predicted: "The government expects 20,000 to 100,000 people to attempt to derail the summit and we see no reason to disappoint them. … There will be a wide variety of tactics employed by groups opposed to the FTAA [Free Trade Area of the Americas] meetings. Some of these will likely involve the possibility of arrest. "
Indymedia frequently blurs the distinction between creating and covering a story. Individuals claiming "journalistic" status in IMC's name are often active participants in the very demonstrations or "direct-actions" about which they report. And while Indymedia's independent centers "have explicit policies to strongly deter reporters from participating in direct actions while reporting," IMC states that "[e]ach Indymedia reporter/organizer must make [the distinction between 'journalist' and 'activist'] for him/herself." In many cases, Indymedia press "credentials" serve as nothing more than entry passes for active protesters to areas otherwise reserved for legitimate media representatives, and are generally available to anyone for a nominal fee ranging from $1 to $10. An online solicitation for the purchase of an IMC press card states: "If you use the card and meet resistance, have the authorities involved call our office ... We'll be more than willing to verify that you are who you say you are."
Though the Indymedia homepage restricts the content of its center-column feature articles to material selected by members of a special editorial "collective," the organization's "open publishing" policy permits anyone to post virtually any type of "news" to its online newswire (including, as noted above, many first-hand accounts of protests, written by protest participants themselves). The IMC editorial collective often upgrades these to feature-article status. Other posts announce upcoming demonstrations or related activities in an attempt to recruit participants. Posted material that is deemed unsuitable -- on grounds that it is libelous or false, or that it advocates specific illegal activity -- is sometimes "hidden" by Indymedia's editors, making it slightly more difficult for website visitors to find and read.
Among the most common themes running through IMC is an extreme animus directed against the United States and Israel. Comparisons of the U.S. to Nazi Germany, links to websites supportive of Palestinian terror, and shrill manifestos against American imperialism are commonplace on Indymedia. Equally common are posts referring to Zionism as racism, comparing Jews to pigs, likening Israelis to Nazis, and advocating boycotts of Israeli products.
IMC was founded by longtime leftwing activist/protester Sheri Herndon and Seattle attorney Dan Merkle. Merkle's law partner, Bob Siegel, is the current President of the Seattle National Lawyers Guild.
Though Indymedia does not have tax-exempt status, donations to IMC are tax deductible (for donors) because IMC uses a fiscal sponsor, a tax-exempt organization that funnels donations to it. IMC's original fiscal sponsor was Jam for Justice -- a Seattle nonprofit (which organized concerts to raise money for anti-war, social justice, and radical environmentalist causes) established by Dan Merkle. IMC's current fiscal sponsor is the the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
