The Hidden Price of the Establishment Sugar Daddies-Backed Propaganda & Vulture Advertisers-Sponsored Free Content
The other day I was chatting with a man who was expressing his appreciation for our irate minority home-Boiling Frogs Post. Everything, all the brief communication, up to a certain point, was going well. Until … until he made the following comment:
I love what you guys are doing. It is activism, and it is so badly needed. I wish I had the time to participate and contribute work to your site. But the thing is I have a very hectic life … a full-time job, family and kids, and elderly mother who is about to go to a care facility, and a bunch of health issues. So, unfortunately, I can’t afford spending any time on activism at this time.
I was truly taken aback. I was offended. I was also offended on behalf of all my partners and activist friends here at BFP. Why? Here is why:
There is this assumption, not only by the man I was chatting with, but many others, that people who engage in activism, or those who work hard to further the truth and provide independent and solid needed information, are either:
A- Independently wealthy-as in millionaires
B- Have no family and children responsibilities, or loved ones to care for
C- Have no health issues or other difficult life circumstances to deal with
D- Are a bunch who have somehow forsaken and abdicated all their responsibilities, family, survival needs and health for the cause
I was offended because none of the above applies to either me or any of the people I work with. I, for one, am one of those jugglers who is handling family responsibilities, including a five-year old handful daughter, working to survive and have my family survive, handling health related emergencies and needs with bare-bones private insurance with a high deductible in order to keep monthly costs down, and … well, like all of you, so much more.
The decision to establish this amazing independent and nonpartisan information site did not come easy for me. Allow me to put it in perspective. I first had to turn my full-time job into a part-time one. And last year I gave up that job altogether to manage this website full-time (and overtime). The income difference between the two, my previous work and this work, is 70-%. This is a cost that is not only born by me but also my family. Is it hard? You bet it is. Can it be sustained? I don’t know for sure. But I am not the determinant of that- those who benefit from and appreciate what we are providing here will be determining that.
Over a year ago one of our partners here at BFP did the same thing. He quit his full-time teaching job, began dedicating all his time to producing needed independent information and news, and took a chance with not only himself but his family’s survival as well. And that includes a newly arrived baby.
There seems to be this highly absurd belief among the masses that everything on the Internet has to and must be free. That is nothing short of ridiculous. I marvel at that widely held absurd notion that says we are entitled to free information and content because it’s out there on the Internet and on our laptops, and the absurdity of the belief that there is a separation between information and analyses placed in a book and that on pages over the internet.
Information, whether it is a product of hours of research and writing, or hours spent producing and publishing video and podcast programs, isn’t free. Nor are music, movies, literature … housing, food and clothing. The people who report, analyze, write, and produce, need, like everyone else, to be paid for their work. It is a matter of survival. It is a matter of necessity. And there is no way around it.
Those who produce information of value have to take time, somehow, to think, research, write, create, produce and perform to bring to you an informative and significant product, whether it is a video report or a podcast show or an analysis of a current event.
And somehow people, the same people who hold to this absurd notion that all information production should be free, seem to be in denial of the high price they are paying for free access. They don’t even consider the price of looking and clicking on ads that appear on many of these so-called free for all websites. And it doesn’t matter if you abstain from clicking or decide to ignore the pesky pop-ops, because the vultures capture your data and place their cookie-presence in your system anyway.
Likewise, these same people refuse to acknowledge the purpose behind free-for-all websites that are backed by establishment sugar daddies such as George Soros or Rockefeller Foundations. They are either unable to distinguish the difference between independent factual information and propaganda, or, they can, but don’t want to admit to themselves that they are being sold loads of cow manure and well-calculated and designed propaganda BS.
There is a reason you do not see a single advertisement here at Boiling Frogs Post. We are not a website backed by advertising money to sell you hot Asian women or Slim Fast concoctions. We do not capture and pass along your information to anyone, and by that we mean anyone. Period. I find that concept simply despicable. Disgusting. We will never ever choose that route. Period.
There is a reason we do not have a single foundation sponsoring, backing and or contributing to this website. Those foundations are extensions of the same very establishment we are fighting against. They can take their millions and shove it … to the sold-out presstitute pseudo alternatives. Their money comes with dirty strings. We are above that. And we will remain above that. Period.
There is a reason we are not established as a 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt entity. When the government, in this case, the criminal government, offers you a tax-free exemption, they make sure they put enough restraints and conditions on it to neuter one as a free and daring entity. No thank you, government. We are keeping our cohunes intact. Period.
During our first three years of operation we tried very hard to keep all our programs and content free and open to all by relying only on voluntary contributions. We tried, and tried and tried. But it didn’t work. For whatever reason. That’s why two years ago we began our subscription model for our multimedia productions. But still, we kept our other work open and free to all, thinking that between subscriptions and contributions we could offer both. I have to tell you, even that model hasn’t been dependable and reliable.
Think about it: In order for me to go out and recruit talented, independent and professional producers, I have to be able to confidently offer them regular modest compensation for their hard work. I cannot do that if I don’t know what the outcome of each quarterly contribution drive will be. Thus, the reason for our subscription model. With this model I can be reasonably confident enough to recruit additional reporters and producers. Some may call it highly ambitious, but I am still striving to expand this site to include our very own investigative journalists. I want to be able to go out and grab Ms. X who is currently working for Company Y, not very happily, but in order to pay her bills and survive. In order for me to do that I need the resources to provide timely compensation to reporters like her.
As I have been saying repeatedly, there is only one way, only one, for an untainted, independent, nonpartisan, reliable, daring, and yet professional news website to exist: One Hundred Percent Publicly Subsidized. Meaning; no sugar daddies, no foundations, no advertisers, no government subsidies in the form of tax exemptions, and no political party interference. And to make that a reality you come into the picture. You the people. People have to decide whether to seek free garbage brought to them by the garbage establishment, or, to help create and sustain one outside that garbage paradigm.
This quarter, as before, we are depending on you. We believe we have been effective: we have been shining the light on the truth, and have been irritating the powers and their puppetries. We have been proving that it is indeed possible to have an independent and truly alternative media model based on a solely publicly subsidized model. And, we have accomplished this through one source (and one source only): You and your support.
Please take a stand and make a statement today by supporting a real alternative. Please help us continue and expand- for the independent truth, and for all of us. You can, and here is how:
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Thank you for all your support,
Sibel Edmonds