What Really Happened
By Mary Rizzo • Aug 11th, 2009 at 19:32 • Category: Interviews, Newswire, Palestine, Website of the Week
The next site on the itinerary of our favourite sites is What Really Happened (boldly without the question mark!) www.whatreallyhappened.com which is run by Mike Rivero. This site has picqued my interest before I really knew what it was (I thought it was "just" about 9/11 when I first came into contact with it, judging only by my preconceived idea of the site name) because if I was doing research on some issue about health or education, I found something there, then the next time I needed something about prisoner rights, up popped WRH, and so on again and again, not to mention, the very large section on Palestine. It's a site that is comprised of part original material and part aggregator of any number of hot topics of the day, and, like the very good aggregator it is, there is always something worth reading there that might have been missed otherwise.
And, the site is so big, I never investigated it all, no matter how many times I have put that item on my "to do" list. How can someone not be intrigued by sections with names like: From Freedom to Fascism, Economy in Deep Doo Doo, Fake Terror, Jesus' Family?
Palestine Think Tank asked the editor a few questions, and learned a few surprising things!
What is the focus of your website?
What kind of readership do you have in mind when assembling the
What are the aspects of your site that are the most representative as well as the strong points of your site?
Do you encourage discussion on your site in the form of comments and if so, what can you say about the commenting on your site?
What are some of the posts that are the most important/memorable to you?
If you could describe your site in one or two sentences, how would you do that?
Has your site ever had difficulties or been involved in any controversies that you would care to mention?
Is there anything you might like to add to the readers of Palestine Think Tank?
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
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I love WRH. I discovered it in early January and it was an excellent source of information during the Gaza assault, along with a couple of other sites.
Rivero needs to start selling politically-themed punching bags, though. Those of us addicted to his site need some way to vent our rage after each visit!
I've been a steady reader of WhatReallyHappened.com for seven or eight years now and find it THE most informative of alternative sites. Mike keeps his cool and sense of humour, something I greatly appreciate. This man is one atheist who will certainly have a grand place in heaven. E Pono Mai!
Bravo Michael Rivero
I also first came into contact with WRH after 9-11 and stayed throughout the attack on Afghanistan and the run-up and attack on Iraq. I would add the site is steadfastly anti-war, on principled grounds, but Rivero enjoys pointing out the hypocrisy and tactical disasters as they occur. The WRH photo-essays of the global anti-war rallies were inspiring.
I also appreciate Rivero exposing Israeli atrocities against the indigenous Palestinians; that takes effort and courage to confront. WRH walks a fine line and has occasionally slid into material of questionable antisemitic origin. It's a minor point but a well organized propaganda apparatus can exploit those missteps to discredit an otherwise excellent resource. I prefer the straight facts like the way B'tselem presents them. Can't really accuse them of antisemitism.
I consider Rivero to be a libertarian capitalist like Ron Paul and Peter Schiff. I'm more of a leftist but WRH is my landing page. I always find excellent links about human rights or cover-ups.
As you pointed out, Rivero has also expertly uncovered some crude photographic propaganda such as the fake al-Qaida Israeli agents with their feigned expressions of shame standing without handcuffs or shit covered hoods between two 'IDF commandos'. Or can we ever forget the 'many faces of bin Laden' time-line? The photographic analyses are so devastating most dingbats can't look at them or discuss them intelligently after they look.
Peace
WHR is more interesting then other similar sites, because it links you to a wider variety of articles, and leaves more space for the reader.
Long term whr reader
whatreallyhappened.com is The Most Important news website on the Internet. Mike Rivero analyses current events through the lens of a deep knowledge of history. And he's got a great sense of humor that all his website and radio fans love.
I like Mike Rivero's site (WRH) quite a lot though I disagree with him completely with regards to global warming (climate intensification is a better term anyway) being a fraud (regardless of if the proposed mitigations/solutions of the problem are valid or not – those are separate questions) and healthcare reform as something we should reject. Sadly, in those areas I feel that he uses spurious logic and questionable tactics in constructing his arguments of the type that are usually found in much of the propaganda he attacks quite effectively elsewhere.