Palestine Think Tank

This week’s website is a double-bill. Run by the same webmaster, Atheo News and Oh Bummer are two political blogs, one having an international focus, the other a disenchanted appraisal of the “change” happening in Obama’s America, both organised according to an anti-imperialist, leftist, point of view. The core drive of them is a refusal to take as valid the excuses for making wars and occupying the land belonging to other people. The mainstream media, but just as often the alternative media, only looks at things skin-deep, and thus, in-depth analysis of not only the events, but the “reporting” of the events, provides needed insight, since we, the public, exist as consensus-providing machines (believing as we do that we are part of democratic societies). Uncovering facts is not really the work of a blogger, but exposing disinformation sure is, and Atheo trawls the internet to find articles on a wide range of issues, often from the most surprising of sources. But pointing at a naked emperor is not all one can find on these sites. They are very good aggregators of some of the best opinion pieces and articles. My only complaint about the site is that I would really enjoy more original writing by the webmaster.

Palestine Think Tank asked him a few questions, and this is what he had to say: 

What is the focus of your website?

Atheo News is oriented toward social justice and media disinformation issues such as those that make up the "label" categories:

• Civil Liberties 
• Economics 
• Ethnic Cleansing 
• False Flag Terror 
• Gangsterism 
• Hope and "Change" 
• Illegal Occupation 
• Islamophobia 
• Media Theatrics 
• Militarism 
• Phony Scarcity 
• Piracy 
• Separatism 
• Solidarity 
• Subjugation 
• Supremacism 
• War Crimes 
• Warmongering 
• Wars for Israel

Oh Bummer has a more limited focus on disappointments with the Obama regime and is somewhat more oriented to domestic US issues rather than international ones.

What kind of readership do you have in mind when assembling the material? Include information about the frequency of updating, about the sources you use, about the editorial or contributor staff if any.

I try to keep Atheo News interesting for the international audience though that is not strictly adhered to.Oh Bummer contains more content that would only interest North Americans though its readership has turned out to be almost as international as that of Atheo News. With Oh Bummer's exposure of the fallacy of "hope and change" it appeals mostly to the 1% of the electorate that voted for third party candidates, which is a very small target audience. International readers are not invested in having voted for Obama, so perhaps they are quicker to accept the reality of continuity from Bush era policies. 

What are the aspects of your site that are the most representative as well as the strong points of your site?

Oh Bummer is, sad to say, fairly unique as a site dedicated to critique of the Obama regime from a left perspective.Atheo News provides non-ideological dissent, which includes Palestine solidarity news as well as other anti-colonialism struggles. 

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?

Please comment! While my sites do have regular readerships, they are fairly passive and mostly post comments as "anonymous" which unfortunately fails to achieve a sense of community or familiarity among themselves.I have a policy of deleting comments that encourage violence or illegal actions. 

What are some of the posts that are the most important/memorable to you?

A few of my posts have been circulating by email and republishing and have generated practically continuous reading. I compiled them into a category: Timeless or Most Popular  

If you could describe your site in one or two sentences, how would you do that?

Atheo News and Oh Bummer are basically aggregations of both news articles and selected blog posts by other bloggers, however over the past few months I have been writing unique content on issues I run across that I simply can't find good coverage on. A compilation of these articles is available under the label: Atheo News

Has your site ever had difficulties or been involved in any controversies that you would care to mention?

About two months into operation Atheo News became suppressed by Google. Referrals from Google internet searches suddenly dropped by 90%, Atheo News posts were placed at the bottom by whatever ranking system they use. The Blogger search function within the blog itself stopped working as well, results being haphazard and no longer chronological. 

Is there anything you might like to add to the readers of Palestine Think Tank?

Please visit! Atheo News and Oh Bummer should be of interest to PTT readers, the sites are quite complimentary.