(Continuation of previous blog post: Scoop’s Ad Campaign for US Electronic Election Integrity)
In January 2002, I sent an e-mail to the Solari network list posing 20 questions designed to illuminate the falacies in the official explanations of the Enron bankruptcy. A network member sent it to Scoop. Alastair Thompson contacted me from Wellington, New Zealand where Scoop is headquartered and asked permission to publish it.
Scoop was publishing daily the rankings of the top 30 stories ranked by reader hits. ” Top picks” and “most popular” are common today. Then it was unusual, like many of Scoop‘s innovations.
Scoop was publishing many pieces that mainstream media was avoiding. They had “scoops” posting fast and furious — and then the readers would define what was the most valuable. It made Scoop ruthlessly democratic and exciting.
To my astonishment, my piece on Enron ranked high in Scoop‘s ratings. The next thing I knew I was invited to publish regularly in Scoop in what has now become my “Mapping the Real Deal” column. Scoop organizes its columns so that readers who choose can be notified whenever a columnist posts. A following grew that I could never have developed alone in the US.
In June of 2002, a combined team of Americans and Kiwis (New Zealanders) launched the Unanswered Questions.org website, inspired by Scoop‘s coverage of questions about 9-11. This was accompanied by the UQ Wire – an online wire service run by Scoop to publish articles asking questions about 9-11. It was so successful that to this day I believe that the 9-11 truth movement would never have grown and flourished as it did without Scoop‘s media “air cover” in those first few years.
As Scoop‘s prominence grew they attracted more and more writers who were disgusted with the censorship we found in the US media and valued the freedom and support that Scoop offered. I remember that when Jason Leopold found himself censored in the US on his Enron story ( See “Shafted by the New York Times“), it was Scoop who published Jason’s stories and his original documents on line, thus ultimately winning apologies from those in the U.S. who had tried to isolate him.
Scoop picked up on the story of US election fraud early on, publishing works by Bev Harris, Greg Palast, Michael Collins and other leading reporters. Scoop got its start covering the New Zealand legislature and government and their understanding and appreciation for the details of governmental process are very strong. This expertise enabled Scoop to provide election coverage in a foreign country while also running its traditional top daily New Zealand news service and all that entails, from sports to weather to gallery openings.
In 2004 and 2006, I had the opportunity to visit Alastair and Scoop in New Zealand. That is when I learned the back story to Scoop — of Alastair’s family — his wife, mom, dad and siblings — and the other founders (including top New Zealand journalist Selwyn Manning) whose extraordinary commitments of time, money and personal reputation had made Scoop such a success.
Alastair’s father, Stephen Thompson was a retired engineer who was an active board member and an integral member of the business. As I got to know him, I realized what Stephen and his wife Margaret through their quiet support of the Scoop team had done for me and my family, as well as millions of Americans and people around the world impacted by events in America. It was a humbling reminder of what a small group of talented people can accomplish.
Stephen Thompson died unexpectedly in July. Alastair posted videos from the funeral service on the Scoop website. You can watch them to get a feeling for the extraordinary quality of various people involved with Scoop. The service included a quote from St. Luke:
“He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Scoop Independent News is a rock on which I and Solari stand. I go through each day feeling a bit safer and a bit more confident knowing they are there, watching my back. I appreciate how much they have done for me and my family. That said, during this election cycle, it is impossible for me to remain silent while I watch members of the Solari network continue to spend money on corporate media that has censored what we needed to know to prevent what is now happening and to protect our families, our communities and our country.
While election coverage has never been Solari’s focus, I am deeply concerned about the loss of election integrity in the US and what that loss could mean in terms of confidence in the US financial system and economy, not just in the US but abroad as well. If investors worldwide believe that the next administration are simply warlords with a good team of computer hackers, we will have an even more significant creditor problem than we have now.
Imagine instead what could happen if we were to shift our attention and our dollars from corporate media to Scoop and other members of the independent media that have told us the truth and protected us. And imagine what could happen as content and advertising space to the many reporters and groups working hard to protect election integrity in the US grows. We could truly start to find each other, support each other. Can you imagine if that made an important difference to the upcoming elections? I can.
I would like to see Americans this year fund the Scoop effort rather than asking Scoop and its Kiwi advertisers to go it alone. Stephen Thompson may be gone, but our appreciation for him and his family can keep going and growing. This is why I asked Alastair this year to create an opportunity for US supporters to contribute.
So it would mean the world to me if you would click back up to the campaign description and donate some funds online and take those actions that are appropriate for you and yours.
You do so with my deepest thanks and appreciation.