Over at the Singleton Post, they have finally figured out how to get comments on their political blog! Unfortunately, the method they devised for doing so isn’t likely to work very long.
What they did was have the most clueless member of the Post editorial board, Chuck Plunkett, “write” an almost incomprehensible defense of Jane Norton, after she agreed with Tom Tancredo that Obama is a greater threat to America than nuclear war and terrorism. Plunkett’s vapid observation that Norton “isn’t that out there” for agreeing, and “who isn’t tired of political correctness?” have resulted in a huge number of comments.
Unfortunately, most of the comments consist of statements like “the crashing quality and rapid demise of the Denver Post is stark to behold,” and “Chuck, Responsible Journalism called. It wants you to retire.” It’s nice to see a “Comments” link with a number greater than zero, but this isn’t the kind of attention they want.
Much worse for their community is the arbitrary and capricious censorship.
If you’ve ever tried to comment on a Denver Post blog, you already know that the comments don’t appear right away. Every comment left at the Denver Post’s blogs is filtered by staff. In this case, both comments I submitted were published, but I’ve talked with several others who say that their comments were never published.
And here is the difference, at least in the case of this blog by Plunkett about Norton and Tancredo: the Post appears to be letting comments critical of Plunkett go live, but not comments that criticize the Denver Post’s management – especially comments that name Dean Singleton or Dan Haley. A friend forwarded me two examples of comments he wrote at the Post’s political blog, both addressing Singleton and one addressing Haley as well. BOTH WERE CENSORED, and nothing in the content of those posts was otherwise objectionable.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? A newspaper sends legal threats to the state’s biggest political blog, demanding without legal grounds that this blog stops quoting them. A response one user received from the Post said in essence, “if you want to read the Denver Post’s stuff, visit the Post.”
But if you criticize the Post management who is forcing you to their forum, you are censored.
What possible motivation can the Post offer for visiting their site, or these new “local” sites they say they’re going to create, when the free speech we enjoy on blogs we CHOOSE to read does not exist there?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: Air Slash
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Air Slash
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Air Slash
IN: The Colorado Republican Party Has Become a Hindrance for Republican Candidates
BY: Air Slash
IN: The Colorado Republican Party Has Become a Hindrance for Republican Candidates
BY: Air Slash
IN: The Colorado Republican Party Has Become a Hindrance for Republican Candidates
BY: harrydoby
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Duke Cox
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: coloradosane
IN: Weekend Open Thread
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
.
they manipulate the comments for their own benefit ? Sorta like the NYT, who does exactly the same thing. Or the WaPo, who allows comments to post, but then erases those that are too critical.
You’d think it was a for-profit business, or somethin’.
.
it’s true. They are very selective about their comments section. I’ve had a number of posts which never made it because I was maybe too negative for their editorial review person or who knows why. In one, I sarcastically referred to the opposition’s view of then candidate Obama as “uppity”, and that was too much for them.
In the marketplace of ideas, it seems that if you aren’t sufficiently tactful, your ideas will never see the light of day. THANK GOD Colorado Pols doesn’t suffer from this problem!!!
🙂
Barron is right about one thing, it’s all about profit.
But we agree too–thank God for Colorado Pols.
.
“Barron is right”
if I knew how to add a sig line, this would be a leading candidate. Especially seeing as how it is technically accurate, but entirely at odds with the author’s intent.
.
“Barron X’s page” and click on “profile”. There’s a field there that lets you add a sig line. It has quickly become one of my favorite features on ColoradoPols.