AOL Liberal Bias

AOL | 6/11/03 | Outraged

[Outraged]

I have been paying special attention to the liberal editorial front page headlines that stain my AOL homepage…I haven't documented each and every instance of bias but this latest frontpage pushed me to the limit.

From Tuesday, June 10, 2003, they have a pop up of GW at the Presidential podium and the caption Does he rate a thumb's up? Bush linked War to Weapons, Terror. But Where's the proof?…This underlined bit brings you to the heart of the liberal bias…The title of the linked page is AOL NEWS -- The Bush Credibility Meter…The body reads "He went after Saddam for banned weapons. None have been found (this links to an AP editorial in the guise of news, by Tom Raum) so far. He argued there was a link between Iraq and al-Qaida. High-ranking captives (say it didn't exist.) Is President Bush losing credibility?

So they cite the AP and The New York Times as their sources but they intentionally omit a balancing fact…In short they are another piece of the liberal machinery bent on doing damage to truth and the Republican party.

Where is the mention of (NewsMax)or (WashingtonTimes)?…glaringly absent of course.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Do children read the Wash Times or NewsMax?

[Cindy]

I personally don't know anyone (who is a serious internet user) who has an AOL account. That's not bias --- that's a fact.

[ChemistCat]

Admin Moderator--please see my last paragraph here.

I terminated my AOL account because of their liberal bias. My friend who still works for them says that the company's leaders have given up on saving the company. They have committed Barbra Streisand's error of alienating half their customer base--and they don't have her safety net of established fiscal security.

They recently lost a million customers. Any huge company could well afford to lose a million customers IF they picked the right million to ditch--the ones who cost them more than they pay. Instead, they lost customers who had simple problems that couldn't be solved by overseas customer care representatives, customers who couldn't find a safe "place" to call home anywhere in their filth-ridden chat areas, and...customers who found that they could no longer endure having their conservative, patriotic, or Christian values scorned.

I hope this thread is moved to activism, rather than to chat. It is HIGH time that FReepers who have AOL thought about protesting AOL's actions with respect to our country, our economy, and our politics. AOL dying would not be a good thing for the USA, as a lot of jobs hinge on it and it IS a good way for technophobes to tiptoe into the 21st century. I think some serious activism is called for. I think AOL would respond to a serious, non-hostile but determined FReep. I would go back to AOL if its political bias was rebalanced. I would do so because that company has been good to my friend who works there.

[KneelBeforeZod]

newsmax has good info but too often jumps the gun

[Jeff Chandler]

I have a client whom I talked into dropping AOL and signing up with APlus.net. He uses APlus at his store, but his kids still use AOL at home. Every time his subscription runs out, AOL begs him to stay with them and gives him a few free months in which to reconsider. They've had free AOL for over a year. Personally, I wouldn't use it if they paid me.

In describing the ease with which one can learn HTML, I like to use the example "even some AOL customers have learned how to write it!"

[Az Joe]

Yeah, AOL sucks and I won't be using them anymore in about 20 days.

[grannie9]

I was so afraid of leaving AOL...but I did a couple of years ago. I hated it's liberal bias. I refused to read their news.

I am sooo happy that I finally got the choice of cable. Trying to talk my daughter into Net-Zero or anything except AOL, right now.

They also gave me the three free months when I quit, and I told them I didn't want it, but they left it still live. Don't ever touch it again for mail or anything.. They will try to charge you for it, saying they assume you signed on again. Before you know it, you have a full monthly bill..and then you have to 'deal' again..

Take a hint, others, quit and wipe them right off your computer..

[KeepUSfree]

Not to be offensive - but - AOL is for losers....

[ThinkFreedom]

What do you expect from CNN's sister company? And it's not just AOL that's circling down the drain, it's the whole company. AOL is losing users, CNN is losing viewers, Warner Music is... well, say no more..., they're selling their cable network, their movie studio is owndering why no-one wants to see their latest Alec Baldwin blockbuster, and even Ted Turner, Jerry Levine and Steve Case have left and are brawling through the tabloids about who's to blame. The whole mess is about to implode, and only Rupert Murdoch can save them now (but I doubt that will happen, he's sitting at Fox News watching his ratings clime while the liberal media implodes!)

[weegee]

AOL-Time-Life-Warner-CNN is biased? Say it isn't so!

At least there is ABC-Disney and SeeBS-Viacom-MTV-NICK-VH1-SPIKE-CMT-Simon&Schuster.

Some libs would be shocked to hear that you find any sort of "balance" from a biaed news source like FOX. < /sarcasm >

[HitmanLV]

I dumped them a while ago - reason: liberal bias in their content, and the fact that they overcharged for internet service. They simply stink!

[Skywalk]

Can anyone tell me where this anti-AOL bias came from, and I refer to the NON-POLITICAL aspect of the company. I know years ago they signed on too many new customers and created some bad feelings because their servers couldn't handle all the simultaneous traffic.

However, we've had AOL for years, and now we have DSL, but have long-standing accounts with them and they are good in a pinch(dial-up) if the DSL is down. Now that they are offering their own broadband(we can't get it in our location) they can now directly offer high-speed and their augmented services. How is this better than those commies at NetZero(hated that ad campaign) who offered it to you free, but now charge you?

Don't earthlink and assorted others just provide the ISP, do they have any other services or features? If not, what's the big deal about these other companies?

I made my own web page nearly a decade ago before everyone and his momma had one up. I was also an AOL user. What is the deal with labelling people who prefer convenience stupid?

[Las Vegas Dave]

A former co-worker signed up for AOL, gave them his credit card number for billing and has NEVER had any AOL charges applied to his bill, FREE FOR YEARS!

[ThinkFreedom]

Cable or any non-AOL ISP is a good choice, especially since now you can bookmark Freerepublic, Fox News, Newsmax, Drudge Report, or any other site you choose as your start page.

[Skywalk]

Sounds like a GREAT deal! lol

I can see where some criticism comes in, esp. in the era of high-speed access, as they are only just getting into that area.


But for a long time, they were a great company that did a lot to build internet use and familiarize many with the web(as opposed to prodigy/compuserve setups without web pages, back in the day)

I don't like the liberal bias either, but I'm thinking that EarthLink, etc are filled with lefties too.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

AOHell.

[ThinkFreedom]

First off, there was the issue of signing up more people than they could handle. Secondly, in the good 'ol early days of the net - before Al Gore even knew what the net was and the world wide web was a new concept - the main uses for the net were newsgroups and e-mail. Newsgroups were an early equivelent of e-mail mailing lists, and were relatively difficult to get on to. Unfortunately, AOL's software blurred the lines between their private message boards and the newsgroups, meaning that first time users would post inane messages not realizing the conventions that existed for them. This annoyed old time net users.

Secondly, I doubt there's a person this side of Afghanistan who hasn't been inundated with the stupid start up disks they flooded the rest of the world with. This has annoyed a lot of people.

There are other reasons... do a google search for "AOL sucks"...

[ThinkFreedom]

I guess you could try NRA Online ( http://join.nraonline.com/ ), I doubt you'll find too many lefties on there

[Xenalyte]

I despise AOL, always have, always will.

Xena's Mom is an AOL user, and I refuse to help her with any aspect of her online experience as long as she stays with it.

That said, she's 61 and refuses to switch because "I'd lose my buddy lists." The woman does NOT EVEN IM. I have no idea why she'd stay, except sheer muleheadedness.

I've offered to set her up with Southwestern Bell, which will bill to her phone number - easy as can be. Nothing doing.

Not even my explanations of the dire security problems sway her. She says it's worrisome, but apparently not worrisome enough to DO ANYTHING about. Yee.

(/rant)