Posted on 05/26/2007 1:49:34 PM PDT by Eurotwit
A few weeks ago – in between Hillary Clinton’s official entry into the presidential race and the first Republican primary debate of the cycle – the fiery online conservative forum Free Republic marked a decade in operation as one of the premier online forums for right-wing political discussion.
It also experienced one of the biggest internal battles to rock the site since the 2000 election of George W. Bush -- a tumultuous campaign year that nearly tore the site apart, as its founder and chief administrator first cleansed commenting ranks of Bush supporters, then, later, rallied to his support.
At the heart of the latest controversy: the fight over the conservative bona fides of Rudy Giuliani.
Over the past few weeks, chaos has reigned in the “Freeper” community as members sympathetic to the former mayor's candidacy claim to have suffered banishment from the site. They were victimized, they say, by a wave of purges designed to weed out any remaining support for the Giuliani campaign on the popular conservative web forum. Another significant chunk of commenters have migrated away from the controversial site over the action, according to a number of former site members and conservative bloggers who have been tracking the situation.
In a plaintive post on the blog “Sweetness & Light,” exiled commenter Steve Gilbert, who says he does not support the former mayor’s campaign, blasted the site’s new “anti-Giuliani, anti-abortion jihad.” Since George W. Bush was elected president, he wrote, “there haven’t been any large scale [Free Republic] purges to speak of – until now.”
The fight began one month ago, when site founder Jim Robinson posted an anti-Giuliani manifesto titled: “Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee would be a dagger in the heart of the conservative movement.” Then the virtual ax started to swing. Longtime posters to the freewheeling discussion threads, used to serious no-holds-barred web etiquette, were still stunned by the intensity of the anti-Rudy activity; conservative blogs buzzed with the development.
“Jim Robinson has been going on a tear demonizing Rudy Giuliani, because Rudy (agreeing with the vast majority of Americans), is personally opposed to abortions on a moral level…” complained a user on the GOPUSA Web site. “Anyone who posts any support for Giuliani at the site, if it's at all forceful, will be banned.”
(“Normally, we don't allow complaints about other conservative forums,” chided the moderator, but “…because it is being discussed all over the Internet, I'll make an exception.”)
Just a few months ago, Rudy Giuliani placed second in an early Free Republic straw poll; now, his support on the site has been virtually eliminated. “After the ‘April Purge,’ I don't think there are any Rudybots left around here,” noted Free Republic commenter “upchuck” in one recent post. “And if there are, they're not posting pro-Rudy stuff :).”
The forums weren’t the only venue for the Free Republic’s new antagonism toward Mr. Giuliani, which coincided with a wave of comments expressing similar sentiments from other corners of the conservative movement. A few days after Mr. Giuliani’s equivocal Roe v. Wade comments at the Republican presidential debate on May 3, a new “STOP RUDY NOW News & Information Thread” was featured on the site, and a newly-created stand-alone category debuted via a link from the homepage: “The Giuliani Truth File.” (So far this campaign season, Mr. Giuliani is the only candidate – Republican or Democratic – to be singled out for that level of scrutiny from the Free Republic.)
Why Rudy? Why now? Some conservative bloggers and former commenters contacted for their view of the continuing controversy say they believe that site founder Jim Robinson holds ideologically middling Republicans like Mr. Giuliani responsible for the GOP’s congressional loss and current woes. (They asked that their names be kept out of this story for fear of antagonizing the famously frisky site regulars.)
Others claim that the former mayor’s top-tier status is spurring frantic site administrators into action. Finally, one popular theory holds that the Free Republic is secretly hoping for another Clinton presidency that would send its Alexa ratings soaring back to levels it hasn’t experienced since its halcyon days of the Clinton impeachment, when a since-soured relationship with blog pioneer Matt Drudge and overwhelming anti-Clinton sentiment in Republican ranks helped make Free Republic one of the hottest Web sites in the nation. It hasn't recovered that luster since the Bush administration took over.
“It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s an observation,” said one blogger, who describes himself as a half-hearted Mitt Romney supporter. “They’ve still got a brand name that means something, but they’re not what they were in terms of real-world impact. A Hillary presidency would get them there.”
Robinson himself could not be reached for comment, but his original post laid out his case against Mr. Giuliani – a graphics-heavy presentation of some of the former mayor’s most damning moderate quotes in mainstream media venues, along with a color-coded report card tracking his less-than-doctrinaire positions on abortion, immigration, gays and guns.
Robinson, it should be noted, famously blasted George W. Bush’s presidential candidacy back in 2000, before a dramatic late-campaign about-face that saw him emerge as one of the GOP ticket’s biggest supporters. But whether or not Free Republic experiences a similar election-year shift this cycle, the site’s current campaign is spreading a dangerous primary-season meme of Rudy Giuliani as big-city liberal – and turning one of the most influential web forums in conservatism into an exclusive gathering place for those who share that view.
Welcome back, Travis!
LOLOL!
I just noticed your taglines.
Very cute...;o)
Heh...didn’t read far enough.
I see you changed it back.
Yeah, that was just for wardaddy. I’ve had no “special instructions” or anything else.
I didn’t think you’d had special instructions.
I just thought it was cute.
#419
Liar. There are many reasons people have been banned from this site and I was suspsended once myself.
It’s because rules were broken. This isn’t “our site” it’s Jim’s.
There are certain threads you will have your comments revmoved because they are there for reasons and are not for discussion. So what? Again, this is Jim’s site.
But no one bets “banned” for their views.
Way to go Jim - more lying press to prove they are afraid of you and this website.
>>
The use of the word he used has been barred from here for a long time, he knew it and even acknowledged that he would be banned and did it anyway. No sympathy here.
<<
I’m not sure what word you are referring to, but FR hardly bars vulger language or bans people for using it. a five second google search returns about 600 posts that have not been deleted. Here are just a few from the first search page.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a10244a6948.htm#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728820/posts?page=9#9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1834251/posts?page=4#4
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6cd0ed289d.htm#2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1836619/posts?page=4#4
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1816103/posts?page=13#13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1162438/posts?page=43#43
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1488869/posts?page=10#10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140507/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/640284/posts?page=57#57
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1327319/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690376/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/958219/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173862/posts?page=1#1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1610142/posts?page=1#1
Really good post of yours.
Sums it up exactly as I saw it, too.
Holy Smokes! Good to see you back!!
and I am just now picking up on what both of you were alluding to
i load a might slow but I shoot fast as lightnin’
we just had a car convention in wilson county...it did good
i may slip off to south walton county FL (seaside/seagrove) for 4 days tommorow
my daughter is still on sick leave and no kid stuff till next week
hopefully
I had just lost a good colleague (and cube mate) at work from a massive heart attack/stroke and was pretty upset. Being called a "death Eater" on that thread kinda pushed me over the edge.Please pass on my apologies for the use of bad language. This I do feel bad about.
You know, Memorial day has just passed, and it has started me thinking about all the military vets that have been banned from FR. I'm sorry to say that I don't know them all and can't name them all, but there have been quite a few.
Just recently a freeper in Iraq was accused by another freeper of working for the enemy. Complaints have been made about this post, but it still stands. How is it that the people who put their lives on the line for the country do not have the privilege on this forum of disagreeing with others, without fear of being nuked?
I am somewhat in awe of people who have devoted their lives to serving their country. I consider my year in Vietnam to be trivial compared to the service rendered by some of the people who have been barred from posting here. I'd really like to cry out, "Shame!" to some of the self-righteous, self important pretenders who inhabit this site, people who have never seen the wrong end of a weapon or wondered when a stray mortar round would find them, or find a buddy.
I'm sure my own politics will eventually get me banned from FR. I have difficult conforming to other people's demands. I grew up in a democrat household. My father worshipped FDR. I went to a Quaker college. I could have avoided military service easily.
But I went to Vietnam -- against the wishes of my parents and against the wishes of my friends, and against the wishes of all my teachers. I went because I love this country.
What I love most about this country is liberty and freedom of conscience. I have put my life on the line to defend this country, and I think I have earned the right to dissent occasionally from the prevailing opinion on this website.
People like Radioastronomer have likewise earned that right. He is my friend; he is a patriot, and anyone lacking the guts to hear what he has to say deserves no respect.
Thank you, I saw them on various threads and I was terrified of them.
LOL!
Well...you ARE turning 50 soon.
Impairs the best of us...;o)
I hope she is doing much better now.
That area of Florida is absolutely beautiful.
I fell in love with Seaside.
I hope you have a GREAT time.
Might be very good for your daughter, too.
we’ll see....it’s a spur of the moment trip which is hard for all of us
I hope I haven't said anything that makes you think that applies to me. I was not familiar with Radio Astronomer or what his views are. The only thing I did know was what the link someone provided showed where he called someone a "fucking moron", against the rules but I doubt that it is enough to get anyone banned unless it is done repeatedly. My Quoting it may get this reply deleted for that matter.
Relay to Radio Astronomer that I am a vet too and I respect the contribution of all vets.
Based on what little I know about him, it's my opinion that banning was too much. But I don't know the whole story and it's not my web site and I have zero sway in whether or not he comes back.
Thanks for your post, I learned a little.
Spur of the moment isn’t easy for most folks.
I know it’s not for me.
I hope all works out well, and the trip is everything you want it to be.
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