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.
>> Ooo ~ that's wonderful.
Isn't it?
Intelligence is a gift, and for my two cents, it's a character issue if you don't thank the Giver.
Yes ~ every waking moment. “;^)
I have yet to run across a case where the banned poster did not attempt to either a) trash other, far more conservative candidates (or icons) to make Guiliani look good, and/or b) re-define core conservative concepts to make Guiliani's positions seem less heinous.
So what?
Howlin didn't want to be a poster on a conservative site.
Howlin was an execellent Poster On the Hurricane Katrina & Duke LaCrosse Threads .
Peach has always been very supportive of our Military .
As , For the Case Of Terri . I think the posters who are pro Terri dislike Peach & Howlin because of the Terri Threads .
My own beliefs on the Terri Case .....
Terri’s Evil husband Michael Tried to kill her by strangulation . Terri’s husband Called Terri A Female Dog in front of Nurses & Also Stated When Will That @@@@ Die !
Terri’s LIAR Husband said he would use the insurance $$$ For Her Rehablition , A LIE !
FACT : People who were in the SAME Vegatable State As Terri , There’s been Some Who has RECOVERED 100 % !
Terri’s Ex Husband Is Just Like OJ A MURDERER !
Terri’s Husband Michael Should Be Arrested & Tried For MURDER !
If I Was Apart Of Terri’s Family I Would Hire Private Detectives , Or Persuade Supporters To Become Judges , Elected Officals , Police Officers , Etc.. In Order To Gather Evidence & Put Michael In Jail Were He Belongs !
I Think Her Husband Belongs In the eletric chair , Charged with Murder , & I Would LOVE To Pull The Lever !!!!!!!
An inability to justify their position would be my guess.
I miss Travis Mcgee....
FR has not been the same since he was shown the door...
A true American, a true Patriot, and a true defender of Western Civ
You started something because Travis is back!
ROTFLOLOL!
I’ll refrain from saying more...;o)
Hey Travis, they were talking about you while you were gone.
Seems you have some admirers.
LOL, yep. Major turmoil in the ranks!
I agree with you wholeheartedly regarding the primaries - we should work towards getting the best candidate we can. Getting the ideal candidate is a rarity - not impossible, though.
Fancy meeting you here.
I’m back. Interesting days.
I’m back, that’s all. The whys and wherefores aren’t worth an autopsy, not with the body long dead and the witnesses gone. A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last year. Bygones etc.
I stand pleasantly corrected.
parolee hunh?
Heh
Good for you pardner....really good.
excellent
The article leaves out the fact (among a lot of other things) that the Giuliani supporters started posting attacks on Fred Thompson as soon as it was rumored Thompson might get into the race - a barrage of attacks, one after another - even trying to convince us that Thompson was more pro-abortion than Giuliani. I wasn’t (and am not) supporting Giuliani and generally let the Giuliani supporters have their say, but when the attacks on Thompson started, a lot of us started counter attacking to defend Thompson. JimRob started getting very upset with the Thompson attacks by the Giuliani folks - he wasn’t banning them until that garbage started. Sadly, some others who weren’t involved in that for some reason started defending those Giuliani supporters that had been attacking Thompson and got themselves swept away as well - some who I geniunely miss a great deal, but they did what they did, and there are consequences when you are a guest in someone else’s house. I don’t know what got into them.
Naw, I’m on no special status. I was just being cute back at wardaddy.
I’ll see you around the usual haunts.
Hope spring is real dirty for cars up your way.
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