Posted on 09/10/2009 6:47:53 PM PDT by Shellybenoit
Just to give full disclosure upfront, I used to consider Charles Johnson one of my "Idols" in the blogging world. He helped invent citizen Journalism. That was until banned from Little Green Footballs for one reason, refusing to give up my friendship with Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch).
For the last two years Johnson has been like the crazy old man who tries to alienate his family, but in his case he has been throwing bloggers out of his site. For some of them like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer he not only cast them asunder, but he has continued to attack them.
The sad part of it is that he used to be a blogging giant, and when it comes to traffic, I am sure he still is. But with the growing list of people that he has banned from his site for the simple reason of disagreeing with his opinions or maintaining friendships with people he didn't like, Charles is losing the respect of much of the community.
When I got banned, I was contacted by a slew of websites and clubs, just for ex-LGFers. The number of them was astounding.
Charles latest attack was against Robert Spencer again, this is how Spencer described it on his site:
(Excerpt) Read more at yidwithlid.blogspot.com ...
Deary me. LGF seems to be acting like out present government......with the ‘See ya’....wouldn’t want to be ya’.....attitude’. WTH. Was it a troll site after all????
So Charles has pissed of FR, Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Ace of Spades, Hot Air.. who else would be his fan? I guess it is just him and his DU cheerleaders.
LOL!
I never got banned from LGF, I just stopped posting there....not out of anger.. I just realized that sharing the same views with some folks on certain issues, does not mean they share your same values....I had a great crash course in the ways of blogging and the internet back in 2004, when I first entered the internet world....
LGF was my first internet love....no hard feelings, I am not surprised by all this, but I am saddened....Pamela deserves every bit of following and credit she has. She worked hard and tirelessly....I remember her very first blog...LOL! WOW how we have all grown, and HATS OFF to the TREMENDOUS job Pamela has done.
Had no idea he had banned her— not a smart move...
I never had an account there but I visited every day. I quit around 2006.
I probably don’t have an account there anymore after me post above— LOL!
You said a mouthful there. As you said, sharing the same views with some folks about certain issues most absolutely, certainly does not mean they share your values.
The good news on FR is many do share mine so I feel at home here.
I’ve permanently left more websites than I can easily count over the years to avoid the petty infighting among “Mods” and other “Members”, and the one consistent website that has largely escaped a lot of that BS (or at least survived the worst of the infighting and eating of one’s own young...) is Free Republic.
I dislike site v site battles for very good reason, and I generally resent the living hell out of people who try and drag others into it with them. That policy has served me well for a long time and I see no reason to change things now.
Please take this elsewhere and leave me out of it.
Little Green Footballs is gay.
My support for the troops and confronting evil must have blinded me to Charles Johnson’s true feelings. For whatever reason, I hadn’t visited LGF for a long time, so I kept checking the URL when I browsed the erratic content this evening. LGF today is a far cry from cutting edge blogging and definitely not worth revisiting aside from a link to Michael Yon.
I have also noticed that his site has devolved to a place that celebrates complete contempt of anything and everything religious. I'm not a creationist, but I find his dripping condescension of anyone who is a creationist in extremely poor taste, and frankly the antithesis of what earnest and open debate should be; or put another way - what I thought the internet was suppose to be about.
No thanks Charles. I've got better places to spend my valuable time - and I know, I won't let the door hit me on the way out.
Sadly, I know of at least one longtime FReeper (whose account is still active here) who has gone over to LGF and trashed us.
Powelineblog just announced tonight that it dumped LGF from it’s blog roll. And, they made a point of saying that they personally stopped reading it some time ago, as Charles’ political views have diverged greatly from their own, FWIW.
To be honest, he's never really struck me as a conservative, or even a moderately political guy. In fact, I'm a little confused as to his positions on anything other than he "loathes" creationists and jihadists - to include what he would describe as anti-abortion jihadists.
I think he's a guy who had a blog that got caught up in the Bush/National Guard story, and a lot of people - like myself - somehow assumed he was a conservative. I don't think he ever really was a conservative.
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