Posted on 01/20/2006 6:05:05 AM PST by summer
The Washington Post shut one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper's ombudsman.
The closing was the second by a major newspaper in recent months. An experiment in allowing the public to edit editorials in The Los Angeles Times lasted just two days in June before it was shut because pornographic material was being posted on the site.
The Post's blog, open to the public since Nov. 21, was shut indefinitely yesterday afternoon with a notice from Jim Brady, executive editor of www.washingtonpost.com.
Mr. Brady wrote that he had expected criticism of The Post on the site, but that the public had violated rules against personal attacks and profanity.
"Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being," Mr. Brady wrote. "Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it's a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about."
In an interview, Mr. Brady said the site had been overwhelmed with what he described as vicious personal attacks against Deborah Howell, the newspaper's ombudsman.
She wrote a column about Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and said that several Democrats "have gotten Abramoff campaign money," apparently intending to say that they received campaign money from Mr. Abramoff's clients....
Mr. Brady said ... he needed to figure out how to patrol it better and "keep it clean."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Crude profanity and vulgar personal attacks seem to be the M.O. of leftists everywhere these days. This is what they think passes for intellectual conversation these days - language that I would not allow from my 12-year-old. I'm only surprised that the Post was surprised by it. They must not be reading any liberal blogs or chat boards these days. All of them are wall-to-wall F-bombs and sexual references.
That is the whole point. The Post must be appalled that some of its more rabid followers caused them to close the blog down. It is the Lefty meanies who are the real haters and the most intolerant of any opposing views. Their slime lingo was indeed horrid. You ought to see the nutters on the NY Times blogs. They are so nuts that one is amazed they call themselves Americans. Most of them belong in the St. Elizabeth wards in which Ezra Pounds found himself!
No. Not really.
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