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Free Republic Purge: Conservative Web Site Bans Giuliani Supporters
NY Observer ^ | Published: May 24, 2007 | by Rebecca Sinderbrand

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.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: bugzapper; byebyerinos; freepicide; goodriddance; popcorntime; rinowhine; springcleaning; wambulance; whiners
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To: calcowgirl
In short, I wouldn't even attempt to guess what that discussion history was about, but I would assume that there was a whole lot more behind it than what you or I can view today. To continue to use that thread as the basis for some changed tone at FR is inappropriate--that behavior isn't common from what I've seen. That said, the poster did not go unchallenged and did apologize. People have a way of working out their differences without other folks dragging their dirty laundry around for them.

**************

Excellent post, calcowgirl.

1,341 posted on 06/01/2007 4:32:59 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: js1138

My question is why does Hillary get brought in EVERY time a RINO candidate is criticized? And you will notice that it is NEVER done by supporters of conservatives like Hunter and Thompson.

For the record, if he is the nominee, I will reluctantly vote for Romney.


1,342 posted on 06/01/2007 4:46:42 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: The_Eaglet; Petronski
Your tagline was off topic, and false.

It is not false just because it doesn't jive with your own opinion. After Ron Paul's 9/11 statement, there are quite a few of us who would agree with Petronski's tagline.

1,343 posted on 06/01/2007 5:01:21 AM PDT by Allegra (Socks.)
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To: The_Eaglet; Petronski

In honor of The_Stalker, I’m bringing back my old tagline.


1,344 posted on 06/01/2007 5:11:44 AM PDT by wideawake ("Pearl Harbor is all America's fault, right, Mommy?" - Ron Paul, age 6, 12/7/1941)
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To: The_Eaglet; Petronski
You kept this up until almost 2 AM?

What an obsessive guy.

Creepy. You’re the kind of guy restraining orders are meant for.

1,345 posted on 06/01/2007 5:21:13 AM PDT by airborne (Duncan Hunter is the only real choice for honest to goodness conservatives!)
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To: The_Eaglet; Petronski

Boy, you usually only see this kind of dedication in Larouche supporters.

Don’t worry, Ron’s probably just addled by the diet of fish sticks his mom fed him.


1,346 posted on 06/01/2007 5:23:40 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: wideawake

Source, please. LOL


1,347 posted on 06/01/2007 5:28:28 AM PDT by Allegra (Socks.)
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To: calcowgirl
and that post #78 refers to a previous dust-up between the two FReepers in question (fl/nav) on another thread that has since been deleted.

My issue is with post #75. Why is questioning a serviceman's loyalty allowed, when the argument that might explain the personal feud has been deleted? And isn't it against FR rules to carry such personal feuds from thread to thread?

No, if freeplancee made a mistake about someone's signup date -- and he did -- there is a way to call attention to the mistake -- and someone did. And freep apologised.

I would have not brought this up except that someone on this thread has been arguing that the military is a back burner issue in the upcoming election. Since we are in the middle of a war, are the democrats are in the process of providing aid and comfort to the enemy, I think otherwise. I used a particular post showing disrespect to a serviceman in Iraq as an example of something that would not be tolerated on the FR I remember.

1,348 posted on 06/01/2007 6:25:36 AM PDT by js1138 (The absolute seriousness of someone who is terminally deluded.)
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To: The_Eaglet
"The value of tax cuts is immediately helpful to the present, regardless of the negative effects of debt.+"

That kinda leaves out the interest on the debt and Chinese ownership of our Government debt. It's pay me now or pay me later. We are today's guardians of the nation's future unless, of course, we are only greedy for ourselves.

1,349 posted on 06/01/2007 6:38:11 AM PDT by ex-snook ("But above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: don-o
Sorry. I obviously have you confused with some other don somethingorother. He was on the evolution/creation threads. I really liked reading his stuff, along with jswhateverthenumbersare, patrick henry, radio astronomer, chronic loser, and some thatcherthingie handle. Some of these people were materialists, some were atheists, some were Christian, and all were fun to read. Oh yeah, a physics prof was in that batch, but I can't remember his name.

There are quite a number of people who have either gotten nuked(Travis), gotten themseles nuked deliberately in a kind of "fit" (Radio Astronomer), launched a jihad against FR (Howlin), asked JimRob to pull their account (chronic loser), or just quit posting. We seemed alot more friendly in the past, even when we strenuously disagreed. Like I said b4 I have been a lurker here for a while, and my wife has posted since 98 or 99. There seems to be alot more people who are both disgruntled and poorly informed here nowadays. That may just be my perception, though.

1,350 posted on 06/01/2007 7:06:25 AM PDT by DreamsofPolycarp (Ron Paul in '08)
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To: Eurotwit
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.

Though this may be true, why are none of these supposedly banned accounts named? It would lend credence to the claim and is easily verifiable by anyone here.
Let the complainants be named.

1,351 posted on 06/01/2007 7:12:03 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Don't question faith. Don't answer lies.)
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To: Petronski
Worse still, and irrespective of that, you're a nasty stalker.

Poor baby had a boo boo. Did the mod kiss it and make it all better?

Good grief. Grow up! You have a history of charging into Ron Paul threads and trolling as hard as you can make your fingers fly.

Now you whine to the mods because he is "stalking" you? I have no problem with you posting, and posting to me when I haven't asked you to, and posting idiotic tripe when I know you are trolling. If I pulled that kind of whiney crap and went to the mods every time you would think me a baby. Yeah.

Again, grow up.

1,352 posted on 06/01/2007 7:12:14 AM PDT by DreamsofPolycarp (Ron Paul in '08)
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To: dighton; Petronski; Billthedrill; The_Eaglet
Quit stalking me, creep.

Fascinating Free Republic trivia: "creep" is available as a screen name.

1,353 posted on 06/01/2007 7:31:35 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: Petronski

LOL! Methinks he doth protest too much!


1,354 posted on 06/01/2007 7:43:31 AM PDT by soccermom
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To: Eurotwit

Pretty interesting report.


1,355 posted on 06/01/2007 7:48:37 AM PDT by soccermom
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To: DreamsofPolycarp
Now you whine to the mods because he is "stalking" you?

Dragging a disagreement from thread to thread is stalking. The cultish behavior of the L.Ron Paul crew is world-class, like a rash all over the internet--FR included.

1,356 posted on 06/01/2007 8:14:33 AM PDT by Petronski (BLAME AMERICA! (L. Ron Paul does, & his creepy stalking fans can't STAND to hear it!))
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To: Petronski
The Paulnuts are obsessed.
1,357 posted on 06/01/2007 8:15:55 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

7.62x51mm
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Radioastronomer
Red Warrior
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Uncle Fud
WestVirginiaRebel
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zarf
Zeroisanumber


1,358 posted on 06/01/2007 8:19:46 AM PDT by gpapa
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To: gpapa

Some names there I’ll miss.

Shame.


1,359 posted on 06/01/2007 8:43:27 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim

I forgot Howlin was banned also.


1,360 posted on 06/01/2007 8:48:33 AM PDT by gpapa
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