How has it been established that the Obama campaign moderates the site? Because without establishing that, it is meaningless.
try this:
Every page at my.barackobama.com carries the disclaimer, “Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.” Exercise of editorial control, however, makes the owner of an Internet discussion forum responsible for the content. It is now a matter of proven record that my.barackobama.com has exercised such control and is therefore responsible for sanctioning (tolerating) hate speech against Jews, pro-Clinton African-Americans, and even women (noting that numerous postings called Clinton a “bitch,” with one adding that Clinton’s candidacy shows women are not fit to hold public office).
Noting that my.barackobama.com claims to welcome open discussion of campaign issues, we created our own blog with factual material from “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope” (with page numbers, unlike the urban legends that have been circulating), the positive reaction of Obama’s church to Michael Pfleger’s racist tirade against Hillary Clinton, and Obama’s endorsement and promotion of Al Sharpton.
We received, in fairly quick succession, the following E-mails from a site administrator. (We have changed @ in the sender’s address to “at” to prevent harvesting by spam software). It may be noted that Emily does not follow the first basic rule of any recognizable disciplinary process, which is to cite exactly what the person did and also the specific rule the action violated. This is because she is unable to do so, and her obvious motive is to remove hostile material from my.barackobama.com. The Obama campaign, of course, has every right to do so but this “exercise of editorial control” makes it 100 percent accountable for what it chooses to let stand.
From: mybarackobama “at” gmail.com on behalf of mybarackobama “at” barackobama.com (mybarackobama “at” barackobama.com)
Sent: Fri 6/27/08 5:36 PM
To: [my address]
Hi,
Thank you so much for your involvement in the My.BarackObama.com online community. Your voice is valued here; however, your recent comments on the HQ Blog were disrespectful to our other users and detract from a welcoming community where all people can engage in positive discourse.
This is your first and only warning. Unfortunately, if you choose to disregard this warning your account will be deactivated resulting in a complete termination of your My.BarackObama account, points, blogs, and other past activities on the site. I encourage you to review our Terms of Service: http://origin.barackobama.com/terms/
Thanks for your understanding and cooperation in maintaining a respectful dialogue on our website.
Emily
Obama for America
From: mybarackobama “at” gmail.com on behalf of mybarackobama “at” barackobama.com (mybarackobama “at” barackobama.com)
Sent: Fri 6/27/08 5:41 PM
To: [my E-mail address]
Hello,
Thank you for your involvement on My.BarackObama and the countless hours you have dedicated to this campaign. Unfortunately, we were forced to deactivate your account after you abused our blog tool. We regret having had to resort to this action.
Thank you for your understanding.
Emily
Obama for America
We might add that Emily was very diligent in finding and removing our blog and account within 36 hours of their creation. Now let us examine the kind of material that she and her fellow administrators allowed to stand, at least until its citation on other blogs like this one compelled them to act on it. We leave it to our readers to decide whether the following is “disrespectful” or even worse.