Notice is doesn't say 'alleged'? They make it sound like an unquestionable fact.
This is a despicable and malicious action.
Posted on 09/22/2010 8:23:10 PM PDT by kristinn
The Internet giant AOL libeled Free Republic as "hosting child pornography" in an article published Wednesday, September 22, 2010, at their Daily Finance news site. The site's masthead reads: Daily Finance An AOL Money & Finance Site.
Authored by Daily Finance media columnist Jeff Bercovici, the article entitled Muzzled Reporter Says 'Maw of Yahoo' No Place for Journalism tells the story about John Cook's reasons for leaving Yahoo News and returning to his previous gig with Gawker. According to the article, Cook was the senior national affairs reporter for Yahoo's The Upshot news blog. Bercovici notes that he and Cook are friends and former colleagues.
In the article, Bercovici writes that among Cook's reasons for leaving Yahoo News was that he was not allowed to write about Free Republic:
"But Cook offers a different interpretation of his move, saying that Yahoo's corporate conservatism repeatedly got in the way of his attempts to report the news. In one instance, Cook was forced to bowdlerize a quotation from New York Times reporter James Risen; he was told that referring to masturbation, even euphemistically, was unacceptable. On similar grounds, he was prohibited from writing about the conservative website Free Republic hosting child pornography. Most glaringly, he was told that a proposed story on the Obama Administration raising the salary of White House staffers by 9% lacked the necessary balance; it was killed."
The original paragraph includes a link to a Salon.com article about a scammer creating a user account at Free Republic and posting a link to an alleged child porn site on his home page.(Salon reports it did not directly verify the link.)
The article explicitly exonerates Free Republic of "hosting child pornography" and instead cites the site as being "lax" in its registration process:
"Now FreeRepublic.com is not hosting or even "condoning" child pornography. It's just that it's so ridiculously easy to set up a profile and get your own FreeRepublic page that apparently anyone can and will do it. Theoretically, someone could do this at Kos or OpenSalon. (But, as far as we know, no one has.)"
"...Free Republic appears to delete profiles started for spamming purposes (unless user "freehoodia" was "banned or suspended" for some other reason, like supporting TARP), so, again, all we're accusing it of is being somewhat lax in its moderation of the user registration process."
AOL's Daily Finance presents itself as a professional journalistic enterprise with a full editorial staff overseeing their reporters.
Yet even with a link to the article that flatly refutes AOL's claim that Free Republic hosts child pornography, AOL printed the libel anyway.
Corrective action will be sought.
I thought liberals didn’t care about child porn, after all its just another life style choice. (roll eyes) And aren’t the liberals the ones who want to lower the age of consent to three. (roll eyes again) So what are they so agitated about?
>> Wonder what they have to say about libtard websites.<<
*gush* “This site is SOOO informative!” *leg tingles* “And there are no annoying right wing folks on it either!” *gush* *swoon*
That's the thing about libel, it often upsets somebody.
Are they sure they’re not confusing FR with DHS?
That article is dispicable. You could remove the name of this site and insert the name of almost any other site in the world. Yahoo is ridiculously easy to start a profile page. So is Facebook. So is google. So is blogspot, and photobucket, and dozens of others. They chose to name this site deliberately and on purpose.
Given the sort at those sites someone probably has and no one takes exception to it. Progressives are perverts...just look at the politicians they select to represent them.
Notice is doesn't say 'alleged'? They make it sound like an unquestionable fact.
This is a despicable and malicious action.
No no no! Nobody noticed! LOL!
Amen!
A suitable judgement would eliminate the need for quarterly
FReepthons to keep the lights on. Pursue it.
Please nail these silly a**holes to the wall, Jim. It should be easy to demonstrate negligence, and if your lawyer is good, I’ll bet there’s malice, there, too.
Tie these fools up in court for years, then stick their heads on a pike outside town to warn the next moron that they won’t be tolerated.
>>>>Not only was FR slandered, but all of us long-term FReepers. I think a class action suit is warranted. I could sure use $2-3 mil. of AOL’s ill-gotten gains...<<<<
I had not even thought about a class action suit. What an attractive idea.
AOL still exists? Who knew....
I agree with that 100%. They clearly implied those posting on FR are/were degenerates. That DOES apply to those of us posting here as having been victims of malicious slander/libel.
I imagine we have enough lawyers here that could undertake to file such a case for us and share in the proceeds.
My caveat would be that there must be a cutoff date so that someone could not sign up just to participate in the lawsuit. Say, at least 8-10 years on the board.
The good news? Truth won:
AOL Owned Daily Finance Retracts Passage That Libeled Free Republic Over Child Pornography
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2594923/posts
I remember some photo-hosting site several years ago that would somehow alter the photo the poster linked to. It had something to do with the hosting site recognizing FR and changing the original photo that was linked to something nasty. Long-time Freepers may remember it. It turned out the hosting site didn't much care for FR. At least, that's what my foggy memory can come up with.
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