Replies

DJ asks why attack right wing sites and not leftys.

Fair question, man. I’ve said before here that what made my story news, to me, wasn’t that racist things were said. It’s that the remarks were at first approved by moderators, then removed, and then reinstated. That, to me, says management stood behind them. Twice.

That’s a story.

“Anonymous person on blog makes nasty comment” is no story, as it happens to every site, political or not.

Now, if you guys had said, “Yeah, fair cop, we should have kept them down” or “those comments were uncool, they should never have been approved in the first place,” then my story fades into nothingness.

Instead of that, you guys keep saying “but other people do it too”, which is no defense.

Regardless of my political tilt, I didn’t write the story to “go after” Free Republic. I wrote it because it was news. And if you check the response on Twitter, it seems a TON of people agreed.

Now, have I been a good boy every second I’ve spent on the internet since 1994? Heck no. I’ve said some dumb things in my time, back when I was in my early 20’s and never thinking about what might happen ten years down the line.

But that doesn’t change the story at all. Free Republic did wrong. Instead of trying to justify it, and attack the guy that shone a light on it, why not just own it and move on?

Bottom line is this: You guys can keep emailing my bosses, but if you looked on the Sun website yesterday night, you would have seen the story in question had not been removed - in fact, it had been selected as one of the four “editor’s picks” on the site.

The story was accurate. Own it.

Boy, this lesson is going to hurt for you. Eventually you are out the door.

Now, if you guys had said, “Yeah, fair cop, we should have kept them down” or “those comments were uncool, they should never have been approved in the first place,” then my story fades into nothingness.

Then you needed to do more research. This was posted BEFORE your story. The truth is that you wanted to harm FR. This is not about fairly targeting a forum. It's about being partisan.

Now, have I been a good boy every second I’ve spent on the internet since 1994? Heck no. I’ve said some dumb things in my time, back when I was in my early 20’s and never thinking about what might happen ten years down the line.

Your comments on Palin are recent. You need to own them. The 3 posters that made comments on the pulled thread need to own them and not all of FR. This is about personal responsibility, yours and theirs.

The story was accurate. Own it.

Is it?

Now, have I been a good boy every second I’ve spent on the internet since 1994? Heck no. I’ve said some dumb things in my time, back when I was in my early 20’s and never thinking about what might happen ten years down the line.

You've posted some pretty foul stuff much more recently than 1994.

Again, your equivocations make you look like a weasel.

In post 20 I said: Why target FR when left wing websites have posted and left comments about conservatives children that were much worse than anything FR has ever come up with.

Your response was: I’ve said before here that what made my story news, to me, wasn’t that racist things were said. It’s that the remarks were at first approved by moderators, then removed, and then reinstated. That, to me, says management stood behind them. Twice.

My premise is that the comments on lefty sites are much worse and are never removed. Your response is that it's news on FR because they were removed, reinstated and removed again? I suppose that's the "logic" of the left.

It's that the remarks were at first approved by moderators, then removed, and then reinstated. That, to me, says management stood behind them. Twice.
...

The story was accurate. Own it.

Your comments and your story assume facts not in evidence. First, are you aware that FR moderators do not individually approve each and every comment before it is posted? For example, my comments are displayed immediately after I post them - they are never pending moderator approval. So it is inaccurate to state that FR management approved those comments twice. Secondly, are you aware that FR management generally permits comments to stand as posted and be subject to critique by other freepers? Rarely do moderators delete comments at FR.

Given those facts, your story is inaccurate. Own it.