Apologies From The Editor
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in BloggingHi all,
Earlier today a post entitled “The Rules Of Zionism” was published on the site by a new contributor. Upon reading it I felt the tone was entirely inappropriate, so I immediately took it down. Also, at mw’s request, I took his one-sided post down too.
So why did this happen?
On Donklephant, my policy with contributors has always been very hands off. Reason being is I’ve set up a platform to welcome a variety of voices to post and I trust that everybody will respect the spirit of the site. Given that, I don’t read posts from contributors before they’re posted. Generally this has worked and I’ve rarely had to take the actions I took this morning.
That doesn’t mean it won’t happen again in the future, but I wanted all of you to know how things work behind the scenes to offer more of an explanation as to why it was posted.
One last note, I took down all of the new contributor’s posts and he won’t be blogging here anymore since his tone obviously doesn’t line up with the spirit of the site.
Please feel free to ask questions in the comments.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I saw those posts fairly soon after they went up, and all I could think was, “Oh my, this is not going to turn out well.”
That kind of stream of conscious, ramble-on take on an issue–especially an issue as contentious as the Middle East tension–rarely reads as intended.
I am sure that the contributer saw nothing wrong in it and was simply trying to post an alternative view that is not regularly expressed, but it was done in such a ham-handed way it just screamed “danger.”
And it is a shame, too, because the Middle East conflict is almost always told with a certain bias, when in truth there is plenty of culpability to go around not just among the main players, but among the nations that support the players.
I think that Obama is actually taking a broader view of the Middle East than his predecessors–and that is a key first step in eventually solving the issues there.
But I don’t hold out much hope, I am afraid.
(interesting, my captcha is MOUTH SUBTLY—-the original contributer sure did open his and not use it–that is so weird how some of them have such relevency to the topic)
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I guess I can start reading Donklephant again. Oh, what a long 4 hours it was. :)
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Gerry:
I think the one thing neither Jew nor Muslim would appreciate is “ham-handed” treatment.
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Thanks Justin. I do hope you can find a contributor who takes a more Islamic-leaning position on issues – it’s a voice that needs to be heard.
What makes Donklephant so special to me is that regardless of what side of an issue the writer falls on, it’s with an open and great respect for opposite viewpoints. I look forward to that continuing here -
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Terry,
I honestly don’t mind somebody who is more sympathetic to the plight of Muslims. Even I have written on this blog that Israelis need to wake up if they want things to change with the Palestinians. But there’s a significant difference between a viewpoint like that and what was posted.
Sincerely, I wish David the best, but his views just don’t belong on this site.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Not only did that contributor represent the views of a significant number of Americans, it was representitive of nearly the entire Islamic world. Why supress it? This blog has an excellent repultation for providing a wide spectra of political views. Nobody will hold it against Donklephant, especially when you saw MW spring up almost instanlty to rebut it.
August 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I agree to a point Jimmy, but I feel that posts like that will lead to partisan hackery and thoughtless name-calling that can be easily found on other sites. I appreciate other point of views, but that was simply over the top. Thanks for taking care of it Justin.
And gerryf, my Captcha is “tor foord”. WTH does that mean? lol.
August 4th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Jimmy,
To mw’s point, he didn’t post that because he believed it. He posted it as a reactionary counterpoint to the other post…which is why he was okay with it being taken down.
Essentially, there are limits and that one went well over the line of the civility we strive to maintain here. You don’t accuse Israel of undertaking ethnic cleansing and call settlers scheming thieves on this blog. It simply isn’t done.
August 4th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Just an FYI: The Hohol posts are still in Donklephant’s RSS feed, feed://feeds.feedburner.com/donklephant/CFBW