Apologies and an Announcement
posted @ 10:38 AM
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4 comments
I want to apologize to Ray Midgett and to the individual who posts as Overwash. Last Sunday I deleted a comment from Overwash. After deleting the post I added a comment which stated in part:
I just deleted a comment from Overwash, whom I believe to be Ray Midgett. I could be wrong but I doubt it.
While I qualified my comments I want to make this clear: I do not know who Overwash is therefore I probably should not have speculated. It seems that speculating about identities on this blog just causes problems for people. Therefore I formally apologize to both Overwash and to Ray Midgett. Overwash I won't make you responsible for Ray's actions. Ray, I won't hang OW's stuff on you. Please accept my sincere apology.
This whole deleting posts thing has caused me a lot of concern. I don't like censorship and don't want to practice it. Therefore I have established a new blog. It is called Deleted Posts. I will publish, without comment, any comments sent to this blog that I choose not to publish. This way I have not denied the author the right to be read. If there are other bloggers who wish to use this blog for the same purpose please contact me and I will explain how to post.
I have already shared this blog with members of the Yahoo OBX bloggers group and it appears that some of them may have already begun to participate.
To test this blog I have added some deleted posts and a couple that were not deleted but that I wanted to at the time.
posted by BOBXNC @ 10:38 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Bob,
I think this is a great idea and I will be glad to add some deleted comments and some that were published against my better judgment.
Deny an author the right to be read? Are you really concerned about that? The most strident 1st Amendment absolutist would not fault you from deleting crappy comments from your own blog!
Kevin,
Very interesting point. It emphasizes the differences in our backgrounds. In government we always tried to make sure that everyone had a chance to be heard, no matter how offensive or irrelevant their remarks may have been. It is not good for governments to control speech. From your journalistic perspective everyone has an equal opportunity to publish their remarks hence I should not feel any requirement to allow individuals to be heard it they don't advance the objectives of the blog. The censored author can always go start his own blog (or paper) and publish their remarks without my interference.
Both views are correct from their particular perspective. I guess I just haven't adapted to the private sector yet. Thanks for stopping by.
Bob,
I tend to lean towards Kevin's position. Should the editor of a newspaper be forced to publish an unacceptable letter?
I think it is admirable that you have created a separate blog in order to allow the comments to be published.
This is your personal journal and you should feel free to manage it as you see fit.
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