Sunday, May 31, 2009

Op-Ed News Sidelines Troofers

I had not seen this before, but apparently Rob Kall has gotten tired of the annoying and pesky "Truther" contingent at his site and is putting them into their own little portion of the sandbox, called "Edges". He explains (quoted in one of the comments):

Most progressive sites refuse to cover 911 truth and more exotic topics, like UFOs, NWO and conspiracy theories. OEN has covered them and it has brought some problems, particularly a crew of unpleasant, negative commenters who attack just about every article published, particularly ones by higher visibility writers. We've decided to clean things up, so we're cracking down on this crew, holding firmer to rules aganst spamming articles and personal attacks and name calling. The goal is to maintain our open forum for discourse-- a forum that this small group has effectively intimidated and turned off.


(Snip)

We plan to continue publishing solid, well documented and supported articles on all subjects. If the focus is on edgy topics like 911 Truth, UFOs, NWO, JFK or other conspiracy theories, the articles, upon passing the test of new material and documented claims, will be posted to our EDGES hot page.


Kall's site is apparently pretty successful (he mentions a write-up in the New York Times), and so it's not surprising that he's realizing the downside of allowing the Troofers unrestricted access to the site, just as Arianna Huffington, Democratic Underground and Kos learned years ago.

And before anybody moans that I'm approving censorship, let's remember that SLC is the only site dedicated to covering the "Truth" movement that allows virtually every comment posted here to stand on its own merits. And while we're on that topic, check out Michael Morrissey's post on OpEd News about how he got banned from the Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice, its forum, and his comments got put on moderation:

Shortly after I published my article "9/11 Aletheia" on OpEdNews, I was removed from the membership list of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, shortly after that from their forum, and on May 20 I was put on "probation" (the "moderation queue") at 911Blogger.com. I offer myself, therefore, as Exhibit A in my case against the closed-mindedness I criticized in my article.

I have been a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice (STJ911.org) since its founding in 2006, when it split off from the original Scholars for 9/11 Truth (911scholars.org) founded by Jim Fetzer. I remained a member of both organizations, because I saw no reason not to. Both, it seemed to me, had their merits. I joined 911Blogger.com at about the same time, and since September 2006 I have made 62 postings to that site.

This history is important, because I am not a "no planer" or proponent of theories of video fakery or exotic weaponry, and I can prove it. My only, cardinal sin is this one recent article where I dared to defend the principle of free discussion.


Morrissey's original piece was inane, but it does point out the hypocrisy of the Troofers bitching about gatekeepers when they are gatekeeping themselves.

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