Celebrity bloggers as their own moderators?
The Huffington Post is a website devoted to the dissemination and exchange of ideas, opinions, and current events. Only invited bloggers -- celebrity and non-celebrity alike -- are allowed to post opinion pieces. Celebrity bloggers have included Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Gary Hart, Deepak Chopra, Nora Ephron, Alec Baldwin, Lawrence O’Donnell, and a myriad of Nobel and Pulitzer prize laureates.
Registered readers are allowed to post comments in the comment section accompanying each blog. All comments are moderated. As the Huffington Post explains:
We pre-moderate comments on our blog posts and post-moderate comments on news stories.
Huffington Post is adamant that they do not engage in censorship:
We never censor comments based on political or ideological point of view. We only delete those comments that are abusive, off-topic, use excessive foul language, or include ad hominem attacks.
Yet there is some doubt as to who the "we" are. That question is front and center in my mind as a result of something a Huffington Post blogger, with whom I have recently exchanged emails, told me:
Each time a blogger submits a post, there is a checked box that says "Accept Comments" which can be unchecked. If the box remains checked, comments will be published. In that case, there will be a link in the "Backstage" area that says "Moderate Comments." Clicking on that link will display all the comments, each of which has a clickable link that says "Delete comment."
Oh, really? No where does the HuffPo disclose this little fact. Perhaps I am missing the disclaimer but I couldn’t find it anywhere on their site. I checked here, here, here, and here. From the impression I’ve been under all the years I have been participating on the Huffington Post and from what they themselves appear to tell the world, only Huffington Post employees are supposed to be the moderators.
This is what irks me: here we have a discussion forum in which debate and the exchange of ideas is occurring between individuals -- blogger and commenter -- and only one of the parties -- the blogger -- has the right to delete the other's comments.
There is no need to remind everyone that the exchange of ideas is characterized by dissent and difference of opinion; this is the cut and thrust of debate. And, yes, more often that not they are strongly held, forcefully argued opinions born of sincere conviction that dissent from those of the other party to the discussion. However, adhering to the ideals of civility and tolerance means that such strongly worded opinions can most certainly be expressed without violating any of the posting guidelines.
Yet not only can one party to the exchange perform a deletion at his sole discretion, but he can do it without the other party knowing that it is him doing the deleting. In fact, the deleted party is led to believe it is another third party, the Huffington Post, one which claims that they "never censor comments based on political or ideological point of view", that has performed the deletion. This leads to confusion on the part of the deleted party who may very well have posted sincerely and without violating any of the official prohibitions. He may have been left asking himself: what did I do wrong? What was it in my written comment that was improper?
I have had dozens of posts deleted over the years and was always under the impression that I must have written something inappropriate and had therefore broken the site’s rules. It never crossed my mind that it was anyone other than Huffington Post employees -- their own moderators -- who were doing the deletions. Now I have learned that it very well may have been that the blogger with whom I was disagreeing who deleted me...and not because I broke the rules but because he didn't like what I wrote. In other words, I disagreed with him and was censored solely on that basis.
It is Arianna Huffington's website and she has the right to delete comments for the appropriate reasons. But I believe those reasons can only be the ones enumerated under the rules, the ones clearly displayed to users, such as those found at the above links. It is not okay to have one party to a debate have the sole power and discretion to delete his opponent’s opinions, particularly when the opponent doesn’t know the other party has that power.
How is it possible that this hasn’t come out before? There are, literally, hundreds of HuffPo bloggers, many of whom are amongst the most famous opinion-makers and celebrities of our time. I simply cannot believe that this issue hasn't been brought up.
Or perhaps it has and everyone knows about it but me? If I’ve missed this information, I will stand corrected. But please, readers, tell me where the disclaimer or disclosure is because I couldn’t find it...and if it exists and I wasn’t able to track down the right web page, I apologize to one and all in advance for my tempest in a teapot.
But if this information has not been disclosed by Arianna Huffington, I ask you: am I not justified in being outraged?