Daily Kos

Washington Post Shuts Down Blog Comments!

by Thomas C

Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:26:06 PM PDT

Deborah Howell, the 'pub pandering Washington Post ombudswoman, today issued a non-retraction of her claim that Jack Abramoff had contributed to democrats as well as republicans.  She argued, feebly, that her wording was inartful and that it would have been better if she'd said Abramoff had "directed" contributions by his clients to democrats.

As we all know, there is no evidence that Abramoff "directed" these payments by native American tribes to democrats.  In fact, we know that Abramoff succeeded in reversing the longstanding policy of these tribes to contribute primarily to democrats.

Well, no one was fooled by Howell's non-retraction retraction.  If anything the scorn and abuse heaped on the pathetic Ms. Howell was even greater than in response to here initial misrepresentation of Abramoff's political contributions.  As they did last week, the Washington Post has shut down the comment section related to Howell's most recent misrepresentation.  Commenters then resorted to heaping abuse on Howell in the comments sections of other unrelated WaPo blogs!  So the Washington Post closed out all of those comment sections as well!

I am very, very proud of our community.  No one fell for Howell's nonsense, and her dishonest and feigned attempt to correct her dishonest characterization of Abramoff's contributions was met with appropriate scorn and opprobrium.

Way to go, lefties!

UPDATE: Since the WaPo has seen fit to shut down the blog comments section, we should let Ms. Howell know how we feel by phone. I just called the following number and was put through to Ms. Howell's personal line: 202-334-6000. Just ask for Deborah Howell and they'll put you through to her voicemail. Be polite, and offer to help her get the facts straight!

FURTHER UPDATE: I just spoke to Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com (as opposed to the newspaper). Mr. Brady explained that numerous hate-filled and profane comments had been deleted by washingtonpost.com staffers before they were ever posted to the website. When I asked Mr. Brady why the Washington Post didn't simply continue to delete the offensive comments rather than deleting ALL of the comments he responded "the Washington Post can't afford to have two staffers spending their entire day deleting offensive comments." That's what the Washington Post thinks of you. Last week they claimed a "technical glitch" caused over 700 comments to be deleted. This week they simply can't be bothered anymore. The Washington Post we've all known is dead.

Tags: Washington Post, Deborah Howell, Jack Abramoff (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Permalink | 25 comments

  •  Post links to those other blogs please!!! (none / 0)

    by Seemabes on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:26:50 PM PDT

  •  hehe (4.00 / 2)

    Sire, sire the bloggers are revolting.

    Yes, I know.

    I wonder if the WaPo realizes this will only feed the disrespect?

    "Quick shutdown the comments sections...we're looking like fools!"

    by lalo456987 on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:28:09 PM PDT

  •  Last time this happened (none / 1)

    They claimed that it was a technical glitch.  Kind of convenient that it keeps on happening.

    by silence on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:31:41 PM PDT

    •  Right! some technical glitch! (none / 0)

      Good point.  The alleged "technical glitch" that shut down the comments last week looks rather more suspicious now, doesn't it?

      by Thomas C on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:33:30 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      •  Not a glitch this time (none / 0)

        This time, its definitely no glitch:
        But there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech. Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being.
        In other words: our readers hate us, so we're going to make sure nobody can read what they're saying.

        by silence on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:43:45 PM PDT

        [ Parent ]

        •  Outrageous! (none / 1)

          There were over 200 comments.  I read most of them and didn't come across a SINGLE EXAMPLE of hate speech. Yes, the criticism was withering, but it was generally not personal.  Howell was called a disgrace by many and a 'pub operative by even more - but HATE SPEECH?  The WaPo has sunk to a new low.

          202-334-6000!  Ask for Deborah Howell!

          by Thomas C on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:47:14 PM PDT

          [ Parent ]

  •  She should lose her job over this garbage (4.00 / 3)

    an ombusperson who will not make a retraction when she has repeatedly been caught making false allegations? Who then claims that merely disputing her falsehoods and GOP talkingpoint assertions are attacks that she will no longer respond to? (Media Matters was in no way 'abusive' to the rightwing elitist Miss Howell. They just correctly said she was wrong, and stuck by their guns.)

    Danny Okrent has competition for the worst 'people's' representative in a newspaper. Ever.

    "Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion." - Oscar Wilde

    by LeftHandedMan on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:34:30 PM PDT

  •  Campaign (none / 0)

    Makes me think we should make this a daily event to campaign for a real ombudsman instead of a Bush propagandist.

    "There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you." S.H.

    by Carnacki on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:35:48 PM PDT

  •  Not to worry (none / 0)

    the NSA has complete records of all of the submissions.

    "People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure." - Russell Baker

    by melvonator on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:36:00 PM PDT

  •  This is the basis for RNC claims of Dem complicity (none / 0)

    http://www.dailykos.com/...

    Reprise of the Ten Commandments on leaving Iraq

    by skywriter on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:37:58 PM PDT

  •  Howell is woofing or is she? She is. (none / 0)

    I got a chance to see Howell's documents about Abramoff's "directed" contributions to Democratic officials on WAPO (before the comments got shut down). This reminds me so much of the Galloway fabricated "oil money" documents. In my opinion - this is not "evidence". I could cook up this shit myself. This directly refutes Dean's interview with Blitzer last week. If you didn't catch that interview here is the text.

    Text of Blitzer / Dean interview

    BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?
    DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.
    BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.
    DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...
    BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?
    DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.
    BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we got to leave it right there.

    by FakeNews on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:51:26 PM PDT

  •  So the WP is now publishing blatant lies (none / 0)

    Now that's a first. ;-)

    "I will vote for the Democratic candidate for president--period." --Me

    by kovie on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:53:06 PM PDT

  •  Kind of interesting that hundreds of people take (none / 0)


    the time to comment on factual errors and they respond by shutting down their own feedback mechanism. They truly are insulated from reality. Rather than argue the facts they first tried to justify them as mistakes and then attempt to silence the critics. Too bad for them we are still here and we are paying attention.

    So get your FUCKING FACTS CORRECT Washington Post and all you other right wing sycophants because WE WILL call you on it.

    by TexasLiberal on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 01:53:22 PM PDT

  •  This is one of those exciting times (none / 0)

    when mistakes have been made on both sides.  I am as sure as anything that with 200 comments and counting there was plenty of rhetoric that could be considered hateful and profane.  Just stick to the facts and leave out the emotion.  Count to 10 then count to 10 again and avoid using terms like you $%$##@$% &**&%$ or @!@##$ $$#@@ %%$#@ or my favorite $%##$%%$#$$#

    "People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure." - Russell Baker

    by melvonator on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 02:06:43 PM PDT

  •  I am just catching up.. (4.00 / 2)

    DU have the paged, in full, cached.

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/...

    I cannot see many that could be called hate talk. Sure some ask for her to leave or do her job, but when she is hurting America so much, i think people have a right to ask for her to resign.

    by back2basics on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 02:10:57 PM PDT

  •  I JUST POSTED A COMMENT ON (none / 0)

    the Washington Post "Fix" blog so they're still open for business. Added a noted about their ombudsman.

    http://www.intrepidliberaljournal.blogspot.com

    Intrepid Liberal Journal

    by intrepidliberal on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 02:11:50 PM PDT

  •  The really fun part (none / 0)

    will be when O'Reilly reports tonight that Ms Howell was gunned down by Democratic activists while attending church.

    "People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure." - Russell Baker

    by melvonator on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 02:18:00 PM PDT

  •  I love it! (none / 0)

    Commenters then resorted to heaping abuse on Howell in the comments sections of other unrelated WaPo blogs!

    I love the smell of anarchy in the morning. Geez, a regular electronic Haymarket rally, minus any people actually getting blown up.

    by strangely enough on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 03:54:13 PM PDT

  •  sometime ago, i used to blog on walpo. (none / 0)

    they had a real wingnut on there and some of us debated with him till he went across the line. the so called moderator got all over the liberal posters. i saw this coming a long time ago.

    by stodghie on Thu Jan 19, 2006 at 06:52:21 PM PDT

Permalink | 25 comments