Liberal Blogs = Censorship?

I’m new to this blogger thing so forgive me if I haven’t quite caught up with the rules. In the last few weeks I’ve attempted to comment on other people’s blogs four different times. Only two have seen the light of day.

The first time was when I replied to someone’s article at the Huffington Post. My comment appeared, finally– 3 days later! By the time it showed up, I had lost total interest in the topic and everyone else had deserted it too. It doesn’t seem that a blog should moderate comments in this way.

Last week, I made my second attempt at participating in blogs by responding to a post at the Daily Kos. Within minutes, the entire thing was erased and my response thrown out like so much trash.

I finally had some success when I read a post by Eugene Washington at the Washington Post and followed it up. Life was looking up. My opinion really did matter.

Feeling enthusiastic that my voice might actually mean something, I found Paul Krugman’s blog at the N.Y. Times the next night and jumped right in. Unfortunately, my post never appeared– another pending approval situation. 83 other people had their voices heard, but my insignificant comments vanished as if they never existed.

I’m astonished that many of these media gatekeepers call their sites blogs. If you withhold, delete, or never publish people’s posts, you are, in effective, censoring and shaping the news. I wonder how often this happens? What’s really disturbing is that these are supposedly the open-minded and liberal establishment. They appear to be less interested in having opinions heard than the right wingers they allegedly are against.

Aaron Dahl

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