Blogs at the Gainesville Times

I've been following the drama at the Times for months. Seems the people who run the place have quite a few control issues.

They pulled a post because it "connected" Tom Nichols to Adolf Hitler. The wording was very clear. Tom connected Obama to Adolf Hitler. Hitler, once Tom's facts were checked had nothing to do with Obama. I guess any suggestion that Tom might be as racist as Hitler was too much to handle.

There was a post by Roger Godberg about fact checking that needed to be done by other bloggers. Coppermine, one of the bloggers, said "the stimulus" had 9000 earmarks in it. Roger called him on that. That post got pulled down.

However, the staff blog by a sweet young thing trying to follow American Idol has two redundant posts. When that was commented upon by Bob as not following guidelines for blogging, his comment was deleted. Hmmmm. Repetition isn't allowed by other bloggers. So why not delete the staffers repetitive blog?

And why not remove the staff blog for negative, personal comments about Idol Contestants? "I could do without them." What could be more personal than a complete dismissal of a person? I'd not mention that if the complaint was, "I don't like" their style. Funny standards.

There is indeed a standard at the Times for blogging. Only the management knows how or when it will be enforced.

Mike Parker