Nov

28

Redacted…at The Tyee

November 28, 2007 |

Nothing lefties hate more than an old fashioned slanging match…It drowns out the Kumbaya singing. However, as well as being lefties, the folks at The Tyee are pretty good journalists committed to transparency.

So it is a bit disturbing to see that they have adopted the San Francisco Chronicle’s clever - delete the comment but make it look like it is still there in case the commentor checks back in - approach to comment censorship.

Here are the screen shots: Tyee; Tyee redacted.

I would never have spotted it had my firefox been buggered up.

It is, of course deceitful and underhanded - which David Beers would know instinctively even if his comments editor just thinks of it as fun with cookies. I write for the Tyee occasionally and thought they were better than this. And the irony of this sort of deceit being practiced on a comment thread about teaching kids philosophy is too perfect.

UpDate: False alarm and much crow eating at my table (and just when I finished the last of the Harper wins 50 seats crow). The Tyee has a little toggle between “best comments” and “all comments” In Firefox I was reading “best comments” and leaping to unfounded conclusions. My apologies to the crew at the Tyee. And a hat tip to Eric in my comments who pointed out the toggle in time for me to send “I’m an idiot” emails to the Tyee folks.


Comments

6 Comments so far

  1. eric on November 28, 2007 9:15 am

    Are you sure that you selected ‘All Comments’ in the ‘Comments’ section, since Tyee has changed the commentaries into two viewable categories that the visitor has to chose between.

  2. jay on November 28, 2007 9:24 am

    I am now an idiot…Apparently The Tyee has a “All comments”/ “Best Comments” toggle which I had set to Best Comments.

    Oh joy, an abject letter admitting beclowning myself.

  3. Sean McCormick on November 28, 2007 10:10 am

    Ouch. That had to hurt.

  4. G West on November 28, 2007 8:07 pm

    Ah well Jay, you’re not the first person to get fooled…I posted an explanation at Tyee last night - which I guess you haven’t had a chance to see yet.

    Anyway, thanks for giving me another opportunity to point out to the Tyee editors that the whole Best Comments/All comments dichotomy is a foolish waste of time that gives new readers a false impression of what actually goes on at Tyee anyway.

    The reasons for classification are arcane and subjective at best.

  5. Dr.Dawg on November 29, 2007 2:50 am

    Aw, shoot, you too. What kind of nonsense is this “best comments/all comments” nonsense? Sucked me right in–and my apology didn’t cut any ice with Beers.

    http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2007/11/crow.html

  6. doug newton on November 30, 2007 4:01 am

    Dr. Dawg has a good picture posted that you might be able to use.

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