Thursday, October 18, 2012

Thursday - No Response from Herald


Assume the moratorium on "free speech" will not be lifted by our friends at the Sanford Herald.  As of 7:36 am this morning, there has been no email, no call, no reply...I will let you know if common sense prevails and they give the citizens more time for public commenting. 

 Make your voice heard:  919-708-9000.  

Steve Devane, The Fayetteville Observer reporter who has done a very good job covering Lee County contacted his editor yesterday on their policy.  They will cease accepting Letters to the Editor  on October 29.  That's a week before election day.  

Not 2 1/2 weeks!

 Related posts:

Email to Sanford Herald..Stop Suppressing us!

6 comments:

Jay Calendine said...

So says the great suppressor (who will likely delete this comment and close comments just for good measure). Unlike you, the paper has to worry about actually selling copies, and the last thing people want to read every day is all the misinformation your vocal minority is spouting day after nauseating day. We get that every time AFP publishes a new set of talking points you folks go running to your keyboards, but jesus christ, to think that the local paper has to pick up everything you publish in your blog has got to be the height (or nearly the height) of arrogance. You're not being suppressed - you have a blog, for heaven's sake!! You're being edited, and there's nothing wrong with it.

When Mike Stone put his signs out 2 weeks ahead of the date allowed by statute (a violation of state law), I wrote a letter to the editor that wasn't published until 2 days before the date allowed. So, what? The paper decides what to print. So, I could either bellyache about how the Herald is a puppet of the Stone administration (nonsense), or I could just, I dunno, deal with it. Deal with it, Shelia. You'll feel better.

Sheila Barber said...

Hi stranger, Hope you've been ok.

I am not sure what you are accusing me of. Why would I delete your comments? have I ever deleted "Jay Calendine's"comments? No.

Have I cut off Anonymous comments? Yes. Rightfully so. Cut off and deleting are two different things.

There does come a time for civility, Jay. By forcing some type of Identity, like most other sites it curtails one's intentions of spewing nastiness, not dialog. Big difference. The Herald doesn't accept anonymous. Plus they edit our letters. I don't.

Campaigns are not advertising here. They could if they wanted to do so and pay the bucks. My nemesis a few blocks away thinks I have only a few subscribers. I had to school him on the difference between subscribers and readers.

95% of citizens don't speak up like you and me. That's why I protested. Shutting UP our voice on a public forum is unfair. Especially when citizens get attacked in the paper via ads or LTEs.

Good to hear from you.

Sheila Barber said...

one more thing...I haven't paid attention to the date thing. I have paid attention to the theft and vandalism of Mr. Stone's signs. I simply don't understand what Bill Tatum's supporters are afraid of.

Jay Calendine said...

By closing comments you have done exactly what the Herald is doing here. The Herald is closing comments about election matters after a certain date. How is that fundamentally different from what you do when you close comments on a post?

Besides that, you're a blogger. Yes, there are differences between readers and subscribers, just as there are differences in how content is distributed (paid vs. free). The whole paradigm is different for blogs than it is for newspapers, so it's not a fair comparison. The paper isn't a public forum, though - it's a private news outlet which exists for public consumption. That political activists use it like a public forum doesn't mean that when it denied us we have been slighted.

As for the sign thing, I must protest. There were no thefts of signs, to my knowledge, and I know of no vandalism, either. But, every time a big storm blew through, or every time the state mowed through their property, I saw tatters of Republican signs or leftovers for *weeks* and no one came by to fix them. In Swanns Station, over where my parents live, your side's signs were a mess for weeks after a one-two punch of thunderstorms and state lawnmowers. Now, tell me, was that theft, or vandalism? Because, I think it was just natural causes and just plain inattentiveness.

Sheila Barber said...

Really? What storm came thru and tore up Mike Stone, Del Palazzo, Dolan, Rabin, and Smiths and quietly left Dalrymple and Tatums up?

Wait that storm must have happened last weekend when you were studying NO NUKES in Iran. I was here in Sanford two miles away from that site. Somehow I missed the storm.

On the closing comments. After enough like 20, I can close them. even WRAL and many other sites do. I don't do a freaking moratorium on candidates and paid ads meant to destroy citizens. Go read again my argument. it was for people like you too.

But you're too blind to see that! good Lord I won't taking sides for parties!

Jay Calendine said...

Amy's signs went up later, and Bill's workers fixed his. It's called maintenance. I've fixed Democrats signs and left Republican signs a mess after a storm. That doesn't make me guilty of anything. But, then, some Republican drives by, sees their signs down and our signs up and assumes vandalism. There's that old adage about assumptions...

I don't understand your "NO NUKES" comment. I never said Iran didn't have a nuclear program. I said they didn't have a nuclear weapon. That's what every publicly available source of information about Iran's nuclear program says. You disagree. So, the ball's in your court on that one.

On the closing comments. Okay, so we agree that there comes a time when it's okay to close comments, and the Herald has decided the time has come. It's really not the big deal you're making it. I'm not blind; I'm just not personally offended about this, like you are.

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