CBS News is Desperate for a Story

This afternoon I browsed through a CBS News article (authored by political analyst John Dickerson and originally appearing in Slate) titled: The Comments Sarah Palin Doesn't Want You to See. It was advertised by CBS on Facebook and I thought that it was kind of a silly article that "reported" how Ms Palin had a team of people who deleted comments of all sorts from her Facebook page. Here are the types of comments that were deleted:
  • Mean comments about Sarah Palin.
  • Mean things about the people who say mean things about Sarah Palin.
  • Racial or ethnic slurs.
  • Polite disagreement.
  • Too much agreement.
  • Criticism of her children.
  • Criticism of her children.
  • Anything about Obama's birth certificate or conspiracies related thereto, even in muted form.
  • Complaints about her endorsements of so many female candidates.
  • Excessive use of religious prophesy or imagery.
An interesting addendum to this story.. maybe it is the story itself.. is that CBS News commissioned Jeremy Singer-Vine to write a program to capture comments to Ms Palin's page before the clean-up crew could arrive. Do you find this to simply be silly? I mean really - doesn't Sarah Palin have the right to delete stuff from her Facebook page? Is CBS News just desperate to smear Ms Palin.. just think about the title of their piece.. or are they just desperate? Makes me think twice about the term "liberal biased news media".

What do you think about the article? Is there anything newsworthy there?

9 comments:

  1. Nope, not newsworthy. It's called policing your page/website. I'm sure CBS does it if they allow comments.

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  2. For good or ill, Palin's name attracts attention. Seems like someone's desperate for readers so they make up a story where none exists.

    As Shane points out, any website that allows comments performs such routine policing. Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

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  3. Yeah. Stupid story, at best. Must be a slow news day.

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  4. Drive by media - What do I think about the article? Let me reply with a question that you might be able to answer, I am pondered this forever to no avail: Do stupid people become journalists or does becoming a journalist make people stupid? Since either way proves true maybe it doesn't matter if I learn the answer.

    Is there anything newsworthy there? Where?

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  5. Man, I sure could use someone to edit the things that roll off my tongue... er... keyboard!

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  6. @ Brian. "slow news day" ? what makes you think any of these TV shows care about news anymore.

    @ Bob. Read somewhere that in the future, no one will be seeking 15 minutes of fame. Everyone will be looking for 15 minutes of privacy.

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  7. It should be noted here that the DNC through its group Organizing for America, has repeatedly sent out emails to its list calling on people to swamp Palin's Facebook page with negative comments. Even some of the opponents of the people she has endorsed have told their supporters to do the same thing. That's the big reason for close monitoring of her page.

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  8. I considered deleting a few of your comments just to keep the purity of my blog. :)

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  9. couple this story with the one about CBS anchor Katie curric on tape making jokes about palin and her family

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