In what was the best run Alabama discussion board around, the apologists have scored a major victory by finding a way to get the term apologist and realist censored on tidesports.com message boards.
That is a black mark for any organization to remove perfectly legitimate words from the lexicon; however, how much worse when it is done by a newspaper company. Newspapers (more than other organizations) should have a committment to free and open discussion, especially discussion via the written word.
That lesson reminds me of a classic episode of the Simpsons: Saddlesore Galactica. In this espisode Lisa bitches and complains about her band losing a competition because another group "cheated." Eventually, Lisa takes her complaint all the way to the top, Bill Clinton, president of the United States. The episode resolves with Clinton nullifying the band competition and declaring Lisa's band the winner:
Bill Clinton: No, thank you, Lisa. For teaching kids everywhere a valuable lesson: If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true.
Marge: That's a pretty lousy lesson.
Bill Clinton: Hey, I'm a pretty lousy president.Unfortunately, after what appeared to be personal dispute between a couple of posters, the Apologists win a victory by getting a perfectly viable term eliminated from posting. The lesson here is to go in, pick fights with people and eventually you can limit the terminology of the opposition.
Being able to classify your opponent is a critical element of political discourse. Often people resent being classified as a liberal or Democrat because of the particular stigma each carries; however, there can be no disputing how important the ability to classify is to debate. By censoring the word-choice of posters the moderators have taken a major step away from showing a committment to the first amendment. The moderators actions say, "The first amendment is fine, until it causes us a headache."
Yes, I'm clear that forums are a privilege and not a right. I'm further clear that newspapers own the means of production (thus they buy the ink and paper and therefore determine what is on the page; it is the same with the Internet. You buy the server and pay for its operation, you get to say what happens in the forums.) However, the actions you take speak loudly. Unfortunately, the lesson is that you can gain censorship by bitching and creating fights on message boards.
Public discourse is forever injured when restricted. Better to punish offenders than to injure all posters.
