Huff-Watch: HuffPost approves Moderators, users to vilify, wish death upon ailing Billy Graham

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

HuffPost approves Moderators, users to vilify, wish death upon ailing Billy Graham

"Rotten old buzzard, Satan is licking his chops at the idea of welcome this one to hell [...]"
--- One of the comments that HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish by its Moderators and users, in response to news that Billy Graham is hospitalized

"We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to abusive or hateful language or comments."
--- Arianna Huffington

On May 11, HuffPost published near the top of its front page this news story of 92-year-old Franklin Graham's admission to a hospital for a pulmonary condition:

As shown on the story page, HuffPost announced that not a single comment would appear unless it was approved by one of its Moderators. (In fact, as we document in this special report, it has been pre-moderating all user comments since March 2008.) Note that this screencap shows that at the time, HuffPost had 75 comments in "Pending," meaning it was deciding whether to publish or reject them:

Keep in mind that HuffPost's comment policy claims that

it will not publish:

"comments that celebrate the death, illness... of any person [...] hate speech [...] false claims or misleading implications that any individual or group perpetuates hate [...] the propagation of conspiracy theories"

So what types of comments do you think HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish --- from its Moderators, and users?

Here's a sampling. Note how many of these users have 200-1,200 or more "fans," meaning they are not hit and run "trolls" that Ms. Huffington falsely claims are the ones responsible for comments that violate her site's comment policy, in order to embarrass her:

"Rotten old buzzard, Satan is licking his chops at the idea of welcome this one to hell [...]"
--- surlyguvna, 114 Fans, Permalink

"Wasn't god was going to take his life, unless if he received lots of money from the public, God would spare his life? Yep, sound like a con man to me!!!"
--- HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR 1088, 781 Fans, Permalink

"First Obama gave us Osama in deep seas...... Then This. There is justice in the world."
--- HUFFPOST SUPER USER capt ayhab, 1215 Fans, Permalink

"Thanks for all the evil things you have done! You made us stronger!"
--- mightygoodman, 82 Fans, Permalink

"Amazing how these religion guys so desperately seek scientific solutions to keep them from what they constantly praddle on about: Joining their deity."
--- HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR motoGpifupleez, 686 Fans, Permalink

"What do Jesus and Billy Graham have in common? Graham has gotten rich using Jesus' name. Jesus already cut him and the other rich folk off."
--- HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR Dosadi, 1621 Fans, Permalink

"Why should this creep get medical care, when the religious right has partnered with the health insurance industry to deny coverage to millions of poor people. He is about to get the worst punishment imaginable."
--- HUFFPOST SUPER USER dennissein, 15 Fans, Permalink

"By now he should be able to afford to buy a whole ton of prayer healing."
--- HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR Connor Alexander, 152 Fans, Permalink

"It's probably because of his son. Franklin Graham would make anybody sick."
--- VA Jill, 90 Fans, Permalink

And that's just a sampling. Visit the story page for more.

"Arianna says"

A sampling of Arianna Huffington's oft-repeated public statements about her site's Comment Policy --- starting with her 2008 admission that not a single comment appears anywhere on HuffPost without first being reviewed and approved by a moderator:

"Our comments on the news site were originally post-moderated (i.e., objectionable comments were removed only after our moderators were alerted). We eventually decided that it was worth the substantial effort and expense to have human pre-moderation on both blogs and news." (July 2008)

"We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to abusive or hateful language or comments." (3/20/08)

"If you're looking for the usual flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric... don't bother coming to the Huffington Post." (5/6/05)

ACTION ITEMS

If you share our view that HuffPost's actions in regards to this story are outrageous, and are opposed to its long, long history of enabling and even protecting most egregious violators of its comment policy (if not the law) to remain active, we urge you to do three things:

(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here

(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.
An easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock in. Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the rug.

(3) Forward the link to this story along to friends and journalists who you think might be interested in learning what HuffPost really is, and does --- and how long this has been going on:

Previously: