{"id":1590,"date":"2017-01-09T01:16:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T06:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1590"},"modified":"2017-01-09T01:16:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T06:16:23","slug":"readers-comments-but-only-if-we-like-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=1590","title":{"rendered":"Readers’ Comments — But Only If We like Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers’ Comments — But Only If We like Them<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

To gauge the pulse of public opinion, look at the comments after news stories in the online editions of newspapers or radio\/television news. The level of anger at Canada’s Europeans-replacing immigration policy, the endless coddling of minorities and other issues hardly ever appears in news stories or commentary. As in the U.S<\/strong>., there is a huge gap between approved opinion preached in most of the media and what a huge section of the population is thinking.<\/p>\n

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The dissident ideas have some of the guardians of approved opinion worried. They seek to cut off or strictly limit this venue for public opinion. Even the normally pro-free speech Globe and Mail<\/u><\/strong> is worried. Sylvia Stead<\/strong> its Public Editor. In an article “Online comments — is there a fix?” (Globe and Mail<\/u><\/strong>, July 30, 2016), she\u00a0 supported a crackdown: “But too many [comments] do go too far — becoming personal, racist and bordering on hate speech. The end result can be so toxic that several news outlets, including The Toronto Star<\/u><\/strong>, have simply dispensed with comments altogether.” The fear of “racist” comments invites the response, “So what?” “Racism” is such an open-ended term that it is used to silence criticism of immigration or minority pretensions. Donald Trump<\/strong> was roundly denounced by his opponent and the compliant press on both sides of the border as a “racist” and he’s now President of the United States.\"SYLVIA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stead continues: “Editors around the world will tell you they have problems with the same subjects: immigration, the Middle East, Moslems, indigenous people, women’s rights and the LGBTQ<\/strong> community. … As part of its crackdown on dissent, the Globe<\/u><\/strong> “will exclude certain stories from comments — usually ones about legal matters, criminal trials and potential criminal charges. Also, comments on stories about a specific basket of topics that are known to attract hate must be approved by a moderator before the can appear. I would advocate tighter rules for certain topics such as race, immigration, religion, sexual identity, women’s rights, indigenous people — and that extra effort be made to protect minority groups (and women) from abuse. That would mean more screening and, as necessary, closing comments more often.”<\/p>\n

Presumably, it’s still okay to abuse and criticize Christians and White people and you may still be allowed to have intemperate opinions about the weather!<\/p>\n

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Readers’ Comments — But Only If We like Them To gauge the pulse of public opinion, look at the comments after news stories in the online editions of newspapers or radio\/television news. The level of anger at Canada’s Europeans-replacing immigration … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,836,835,834],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1592,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590\/revisions\/1592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}