If A Columnist Falls From the Paper, Does Anyone Care?

Self-aggrandizing Moscow-Pullman Daily News columnist Chuck Pezeshki has created a bit of a firestorm over his latest throwaway paean to eco-terrorists published on August 16. In it, Chuck wrote:

Frank Bennett, that ostensible local communitarian, at my last check was living in Palm Springs.

Uh, there's a slight problem there. Frank Bennett does not, nor has he ever, lived in Palm Springs. But why let truth stand in the way of a good anarchist rant?

The problem for Chuck is that Mr. Bennett has many friends in the area. A letter to the editor appeared in the paper today correcting Chuck's lie.

The real question is, where was the editorial staff fact checking? Is Chuck just allowed to publish anything he wants? At a recent Palousitics lunch, Daily News Managing Editor Steve McClure told us that another columnist had been let go for promulgating false information.

We'll see where this goes.

"Wal-Mart offers no date for Pullman store "

Oops. It appears that the Daily News "broke" a non-story about Wal-Mart's groundbreaking plans yesterday.

I heard the same rumors and checked it out with Wal-Mart. I learned the same thing that the Lewiston Tribune reports in the article below: The status hasn't changed one bit. Don't despair though. Wal-Mart is still committed to Pullman.

In the meantime, To get the straight story on Wal-Mart in Pullman, first and most accurately, keep it locked on Palousitics.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

PULLMAN - A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said Thursday the company has "zero timeline" and "zero information" about plans to break ground for a super center at Pullman by the end of the year.

"It would be our hope to do something this year, but I have absolutely nothing," said Jennifer Spall, Wal-Mart's Washington spokeswoman. "Nothing has changed."

Spall said plans for building a super center in Clarkston are more solid.

"We're actually much, much closer in Clarkston. But I don't have a date yet," Spall said about Clarkston plans. She said bids are out on that project.

"I could know within two months whether we're going to break ground, but right now I don't have any timeline either," she said of the Clarkston store.

Spall said she has been receiving a number of calls about erroneous reports that Wal-Mart might abandon Pullman in favor of Clarkston. She said there is no validity to the reports. "We are committed to both sites," she said.

The current Wal-Mart stores in both Lewiston and Moscow represent separate markets, Spall said, and there are no plans to close either store.

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

Mmmmm, Malthusianism. Tastes Like the Easter Bunny

Lenna Harding's environmentalist wacko ramblings grow more bizarre with each new column.

Here are some quotes from her latest one in today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

At what point is population growth no longer sustainable? Why are we so concerned with defining the family as a couple with children? Instead, should we not be applauding those who choose not to bear children?

Democrats: The party of "No Family" values.

We need to rethink our diet and look to better sources of protein than beef. I like beef and am not advocating abolishing it as a food source. I merely suggest that chicken and rabbits might be more resource-efficient sources. Sheep and goats also should be more in the mix.

Why not Soylent Green? Then we could kill two birds with one stone (so to speak.)

Who can take these people seriously?

Bias at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Moscow-Pullman Daily News publisher Nathan Alford has repeatedly extolled to me the virtues of free speech and the press. But is the press at the Daily News free of bias?

You read these examples and tell me:

In 2005, a letter to the editor from Ed Schweitzer endorsing Wal-Mart was sat on until the day after the Pullman City Council election in which a PARD member was running. The Daily Evergreen published the same letter two weeks before.

A reporter from the Daily News wanted to cover my visit to the Wal-Mart Home Office in April 2006, but an editor killed the story.

A BREO press release last year about a petition from a group of seniors in favor of Wal-Mart was never covered.

Libelous and defamatory comments from PARD members and sympathizers are allowed to be posted and remain posted at Dnews.com in the name of the "Safe Harbor."

So when a reader of this blog wrote a rebuttal to Chris Lupke's latest insane rant against me, what did the Daily News do? Bury it.

Oh, every letter to the editor trampling out the vintage where the sour grapes are stored from Lupke, Orlich, Damm, et. al. gets published. But here's the letter sent in a few weeks ago that you haven't seen in the Daily News:

I read with interest the letter from Christopher Lupke dated July 5, 2008. In the letter he claims the salary he makes is inaccurate. The information on salaries comes from http://lbloom.net/wsu07.html. The information on the web site is gathered from the Washington State Office of Financial Management and is for 2007. I checked both the salary for my husband and myself. According to the website, both were listed correctly. When the list first came out, I also discussed this site with friends who work at WSU and they agreed that the information was correct. Therefore my question is this…is your listed salary too high or too low, Mr. Lupke? Or is it that you are embarrassed to be earning that much money for only nine months of work? According to Mr. Forbes figures the average Pullman family earns $40,709 a year. It certainly makes it difficult to claim non-elite status when you are earning approximately 54% more for nine months of work than the average Pullmanite makes in a year.

As for the comment, “This pig needs to be removed from the trough.” It was written by a commentator to the blog, not Mr. Forbes personally. Many people can post to blogs. This is just a typical example of taking something out of context for your own personal end. Rather similar to what PARD did to Pullman for the last few years by their unseemly lawsuits and their claim of representing the common people of Pullman. At any rate, the comment was meant to show some professors are elitists and make far too much money for the work they do.

If you want the healing to begin, PARD should apologize for holding Pullman hostage and putting our tax base in jeopardy.

I expect this kind of crap from the puerile Watermelon. But a paper run by level-headed adults? I think we can find a better local newspaper.

"Compound fracture of fact"

The reason for the numerous PARD "compound fractures of fact" and the smear campaign they are currently waging which Terry Day referred to in a letter to the editor last Friday is obvious.

PARD desperately wants to distract public attention away from the outing of their three year long lie about not receiving any financial assistance from the UFCW. They fear, rightfully so, the wrath of Pullman citizens who have been cheated out of two million dollars in sales tax revenue and tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses as part of some futile nationwide union grudge match against Wal-Mart that has nothing to do with our town.

PARDner Chris Lupke, and PARD ally Matthew Root (remember, Root threatened to call the cops on Palousitics constributor Ray Lindquist for holding up a "Honk for Wal-Mart" sign downtown back in January 2006,) have been engaged in a systematic campaign of outrageous lies and distortions against Scotty ("The Seattle Transplant,") myself, and by inference, all who support Wal-Mart coming to Pullman in the printed pages of the Daily News and on Dnews.com.

For example, Lupke wrote in a unhinged rant published in the July 5-6 edition of the Daily News that, "Following it [this blog post made by me on June 29] are some comments, including this: 'This pig needs to be removed from the trough.'" That bordered on libel, as the clear implication was that I had made that statement. On Dnews.com, the online comments about this letter actually turned libelous, as I was accused by both Lupke and Root of having made it.

That is a complete and utter lie. If you look at the comments for this post, you can see it was Paul Zimmerman that wrote about the "pig," not me. What I said was this:

There was a story in the Daily News not too long ago stating that the average salary of professors at WSU was $92,000 a year.

Now, one can debate that number in terms of pay at other universities or whether the professors deserve such pay or not all day long.

What is not debatable, however, is the adolescent hippie fantasy that Lupke engages in that somehow the professors of PARD with their much-higher-than-average salaries (and education) represent the "working class" of Pullman. It's unseemly and it's silly.

My wife is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts. I have never impugned the pay of professors or the quality of professors in the College of Liberal Arts in general, only arrogant jerks in any college who suppress academic freedom and try to promote their own leftist agenda on the taxpayer's time or by pretending to be "experts" in things such as traffic, urban planning and economics.

I don't think Paul was making a broad statement aboout professors either, as he has been an instructor at WSU. He was just singling out Lupke. And I was merely rebutting Lupke's absurd assertion on Dnews.com that somehow only the "more wealthy people" in Pullman support Wal-Mart. I did this by using data available to those who pay his salary, the taxpayers of Washington,to show that members of prominent PARD households all make well above the average family income in Pullman. If Lupke doesn't like his pay being a matter of public record, he should move to a job in the private sector.

If any further letters or comments claiming that I said anything about "pigs in the trough" show up again anywhere, there will be legal consequences for all involved.

But false accusations and namecalling are nothing new to the tag team of Lupke and Root, both active members of the Whitman County Democrats. A few months back, after falsely accusing me of being the Dnews.com commenter "TJ Kong," Lupke said I was "homophobic" and "fascinated with Nazis." Root called "TJ Kong" a "suicide bomber."

From last Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Mark Twain spoke of lies and damned lies and labeled the aphorism that "Truth is mighty and will prevail" as "the most majestic compound fracture of fact which any of woman born has yet achieved ... a truth is not hard to kill, and ... a lie well told is immortal."

I take it this must be the bible of PARDites, who continue to spread lies about Pullman city officials regarding Wal-Mart's proposed Pullman super center. PARDites will take umbrage at this truth. They are unrestrained in misrepresenting the city's handling of the Wal-Mart application, but accuse those who criticize them of intimidation.

The only smear campaign in Pullman over Wal-Mart is being conducted by the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development or its supporters. They wage it against city officials who acted morally and legally and whose handling of the issues have repeatedly been upheld in the court of law. And that especially includes providing all citizens ample opportunity through public hearings to voice their concerns and opinions. Allegations to the contrary constitute a compound fracture of fact.

Terence L. Day, Pullman

Palunchitics Wrap-Up

Those of you who couldn't make it today missed a great Palunchitics. As Scotty mentioned previously, Moscow-Pullman Daily News managing editor Steve McClure was gracious enough to stop by the Hilltop this afternoon and chat with us over lunch about our local newspaper. We touched on many subjects, including:

- The new printing press
- The size of the paper and newsprint
- The economic issues facing the Daily News
- Fact checking, plagiarism and columnists
- The Washington Post's proposed "hyper-local" coverage
- The struggles of big city newspapers and the success of small town ones.
- The possibility of a Sunday edition
- The new Washington cell phone law
- The balance between Pullman and Moscow coverage
- The tricks sometimes required to confirm stories or getting to the facts (such as Hillary Hamm's exposing of the PARD serial lie about not receiving union support)
- Editorial consensus, or the lack thereof, on certain issues
- The Associated Press' heavyhanded attempts at copyright enforcement
- The future of the Daily News, both print and web versions

This is not the first time Steve has visited with us. He attended the first Palousitics blogfest back in December 2006.

While I certainly don't agree with the Daily News on every issue (anonymous commenting and lack of comments moderation on Dnews.com being my biggest gripe,) I think Steve is a good guy and that the Daily News is overall pretty centrist and does the best it can with very limited resources.

We are trying to line up a local elected official for the August Palunchitics. Stay tuned.

Shooting from the Hip

Tucked away within Murf's Biz Bits column is this gem:

How much longer is the water leak at Sixth and Rayburn streets in Moscow going to remain? The leak has been running for months. You would think such resource waste would not be the case in a town that purports to be conservative with its water use.

Michael O'Neal's New Website

My two favorite newspaper columnists are both named Michael: Our own Michael Costello, who has a Saturday column in the Lewiston Tribune, and Michael O'Neal, who has a column every other Tuesday in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Both have a very intelligent and clever way with words that tends to make our local moonbats start barking.

Michael O'Neal has started a webiste at thespeech-writer.com. I'm certainly going to check it out and you should too. I'm trying to get Michael to stop by here and share some of his wit and wisdom with us from time-to-time.

UPDATE: Michael has signed on as a Palousitics contributor as "The Speech Writer." Let's all welcome Michael!

Dead Tree Dinosaur Death Watch, Part II

The layoffs and cutbacks that have hit the New York Times, the Spokesman-Review, and the Seattle Times have now hit the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Trib likely alienated many readers by having two very left-wing editorialists churning out columns daily. The Daily News, as I have repeatedly pointed out, allows for anonymous and unmoderated venomous comments on its online edition.

The City of Pullman's contract with the Daily News requires that they maintain a Pullman office. Now that that is gone, will they continue the contract? What will happen to the coverage of Pullman and WSU issues? God knows the Evergreen gave up on covering Pullman about a year ago.

UDPATE: From today's Daily News:

"We will continue to have an office in Pullman," Alford said. "Pullman and greater Whitman County are an essential part of our readership area. It will remain an essential part of our focus and a top priority for news coverage.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

Tribune, Daily News announce cost-cutting measures

Drop in ad revenue, rise in cost of materials create financial strain; Trib
editorial writer Tom Henderson is leaving

The Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News are losing five positions as the newspapers face softening advertising revenue and increases in the cost of materials.

Changes that will be most visible involve the reduction of the Tribune's editorial writing staff from two to one with the loss of Tom Henderson and also the closure of the Daily News office in Pullman. Henderson will be moving to Oregon.

Other jobs being cut include the Tribune's newsroom librarian, a position in production at the Tribune, a clerical position at the Pullman office of the Daily News and a customer service and circulation position at the Daily News, said Wayne Hollingshead, chief operating officer of Tribune Publishing Company Holdings, which operates the two newspapers.

Management tried to choose reductions that would have the least impact on the papers' ability to gather news and sell its product, Hollingshead said.

But A.L. Alford Jr., editor and publisher of the Lewiston Tribune, said the choice to reduce staffing for the editorial page, which has had two full-time editorial writers since the 1970s, was "the most difficult" and fell short of the goal of not affecting the news product.

The Tribune is one of the few and possibly the only newspaper of its size in the country that has two full-time editorial writers, Hollingshead said.

Some of the cuts were made through early retirements and not filling positions that were vacant, Hollingshead said. The five positions represent a fraction of the 139 full-time and 59 part-time employees at the two newspapers.

One position that is not affected is that of the Tribune's political reporter. Dean Ferguson is leaving the Tribune to work as communications director for Larry LaRocco.

LaRocco is running for the U.S. Senate seat that is now held by Larry Craig, who is retiring. Ferguson's position will be filled later in the year.

The challenges that prompted the changes reflect the national downturn in the economy, Alford said.

The weakness didn't hit the Tribune and Daily News as early as the Spokane and Seattle areas, Alford said.

The Seattle Times announced it was cutting 200 jobs on Monday.

"Fortunately our nonmetropolitan newspapers have a more favorable situation and outlook than the metropolitan media," Alford said.

Radio and television are working through the same kinds of issues, Hollingshead said. "The first thing to cut is advertising. They cut that and then they start worrying about where is my business."

The cost for the paper that the newspaper is printed on, postage and mileage are all increasing, Hollingshead said. "Anything that we buy that is petroleum-based has just gone through the roof."

Those costs are rising at a time when the papers are paying for a new press and are in the final year of repaying a loan that helped buy the papers back from Kearns-Tribune Corp. in 1998.

"The one-time expenses here are not the issue," Hollingshead said. "It's really the ongoing things that caught us by surprise."

The decision to invest $12 million in a new production center was made in December 2006 and the newspapers wouldn't "be brave enough to proceed" with the plan if it were made today, Alford said.

The newspapers still stand to gain from the new press, which will be operational in June, Alford and Hollingshead said.

One of its advantages is that it will bring "terrific reproduction," Alford said.

The newspapers also expect it will help the bottom line by reducing waste and creating a new stream of revenue by printing specialty publications, Hollingshead said.

Downturns in the economy such as this are ones the papers have weathered about six times since 1968 when Alford became editor and publisher, with the most recent being in 2002, he said. "I have optimism about our region's middle and long-term economy."

The Tribune and Daily News are going to be fine, Hollingshead said. "We're going to do everything we can to continue to produce great newspapers."

Moscow-Pullman Daily News to Start Blog Sites

Dale Courtney over at Right Mind noticed that Dave Oliveria posted this at Huckleberries Online:

Editor Steve McClure of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News called this morning to ask about newspaper blogs. Seems the Moscow-based paper is going to dip its toe into the blogosphere and Steve was interested re: what we're doing up here. He blurks at Huckleberries Online occasionally. Good guy.

Here is the comment I left on Dale's blog:

Agreed. The Trib blogs are really bad, unless you're an American Idol fan. Total fluff. It has its place, but let's have some hard news too.

The Spokesman does it up right. Dave is a good guy. I urged Nathan Alford to pursue blogs at Dnews.com two years ago as a way for the reporters to provide more coverage and insight on local issues.

It is interesting to note that the Spokesman does NOT allow comments on its online version, only through the blogs. And HBO DOES moderate offensive/spam comments and bans users after being warned (as do you and I, Dale).

I'm guessing based on the open sewer the Dnews.com online comments section has become (which I also warned Nathan about), Steve is looking at better (and perhaps more legally defensible) alternatives to remain competitive with us in the New Media.

Good luck with the blogs, Steve. But unless you get the trolls under control, you'll still have the same problems.

Computer Error?

Is that like a "wardrobe malfunction?" I pointed out that the comment that Chris Lupke made on Dnews.com where he used my name to falsely identify me as an anonymous commenter was suddenly removed from the website. So I contacted publisher Nathan Alford again about removing Lupke's "homophobic joke" comment, as obviously the Dnews.com forum is being moderated if comments are being removed. You'll absolutely LOVE his response:

Greetings Tom.

Your note was received.

As I've mentioned before, the comment section is not moderated and remains unmoderated. The comment was not deleted. A computer error removed it from the thread. We are correcting the error.

Regards, Nathan.

Tom Forbes wrote:
>
> Nathan,
>
> I see that this comment:
>
> /lupke wrote: on 3/20/2008 11:07 am:/
>
> /Yes, Tom, we all know about your habitual resorting to name calling
> when you've run out of cogent responses (which is pretty quick). I
> think the only one "raging" is you. Even your sidekick Lobo seems
> embarrassed by you at times, though not enough in my opinion. When
> people disagree with you, you panic, call them names, threaten their
> tenured status. You're not much of a neighbor and you really seem to
> hate collegetowns. If you're unhappy here, consider moving. Just a
> suggestion. I won't resort to calling for you to be run out of town,
> as you have us -- in a fit of rage./
>
> /Yes, you always claim to speak for "the rest of us" (another
> fallacy), but your pathetic attempt at garnering a pro-Wal-Mart
> petition resulted in fewer signatories than we gathered in any one
> hour of gathering signatures locally. You may have forgotten, but we
> gathered OVER TEN THOUSAND asking Wal-Mart not to build. All locally. /
>
> ...has been deleted from Dnews.com. Whether you decided to do it or
> Chris Lupke requested it, thank you! In any case, it is obviously no
> longer an "unmoderated forum." Accordingly, I ask again that the
> comment referring to "homophobic joke" please be deleted. Lupke has a
> long history of associating me with "tjkong" and his other comments in
> this thread are obviously addressed to me (e.g. "trying to claim I'm
> related to some guy named Chad Lupke," referring to a comment made
> only on my blog some 2 1/2 years ago) regardless of whether he uses my
> name or not.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tom Forbes

"Computer error," eh? Funny that was the only comment that got removed. Of course, if the forum is moderated, that would make the Daily News legally liable for any comments being posted there. Oops.

The Homophobic Nazi Suicide Bomber

Below is my letter to the editor published in today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News about Chris Lupke mistakenly identifying me as an anonymous commenter on Dnews.com and accusing me of making "homophobic jokes" and being "fascinated" with Nazis.

I know several of you here disagree with my philosophy. But for those of you that endorse anonymous/unmoderated comments at Dnews.com as a way of instantly responding to news stories/opinion, protecting "whistleblowers," or making arguments based on merit not the person, I ask you two simple questions: Is it your name and reputation being affected by these online comments? Does your family have to answer questions about things you did not say?

At what point does the First Amendment become a letter of marque to go after your enemies with no consequences? A newspaper is not a blog. Everyone in the community reads it. They don't go there expecting to read personal attacks, lies, and unsubstantiated claims (or maybe they do, possibly explaining why Nathan Alford insists on keeping the comments turned on.) People go to a newspaper website expecting the truth, in the form of news.

If Chris Lupke hates me so much, as he obviously does, then why doesn't he start his own blog? www.tomforbesistheantichrist.com. The answer is that he won't. He's getting a free ride without putting in any work other than thinking up some pithy putdown. It's much more effective to lob grenades at me at a website he knows gets thousands of hits a day to inflict maximum damage on me. And I pay money every month for this privilege.

Rather than "encouraging a constructive community dialogue," these comments chill it considerably. Most people do not have the thick skin that I do. And what can I do to get my good name back? The onus is all on me to go after Lupke by putting down thousands on a retainer for an attorney. The Daily News provides this platform for Lupke and then just says "sucks to be you buddy." It doesn't matter to them how untrue or damaging any of his garbage is.

Let me give you some examples of this "constructive dialogue" that Lupke and his toadie Matthew Root have indulged in, all in response to a story that did not concern me in response to a commenter who is not me:

tj -- calling yourself "reasonable and responsible" should elicit guffaws from even the most dotrinaire of observants. Your "reason" reminds me more of that employed by the nazis for whom you hold such a prurient fascination, as illustrated by your obsessive discussion of them on these pages.

Yes, Tom, we all know about your habitual resorting to name calling when you've run out of cogent responses (which is pretty quick). I think the only one "raging" is you. Even your sidekick Lobo seems embarrassed by you at times, though not enough in my opinion. When people disagree with you, you panic, call them names, threaten their tenured status. You're not much of a neighbor and you really seem to hate collegetowns. If you're unhappy here, consider moving. Just a suggestion. I won't resort to calling for you to be run out of town, as you have us -- in a fit of rage.

Yes, you always claim to speak for "the rest of us" (another fallacy), but your pathetic attempt at garnering a pro-Wal-Mart petition resulted in fewer signatories than we gathered in any one hour of gathering signatures locally. You may have forgotten, but we gathered OVER TEN THOUSAND asking Wal-Mart not to build. All locally. [This comment appears to have been deleted from the Daily News website, making Alford's claim to me that Dnews.com is an "unmoderated forum" de facto (and likely de jure) untrue. But any reasonably intelligent onlooker can tell from Lupke's non-deleted comments that he is referring specifically to me.]

Hi Chris, yes he resorts to name calling again; its all he’s got. I suggest we just let him ride the bomb to his own self-destruction, like his fake namesake. I find it funny that the fictional T J Kong was a suicide bomber.

I also basically agree with you about tj. I knew he would be a waste of time the first time I heard of him trying to claim I'm related to some guy named Chad Lupke and that therefore I'm not a permanent resident of Pullman. He has a small palette of rhetorical techniques that consist mainly of blathering his point of view (fine, who cares); if that doesn't work, insulting his interlocutors with vicious, slanderous names; lies about other people in the community; threats such as running people out of town; and rather pathetic attempts at self-arrogation mixed with a real envy of the academic life. I'm not sure what trauma occurred in his academic life, but it clearly left him scarred. In all his blather, I have never once gotten the impression that he wanted to persuade his adversaries of anything and am confident he never has.

It is remarkable, though, that in his frustration his only recourse is a homophobic joke. What was it last week -- nooses? Disgusting. Never ends.

tj -- your lies never end. I never said I hated you and, as a Christian, I don't. That doesn't mean I approve of your unsavory tactics. But there is hope for everyone. Even Lee Atwater, for example, who is the modern inventor of the style of character assasination and dirty tricks methods you employ, repented on his death bed, writing many apologies to those whom he verbally assaulted. I therefore hold out hope that anyone can reflect on the rotten things they inflict on others and change. I would hope they would come sooner than they did for Atwater.

My wife's friends and co-workers read this bullshit and she has to deal with it. Think about if you would want your family to be subjected to that.

Here is my letter:

Daily News publisher Nathan Alford insists on running an anonymous, unmoderated online forum, despite the legal and moral risks this poses.

Authors of letters to the editor and opinion page columnists are required to divulge their identities before being published. Why should online commenters be held to a different standard? Libel laws apply equally to online editions as to print ones.

Even though there are numerous blogs and message boards not owned by newspapers that allow anonymous, unmoderated comments, that doesn't mean our community newspaper should. Newspapers, especially in small towns, have a special responsibility to their readers to encourage constructive discussion and debate. MIT Professor of Sociology of Science Dr. Sherry Turkle has conducted research into "identity and multiplicity" online and postulated that the quality of online forums is inversely proportional to the anonymity of its participants.

Several months ago, the Daily News took steps to eliminate "sock puppet" accounts. While a good first step, the anonymity and unmoderated nature of the online comments still allows for reprehensible, irresponsible, and destructive comments. For example, in responding to recent posts from a regular commenter known as "tjkong," Chris Lupke mistakenly assumed that it was me and leveled accusations that I made a "homophobic joke" and showed a "prurient fascination" with Nazis. It is Lupke's constitutional right to have an opinion about my public stance on various issues (as I do about him). However, he is not entitled to associate me with controversial comments that I did not make without prior and incontrovertible evidence concerning my identity. The Daily News refused to delete those comments.

I encourage you to contact Nathan Alford (alford@dnews.com) and urge him to restore decency to our community newspaper and hold it to a higher standard by eliminating the anonymous unmoderated online comments.

Tom Forbes, Pullman

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

Anything You Don't Say Can and Will Be Used Against You

If you are contemplating taking a public stand on a controversial issue, take my advice: Don't. The local media-academic complex will knock you down.

For example, our "community paper," the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, has abrogated its moral and legal responsibilities, turning the comments section in the online version of the newspaper into a fetid cesspool of libel, lies, gossip, rumor, and innuendo.

This is an e-mail exchange between Daily News publisher Nathan Alford and myself:

Date: Friday, March 21, 2008 11:03 AM
From: Nathan Alford
To: Tom Forbes
Subject: Re: Libelous Comment
Size: 4 KB

Tom,

Your note was received. Thank you.

You and I have visited about the positives and negatives of unmoderated public forums on the Web. One negative is that often times those engaged in public debate get poked, or become the subject of loose and unpleasant accusations.

Remember, we're not editing or filtering these comments. We view each individual as responsible for their comments. That's per our written policy, "Individuals posting libelous statements may be held individually responsible."

In this case, it sounds like that's Chris Lupke. I'd encourage you to discuss the matter further with Chris.

Regards, Nathan.

Tom Forbes wrote:

Nathan,

Chris Lupke has left a comment on the Daily News website that states:

"It is remarkable, though, that in his frustration his only recourse is a homophobic joke. What was it last week -- nooses? Disgusting. Never ends."

If you read the entire comment thread on the "TOWN CRIER III: Lessons from the Hawkins development settlement" column, you will see that Lupke mistakenly labels the "tjkong" commentor as me. He has done this on numerous occasions and in the past I have ignored it. But this time, claiming that I am "homophobic" or tell "homophobic" jokes is libelous and injurious to my reputation (much less the Nazi allegations he also made.) I warned you about the dangers of anonymous
commenting when we had lunch several months ago. I continue to urge you to associate real names with online commentors. If you take this measure, this type of behavior will stop. This has nothing to do with either a "constructive community dialog" or the First Amendment.

I demand the "homophobic" comment be immediately deleted and Mr. Lupke notified that I am not "tjkong" and that his comments about me are way out of line. If this is not done right away, I will have no choice but to seek legal remedies to protect my name and standing in the community.

I await your prompt reply.

Best regards,

Tom Forbes

--
*Nathan H. Alford*
Moscow-Pullman Daily News Editor & Publisher
(208) 882-5561 ext. 247
alford@dnews.com

Visit us on the web at:
DNews.com NWmarket.com
lmtribune.com

Alford's logic might apply if I had been involved in the discusssion online at Dnews.com, but I HAVE NOT BEEN. The column in question and all of the previous comments had nothing to do with me, and yet Lupke manages to drag me into it anyway. So Lupke is now free to continue to claim that I am someone that I am not and libel me with accusations of making "homophobic jokes" and a "prurient fascination" with Nazis.

I certainly intend to bring this matter to Lupke's attention, but not before making a public records request to see if he used his WSU account to post these comments.

And the Daily News' defense of unmoderated comments will not hold water, in my opinion, when subscribers have to pay with a credit card to access the online edition and when the identity of every poster is known to them.

I encourage you to drop Nathan Alford a line and let him know how you feel.