Posts tagged violence

This article on Foxnews.com gave miserable birth to the last few Fox News Comments I posted. The article describes the Department of Justice’s dismissal of civil rights cases involving voter intimidation perpetuated by members of the Black Panther party at polling stations in Philadelphia. White males in the comment thread feel this is severe injustice against “the new minority” and have responded angrily and with threats and hopes of violence. The Internet is full of trolls and tough guys, and I’ve been handling this site and seen horrible, idiotic statements for a while now. These particular comments (I’ve only posted a small sample) have put me out of sorts, though. I can differentiate between an anonymous moron on the Internet and real anger and hatred, and I’m pretty sure this is the latter. I hope people view these posts and take it upon themselves to help squash a bit of the simmering hatred in the world, if they can, however they can.

Additionally, I wish to mention Foxnews.com’s moderation procedure. From what I can tell, there are two moderation steps involved in their new comment system. One is a robot that simply rejects posts with certain words or phrases. Those posts never show up, and that’s fine. The second form of moderation is the “Flag.” Users can flag a post they find offensive, and once there are enough votes, that post is replaced with “This post has been flagged for moderation.” You can imagine how often posts on Foxnews.com are flagged. If it were an effective system, I wouldn’t have a website to run. In this last article, however, comments HAVE been flagged, but not “DRAG ‘EM BEHIND A TRUCK” or “filthy niqqers!!” It’s the opposition posts – ones that call out the white men for their racism – that have been flagged. Fox News works under a pretense of justice, never overtly being racist. They might employ the subtlety of a moose enduring a difficult birth, but it’s some kind of subtlety. Their audience has none of that. This is Stormfront, the KKK, whatever you will – online. They’re not the fringe group they should be – so show this site to your grandparents, your parents, your racist co-worker – whoever you know who watches Fox News – and put Fox back on the fringe, where they should be.