Reminder About Comment Policy; No Grammar Shaming; Bias In The Media

After last week’s reaction to news, we are running an article to remind everyone about the Comment Policy at A Little Beacon Blog. As a result of the insults being thrown around throughout the pandemic, which peaked during election week, and will continue as we cover racial and pandemic topics, and quote people (any people), the insult darts from neighbor to neighbor are going to continue. This is how we deal with them at A Little Beacon Blog:

Comments Are Privileges, Not Rights

Back in the days when print media was the only way to get the news delivered to you in some format that was not word of mouth, people had the opportunity to write in a Letter to the Editor. Of the letters received, only a few could be selected. So it’s a big deal to be printed. Now with website platforms, people can publish comments usually un-moderated. Some websites thrive on this activity. ALBB does not. We do not relish in discomfort, hurt, punches through words.

While a news story might hurt someone’s feelings, it is usually a reflection of what happened. In a news story, reading the truth might hurt, or reading yourself quoted when you spoke at City Council Meeting or other public meeting might feel awkward, but that’s another matter.

The following types of comments will be deleted if left on our Instagram or Facebook, and will not be accepted to be published here on this blog:

• Name Calling, like “They are stupid!” Phrases that disrespect people, especially those phrases that combine a word that implies a mentally disabled person. No matter what side you are on, or if you are blended into both sides, if you imply others as being stupid, your comment may be deleted.

• False Accusations. When an implication is made in a comment, sometimes we will know who the person is, and if the claim is true. If we cannot validate an event mentioned in a comment, usually we use the comment as a lead to follow up on with the proper authorities, or get more information from that person.

• First and Last Names Required, usually: When publishing a comment here at the blog, you need to include your first and last name, and your actual email. If you include just your first name, and your correct email, we may consider publishing it. But really, if you stand behind what you say, you won’t be afraid to include your first and last name. If you use a false email, we won’t publish it. Emails are kept private. They are not published, and we do not add them to our newsletter list.

• Try to contribute a thought. If you’re making a comment, please try to contribute a thought that we all can benefit from, as we consider different angles.

• Time to disengage. If a comment conversation gets too heated, with insults piling up, we will ask you to stop. Please respect this and move on.

• Facebook Alias: If you use an alias at Facebook, and we find out, we may delete your comment. Already we have corresponded with people who do use aliases for various reasons. Those who do use an alias have so far left the most bully-ish comments. If you want to be a bully, do it under your full name with your face for us all to get to know you better.

• Instagram Alias: Instagram is a different vibe than Facebook. It was not designed to be like a moving yearbook. If you use a cute name at Instagram, we are fine with this, and may quote you using your Instagram handle.

• Quoting from Instagram or Facebook: When you leave a comment at Instagram or Facebook, it is public for the world to see, so we will not ask your permission to quote it if we lift it for an article.

• Exceptions to these rules: If you leave a horrific comment, we may actually leave it up, so that others can learn more about you.

Grammar Shaming

What has become clear during the 2020 election is that one group is being implicated as stupid, while that group despises the other group for being elitist smarty-pants types. While one group viewed the 45th president as a great leader, others viewed and experienced him as a bully.

Grammar Shaming is an act of bullying. It is taking the distraction of one’s error in using a official word - either spelled or pronounced - and discarding them based on a spelling error or grammar flub. We discussed this with former mayor Randy Casale in a podcast episode on “What, What Is That?” Randy uses his own diction in pronouncing some words, and for years has been discounted and cut down for it in Facebook. And he’s not the only one who is grammar shamed. It happens all of the time in social media when someone spots a misspelling, etc.

Cutting someone down for the way they speak is wrong. If a white person did that to a Black person, it would be racist. If a white person does it to a white person, it is rude and hurtful. Both versions are an act of being a bully and are hurtful.

People love finding misspelled words. It basically makes them feel better about themselves, because they also make mistakes. But there are several things to consider here:

• Ideas are not discounted just because someone spelled something wrong, or uses their own diction. If you see an error, and you want to snicker, keep it to yourself, and do not use ALBB’s social media to point it out.

• The English language really is not logical. For those who are professionals at it - good for you. The logic just isn’t consistent. Why are “dove” and “love” pronounced with a soft “o” and “move” is spelled with a hard “o”?

• Why does “y” sound like a “y,” except when it’s at the end of a word like “happy?”

• There is probably a grammerly type answer for these questions, but that doesn’t mean they are logical or contribute to an easy life :)

• So give everyone a break, and don’t use Grammar Shaming if you disagree with someone.

Editing For Spoken and Written Word

There are times when people speak in their style, and their grammar is unique, or part of a dialect of their community. We tend to not edit for that, especially when we transcribe a speech. The speaker loves the way they speak, and we want to respect that. If a speaker asks that we edit a pronunciation, we can do that.

Usually in press releases, if we feel that there needs to be an extra comma, and we really want to add one, we won’t. We love commas! And run-on sentences. If a press release forgot a word, like “not,” then we reach out if the context doesn’t make sense.

Holding Ourselves Accountable Too

There are lots of times we want to reply to a comment, but don’t, as it’s mainly a conversation space for you. We also know that you like your media on the neutral side. But sometimes we dip in. Know that we too are sitting on our hands and biting our tongues if a really snarky or sarcastic comment is trying to come out. We try to follow a guidline of not responding after 7pm, as that’s when words can get really spicy. We try to give it a minute.

Bias In The Media

Every single media outlet is biased, because it is run by humans. Even if the media was created by a computer, the machines learn, right? So they eventually lean in a certain direction. When a writer has an idea, they have an idea for a reason. From the genesis of their idea, or their clue that they are onto a good story idea, they are biased with that idea.

When they pitch it to their editor, their editor gets to make the choice of if the writer can pursue it or not. That editor is also biased. Everyone putting the publication together has a bias. Even the layout artist who is arranging pictures and words and headlines, to find what stands out more. You can’t not be, because you are alive and process information around you.

To accuse a media publication of being “biased” and that being the reason you stop reading is … a sign that you don’t like that one article. Everyone likes to hate on the Poughkeepsie Journal, except when that newspaper breaks a great story that proves your opinion.

Of the two people who unsubscribed from our last newsletter digest, one person had moved, and the other person, an avid reader and inspiration for our Where To Buy Easter Egg Stuff On Main Street Gift Guide (she DMed us from Target, where she put everything back and wanted to buy on Main Street), unsubscribed to say that the publication had become too biased.

That newsletter digest contained the article about the truck train, and article about the second Black person to be appointed onto Beacon’s Board of Education, and how Beacon’s Superintendent was committed to keeping the theme of Undoing Racism in the school’s curriculum.

So if this publication is biased because it is writing about Black people, and making a point to do so more, then yes, that is how we lean into our bias.

“But I’m not racist.”

That’s great!! This comment has been circulating a lot by people who say they are not racist. One of the first steps of not being racist is to be anti-racist. That little word, “anti,” means that you are putting out an extra effort to not be racist.

Part of not being racist is to believe people. If someone tells you a story, or shares a video of someone shouting “white power” in front of the Beacon Post Office, the comment that shows you are not racist would be: “Oh my gosh. That is dreadful. I am so upset he was part of our rally.” Or “Oh my gosh. I know him. I am ashamed that he did that in our rally. I am going to speak to him later.”

But if you say: “I did not hear that from the car I was in.” or “Did you it see coming out of his mouth? Did you see his mouth move?” This will signal that you are in denial. An person in denial contributes to racism. Which brings us back to being anti-racist. Several people who supported the Trump caravan did say these statements - stating that they did not hear anything and wanting more proof than it captured in a video - and it fueled the tension because it was denial. It also stunned a lot of fellow readers.

Ultimately, all of the readers wanted no racism. Anti-racism is how we get there. If you hear a story told to you, and then you respond by telling a story that counter-balances the testimonial given to you, you have denied that person’s testimony. That is not an act of being anti-racist. That is an act of being in denial, and contributing to racism.

You can also know, that our readership has grown with our racial coverage. White people reading are wanting to know more about Black people and their culture - a culture that exists within this very white community but isn’t covered that much - if at all - by the media. So we are trying our best to increase that.

In between breaking news stories about the pandemic or police or whatever else keeps happening.

Thank you for reading, and for your support. This community wants the same thing. Getting there is a unique journey, and never ends. It is a journey we will always be on, so is daily work.

On Censorship - What It Means To Publish Or Not Publish A Submitted Opinion

Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin

This month’s “Letters To The Editor” section of the Beacon Free Press got a little spicy. The letters are usually spirited with opinion, but this month, a single letter was published in opposition to gay people (there was one letter in the entire space - no other letters were published that week of July 17, 2019), and seven letters were published in response and in protest the following week, July 24, 2019.

The letter writer was Dick Murphy, a well-known emailer to people he has elected to send his thoughts to. He has put me on this email list, though I usually skip his emails (btw, it is in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act to add people to an email list without their permission). The email letters are usually about Democracy, Slavery, the U.S. Constitution, Catholicism, White Male Patriarchy, Kings and Queens, and so on.

When this “Letter to the Editor” popped into my email box, I ignored it (we don’t even have a “Letter to the Editor” section here at the blog). But the Beacon Free Press published it - as Dick Murphy was pushing censorship as his reason for why it should be published. Back in the email environment (I hadn’t seen the newspaper yet or read his letter) I began seeing people Replying All to ask to be removed from his list, to which he responded by accusing them of censorship. It was at that time that I read his letter, and asked him to remove me from his list as well.

What Was His Letter To The Editor About? What’s All The Fuss?

His letter was about his disagreement with the PEACE flag in rainbow colors that hung above Main Street in Beacon. In his disagreement with it, he cited military death tolls in World War II and Vietnam, mixing these statistics (uncited - the source of the numbers is unknown) with the number of Americans who have died from AIDS, and put forth his opinion about that. Personally, I found his opinion very sad. There is no current debate about it with two sides of anything to discuss. I moved along.

Until I saw that the Beacon Free Press published it. They have published other outlandish, accusatory advertorials (groups who buy ad space to slander other people), and this was another step in the eyebrow-raising direction of: “Really?”

The Beacon Free Press received an outcry from its readers, stating their disappointment in the newspaper’s choice to publish such an opinion. The following week, the paper published seven dissenting Letters to the Editor. Come to think of it, I don’t even know who the editor is at the Beacon Free Press, as they don’t publish their masthead in the printed paper. Their website reveals that the editor is Ray Fashona; in fact, he is the editor for all of Southern Dutchess News, which is the publisher of Beacon Free Press.

So what is censorship? Does it happen, and if so, is it OK?

What Is Censorship?

Censorship happens. It is real, and exists for reasons that protect something. According to the Britannica’s definition, censorship means “the suppression or prohibition of speech or writing that is deemed subversive of the common good.”

In terms of legality, anyone can censor, except for the United States government when it comes to making laws. The First Amendment does not mandate anyone to publish, listen to, or otherwise do anything with someone else’s right to say what they want to say.

The first line of the First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

People may not always agree when censorship happens, but censorship can protect good people from slander, verbal, physical, visual or emotional abuse, propagation of lies, and so forth. Social media companies have humans filtering out (aka censoring) photos and messages all day every day that any person can upload at any time that are inappropriate and harmful (See this Washington Post article, “Content moderators at YouTube, Facebook and Twitter see the worst of the web — and suffer silently.” This manual deletion of photos and comments at social media companies happens even more so now that social media platforms have been accused of not enough censorship of hate speech.

In government, censorship can happen in all forms, and is resisted against. For instance, in a recent vote July 2, 2019, in Putnam County, virtually any document can be hidden as “‘confidential’ to prevent their disclosure.” Any legislators, county officials and consultants can classify documents as “confidential.” This vote passed by 7-1. So far, this new law is seeing resistance from those in its community and the sole legislator who voted against it, and it is a story we are following.

Should A Newspaper Censor?

Every newspaper censors. Every publication of any kind censors, for several reasons:

• A topic isn’t relevant to what else they are publishing. It’s not “timely.”

• A topic isn’t relevant to their audience. Every single media outlet - be it TV, podcast, blog, newspaper, magazine, radio station - creates and publishes content that their audience would like, resonate with, or feel engaged by.

• A newspaper ran out of space. It’s paper, so there is only so much space to say something.

• A blog or any media outlet simply ran out of time and life marched forward! (argh, happens all the time here). This is called unintentional censorship. Some people want to see a story covered, and it doesn’t happen. So it could look like “they won’t cover it.” When really, it’s only because we are drowning in words already.

So when the Beacon Free Press published this letter, they made a choice. Was it the only letter submission they received that week? Why was it the only letter published? The following week, the letters that poured into the newspaper stating their disappointment with the newspaper apparently led the newspaper to dedicate almost 1.5 printed pages to publishing them.

Is A Newspaper Obligated To Print Everything?

No. For the reasons stated above. A newspaper - or any media outlet - may want to report on “both sides” of an issue. But in the contents of that letter, there are no sides. It’s his opinion that is harmful to a group of people. It is hatred. So, usually media outlets will not engage, endorse, or propagate outlandish and harmful speech. They will censor - or ignore - it.

Do You, Dear Reader, Censor?

You do! Usually this is called “a filter.” Some people are more connected to their filter than others.

Other times, this is called “walking away.” If you are talking to someone in person on the street (aka IRL), and they say something to you, and things get uncomfortable, you bid that person “Good-day,” and you walk away.

If that person yells at your back as you walk away, that is called rude, and bad sportsmanship. If that person continues to follow you, and starts sending you mail, you might chalk that up to stalking.

Does that person have a right to speak? Of course. And it is everyone else’s right to walk away and not want to hear it.

Here A Little Beacon Blog, We Have Guidelines

As does the Beacon Free Press, I’m sure. It is a great newspaper for learning about local events, opportunities for seniors, veterans, Dutchess County news, politics and more. A Little Beacon Blog generally does not cover elections, interviews with politicians, and other promotion of politics. We will, however, cover local issues that come out of politicking, of course.

We don’t publish submitted article comments that come from people who make up their names. Or who make up things about other people (this is called slander). Or who bash other businesses in order to protect their own business (though if they do it in our Instagram, we may leave those comments up for others to see, since they exposed themselves, and the public can make up their own minds on how they want to deal with such businesses).

We normally don’t delete submitted comments in social media, but do if it is harmful to someone or a group of people. However, we have started deleting memes, as funny as they are, because of emerging copyright law that is protecting the person in the meme who doesn’t want to be associated with whatever subject a person decided to attach their likeness to without their permission.

So yes. There is censorship. To be accused of censorship is at first uncomfortable, until you explore what it means to censor. Censoring isn’t always a bad thing. It is something that happens for good and bad reasons and should always be monitored.