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Well, I have not been over there recently - and, I will not be going back. But, I can you this: when that very liberal Texas columnist passed away recently, from breast cancer (Molly Ivins), I did read the thread here on FR. And, many people here were very kind. From what I read, and I did not read everything, I would say the VAST majority of comments were VERY kind. Those who weren't, for the most part, were scolded by others here.

And, I was glad to see that humanity, because I know there are many good people here.

However, when I did briefly visit Huff Post around that time, I was very sad and shocked to see a thread up saying the exact opposite of what was really and truly going on here, with respect to reaction to her death. That kind of thing does bother me. A lot. I wanted to think: that was a rare event over there, and the majority of their opinion and reporting will be a cut above, since there are SO MANY "experts" involved with that site.

But, my experience here is teaching me otherwise -- as those experts can easily misuse their expertise and big titles to harm people. And, they can do that even if they are educators. That is the part that has really disappointed me. I expect better from teachers. I still do.

Teachers have an ethical duty above and beyond, though I am WELL aware that not all educators act morally or ehtically in every situation. I always try. And, when I do, in a tough situation, I don't like feeling so alone as a teacher, as I do with respect to these media professor educators I mention above. It is disturbing to me. It makes the initial wrong even worse.

Re your post #78 - I was thinking more about what you said here - and, as we all know, it can be such a delicate balancing act, keeping the right to free speech in such circumstances as you mention. And, I think you understand what I was saying a bit earlier today; so, thank you for posting.

But what amazes me is how simple a solution it all could have been in this situation of deception I described in that editorial:

(!) first of all, the deception shouldn't have happened, if those forum owners had the integrity to post actual headlines from the actual news article. (Or at least something REMOTELY close to the article content.)

(2) second, it shouldn't have continued, if the forum admins cared about customer service and the complaints of people (in their own party, no less!) who were already distressed by the manipulaion; Nad

(3) third, by the time I saw it, and tried to act in a responsible manner by writing my editorial, and contacting educator experts, all those professors had to do was their job and say to me: Yes, that is an example of media maniplation; here's why in my expert opinion; and, I think I'll post it on my blog and discuss, and maybe show it in a class, since it's SUCH an obvious example of SO MANY things NOT TO EVER DO if you are a journalist or running a forum with "news." THANK YOU for caring about democracy and media matters.

And, if that had happened, I would have thought: Wow! I was correct to put my faith in these professor experts -- since they are educators (like me). Because that's what I would have done (the above) and that's how I would have handled this. Then: End of story.

But, instead, I have to stumble into what feels like a brick wall with them, and find out they have their hands in the financial cookie jar with this company, And so, no, they are never going to do what a professional educator should do and would have done in this situation. So - not the end of story...

But, end of story for me, here. They can be whatever way they want. They have free speech, too, even though I think they should consider their duty as an educator, at least once in a while, as well. It would be great if instead of the right or the left having to keep tabs of media manipulation, the independent professors could take part in this more often, and invite others as well. That is the spirit of open source and blogging and all that is new media. Yet, that was not their spirit in this situation. But, I'll get over it. I'll just chalk it up as Disappointment #100,987,124 with the political left.