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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.

CFC__VRWC, forgive me for going on and on here, but just to finish my final thoughts on this, above:

And, if that had happened - what I hoped would happen - then, I would be assured that because of their public mention of this, the Huff Post forum would find out, and be SO EMBARASSED the forum would then STOP hurting all those people on threads like the one I read.

But, instead: I get the silence treatment and chill from those professors on this. So: I never know. Does the silence mean they will do nothing and keep their hand in that financial cookie jar pulling out more and more money from this media manipulation? If so, that makes me want to tell the entire universe about this until they STOP IT.

Or, does it mean they will change EVERYTHING about that persistent conduct described by some posters complaining on that thread mentioned in my editorial, so someday normal people might even enjoy visiting that forum? (By "normal" people I mean people who click on a link expecting it to relate to the headline.)

I don't know. And, I won't be going there to find out. So, they lost a visitor, and more, because they could not, for whatever reason, clearly respond for the public good. I would have heard them if they did.