When have I seen this before? Oh, right, whenever a KSL or Deseret "News" comment section does not go their way, they halt the comments.

Two days ago there was the article, "Keeping marriage strong after a spouse leaves religion," and I couldn't comment because I didn't have a KSL log-on. So I applied for one, got it in about 24 hours, and they had closed the thread. Some of the comments are really good and follow a lot of the things we see in RfM. I think their expectations are one thing, and when it goes the other way they just stop the comments.

Whenever you make a comment to a DN article, it must be vetted first by a monitor. He or she determines whether or not they can allow it, and the ones that don't dovetail with what they want (read: "are critical" or "cause dialog") are simply not posted. They they send you a polite little E-mail stating that they didn't allow it, and why (some real generic thing, like it didn't contain allowable content).

You might remember that in 2009 the church sought feedback on the new Gospel Principles manual, a sort of watery pap of church near-doctrine and feel-good stuff. They welcomed comments until it was abundantly clear that people were pissed at the new manual; it only took about 10 comments to figure that one out. I logged on to make my own comment, and found that the thread had already been closed. A couple hours afterward they pulled the whole URL.

It's no freakin' wonder why Mormons can't get the information they need.

I wonder how much tithing they get as a product of protecting their image from criticism vs. how much tithing they lose from members pissed off by the censorship. I think it would have to be the latter, though I don't have any facts to support that.

Or maybe it's just a cultural kneejerk reaction that occurs in Utah - control the debate, eliminate criticism, quash dissent. There seems to be a lot of that among people in Utah.

Anyway, I can't believe that's going to be an effective long-term strategy.

cludgie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's no freakin' wonder why Mormons can't get the
> information they need.

Just like missionaries are trained to not answer the question you actually asked, but the question you SHOULD have asked, the Morg doesn't give you information you think you need, it gives you information they KNOW you need.

What KSL and the DN have not figured out is that adults in 2011 are used to spin and can spot it a mile away. People notice that the KSL anchors have HUGE shit-eating smiles all the time and spin dead babies and burning houses to be "good news for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints".

If KSL/DN want to remain viable for the long term then they have to be credible news sources. More and more Utahns are no longer seeing them and credible. KSL recently fell from its #1 position that it had held for over 25 years. Readership at the DN continues to shrink and last year Mark Willis even hinted that the DN may one day abandon its print version and go 100% online.....kinda the death of a newsPAPER don't you think?

Also, when NBC mentions GE in the news, or when CNN mentions Time Warner, they always add the footnote that they are owned by that entity. This is a journalistic integrity issue that alerts the audience that the news source is not independent of the subject of a story. But KSL runs hundreds of stories about new temples or missionaries in Africa and I have NEVER heard them say "and we must mention that this news station is owned and operated by the "Churchojebuscrstoliterdazaints".

Where is the journalistic integrity??? Oh yea, right, nobody expects that from KSL. My bad.

great post NoToJoe! And thank you cludgie for pointing this out. I get so frustrated watching KSL or reading DN and even Faux snooze for the same reason.

The new KSL comments board is HIGHLY censored. Even though my comments are very mild mannered and on-topic, I'd say that only about half are approved and posted. I am baffled at times since the comments I post are VERY appropriate and non-controversial IMO. Don't understand why they were not approved.

The old comments board allowed all comments to be posted initially. They could be removed later by a moderator if they got complaints. The NEW board, however, must have all comments pre-approved and they are HEAVILY filtering them.

I had commented that if the censors ever lost their current jobs, they would be perfect fits at the state owned papers of China and North Korea.

In an article on the DNA stuff, I managed to get some objective information in from Simon, and things got a little heated...

I think my "Great Lehi Boatbuilding and Sailing Challenge" wasn't posted, but then when the subject of Mountain Meadows came up, I discussed the death of young Proctor Robinson (weeks after the Fancher/Baker party had passed by where he lived) and the "poisoned spring" bit of LDS "folklore."

Honest, I was respectful and polite, but some of the faithful seemed to forget their manners afterwards and got kind of worked up...

I'm sure that was the reason for banning me; it wouldn't do to have the faithful appear so rude and hostile...

In my comment I was going to point out, however, that in the cases where a spouse divorces the one who has left the church, it is often the person's local bishop or stake president who has nudged them in that direction. I was going to point out that this is a great disservice to the remaining spouse. First off, the leader should encourage the spouse and remind him or her that they married "more than just a Mormon." Also, my own DW, who decided to stay in the marriage, would have lost all her insurance benefits had she quit, and would have been plunged (along with me) into financial insecurity. They need to think about the outcomes of their knuckleheaded counsel.

I thought my comment would have contained some pretty solid stuff.

I’ve started wondering if my former bishop played any role in pushing my now ex to become such....
My TBM father asked me at the time if that was the case... I didn’t think so at the time, but now I’m not so sure.

MORE interesting I think, is that he was WELL AWARE that it happens, and remains uber TBM. Maybe it’s my mother keeping him in line.... who knows.

KSL routinely deletes and blocks me after I post appropriate comments challenging the spin that KSL puts on their stories.For example, they will only report portions of an actual story, leaving out small details in order to promote a political ideology. If you post links to articles challenging the story they simply delete and block me, and my IP address. Which is fine because I like to just use a VPN and disposable email addresses to prevent them from identifying me when I reapply for membership to their website.

"Good news Winston, choco rations are up!"

"It's no freakin' wonder why Mormons can't get the information they need."

I am going to finish your comment for you:
It's no freakin' wonder why Mormons can't get the information they need....from church approved sources. This is why some mormons go to non church approved sources, which have been generically labeled, anti-mormon.

The irony is, the church can't see the evil institution it is becoming.

It may talk pious and sweet, but increasingly all we see is a group of old men controlling what adults and and cannot be exposed to, not for their genuine good, but purely so the cult can keep them locked in.

This is about member retention at all costs and it's really passed the point of immorality. It's in deep into the same territory as the fascists and the stalinists. I'm pretty sure some of the GA's must have their conscience pricked a lot with this, sure some of them see they're borderline evil now?

one word.......Like.

Why would you be surprised? LDS media owned outlets severely censor many news stories. In too many ways they are a propaganda machine, not a news organization.
AP/UPI and others through the years have had many stories that read with major differences in LDS owned media than in regular news media.

Institutions and tyrants have done every trick in the book to suppress reality. Yet, constantly the millions of blades of grass make it to the light, in every tradition, culture nd era.

Intelligent Mormons are well-aware of the fraud. I know several who now listen to me, rather than cast a look of distain, so common in decades past.

Truth and beauty will always win out, no matter the very best of brutish forces and censorship attempts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdvD3sJh1M0

Hmmm.... Can you think of any place else that consistently uses the delete button? Better get use to it as it seems to be a trend. Let's see if this comment gets deleted.