[Previous Letter:A Military Reader Protests That We Ended Christmas Too Soon]

Re: His racial views exposed online, Maine reporter swiftly fired, By Tom Bell, Portland [Maine] Press Herald, January 5, 2012

From: An Anonymous Reader [Email him]

I can't say that I know this guy or am familiar with this Maine "conservative" think tank, [Maine Heritage Policy Center (email it)] though it's really outrageous what happened to him.  Check out the comments, though, at the end of the article—if there's any hope for us, it's here. 

James Fulford writes: I decided not even to ask if the reader wanted to have his name posted—who knows if he’ll be the next person to be fired. According to the linked stories, reporter Leif Parsell was fired by this organization for an innocuous Facebook comment he made … after a liberal blogger whined about it. [Maine group fires reporter tied to racist comments, by Associated Press, January 4, 2012]

The point about the comments is well taken—this has been frequently pointed out by Patrick Cleburne. Canadian blogger Kathy Shaidle has suggested that newspaper stories should be read “upside down”—starting with the comments, which typically contain the real news.

However, the comments on the MSM sites are controlled by their site owners, and may vanish at any time. Support your local webzine!