VICTORY: Daily Tidings Dumps Hate Speech!
* N O * H A T E * S P E E C H * S E L L S *, 17.12.2007 18:32
In a demonstration of community well being the Ashland Daily Tidings did the unFOXy thing and 86'd the hateful speech that it harbored on it's website. The worst of the hate comments have been taken down, background story here 
http://rogueimc.org/en/2007/12/9550.shtml This is a Good Thing at the Right Time. The newspaper is for sale. Its not like you drive by the Tidings' offices on Siskiyou Blvd. in Ashland and see another real estate sign planted in the front yard, but be no mistake about it: our local newspaper since 1876 has been put up on the auction block right along with the Mail Tribune ( they dumped the name "Medford" recently) and the Nickel (the rag you look in to buy a used car or washing machine). All three are up for sale now. Rupert Murdoch has declared it.
The Ashland Daily Tidings very likely just improved its standings in the business world, a world that cares first and foremost for the bottom line, that world we live in where news is for sale and is driven so deeply by the payers and players, the advertisers. We know this world where increasingly everything is for sale, we live in it. Victory for the Tidings is for a newspaper that might have a life down the road and continue the long tradition of a community paper that has been here reporting our news since 1876... The other road for the Tidings' future has it being found on a rack at the grocery store, right next to the woman who just gave birth to a 17 pound baby with hair on its lip.
Never mind for just a minute, the economics of selling a local newspaper in the United States. We all have heard that newspapers across America are taking a dive. Lets instead focus on our community and what it means when our Ashland Daily Tidings does the unFOXy thing and dumps hate speech. This is community news that is truly worth reporting.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS, RUPERT MURDOCH BE DAMNED!
Tidings Does Right Thing!
More to come, this is a big story. Saying "NO TO HATE SPEECH" is great news!
Two of the most hateful comments which the Ashland Daily Tidings has taken down were reported on the Brain Labor Report radio show on December 5, 2007. That show can be listened to here: http://www.kskq.org/audio-archive/blr/blr20071205.mp3
For those who were outraged by the irresponsible behavior of the Ashland Daily Tidings and especially for those who contacted Editor Scot Bolsinger demanding accountability and responsibility now might be the time to let the Tidings know that removing the worst of the hate speech was the right thing to do.
Ashland Daily Tidings Editor Andrew Scot Bolsinger
abolsinger@dailytidings.com
