Warning: I have been told that the following blog entry might actually be channeling Tipper Gore.
Scare tactics in blogs are working on me. But, not in the way they are intended. I am now disturbed by the outright lies, the very strange alien and anti-christ stories, and the views of certain hate groups being posted directly on candidates’ sites! Just like anything else you read or hear, you have to be an informed, critical consumer. Is it true that you should never just take what you read on any website as the only version of reality.
I am starting to worry about the power the internet gives to the every day nut. Apparently, so are others who are just as worried. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/09/obama_site/index.html?source=rss
“A warning to all future Democratic presidential candidates: If you choose to run part of your Web site in a model similar to, say, DailyKos, and allow the general public posting privileges, some crazy people who clearly have nothing to do with your campaign will take advantage of the policy.”
This Salon story and others like it on LGF make several great points. It seems like there is a need to somehow filter or lock down certain aspects of a website? Or does this go counter to the spirit of posting and websites? It seems like the presidential candidates’ websites (especially Obama’s) are just as vulnerable to stupid people as the rest of the world wide web.
The value of the open forum and the reach of the websites must outweigh the risk that some crackpot is going to use the official website as a soapbox.
I think it is very interesting that there has been little media coverage of these nuts posting junk on the official sites. Most of the coverage is from bloggers who are constantly monitoring these sites. The offensive materials seem to be taken down quickly when possible and most everyone who is noticing also recognizes that it is user generated content that has nothing to do with the campaign’s website. Maybe rational minds will prevail.
