It was with great sadness when I learned that HuffingtonPost began censoring blog posts. I had been a blogger there since 2006, and before HuffPo was sold to AOL, all of my posts were automatically posted to the site instantly. The beauty of blogposts is that the truth can come out without someone else suppressing them from being published. More recently however, when I submitted posts, these articles of mine were delayed up to a week before going up on the site. Such delays rendered time sensitive material completely impotent. At first, I thought the delays were due to merger issues, but the email I received from HuffPo yesterday confirmed that it was due to active censoring, a policy that was not in place before. This is a very scary development since the site had developed a reputation for being a trusted, go-to destination for uncensored news and opinions before this started happening. What happened to me could be happening to many others in greater and greater numbers. Below is the email string from them:
From: Ann Lee [mailto:ann.lee]
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 5:30 PM
To: ‘Blogteam’
Cc: balducci; ‘Anna Pycior’; Lauren Strayer
Subject: RE: book review
Alison,
Since when were blog submissions subject to editorial reviews???? Why was I not informed of this change? I have never had a problem publishing my pieces before. Who makes these decisions? Please let me know what the new guidelines are.
Thanks, Ann
From: Blogteam [mailto:blogteam@huffingtonpost.com]
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 5:15 PM
To: ann.lee
Subject: Re: book review
Hi Ann,
Apologies for the delay. Unfortunately we are going to pass on “Money Buys Everything — Almost.”
We look forward to your future submissions.
Best regards,
Alison
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Ann Lee <ann.lee> wrote:
Dear Blogteam,
I still have not seen my book review go up, and it’s been over 2 days now. What is the issue?
Thanks, Ann
From: Ann Lee [mailto:ann.lee]
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 3:06 PM
To: blogteam@huffingtonpost.com
Subject: book review
Dear Blogteam,
This is the third time that I’ve submitted something, and it doesn’t go up within 24 hours. The last one I submitted before this latest one didn’t get posted for five days so I finally withdrew it because it was time sensitive. Can you please let me know what is the hold up?
Thanks, Ann
