This was posted early this morning and we’ve moved it up. NEWER POSTS are under this so keep scrolling.
A few important notes for TMV readers:
OUR SITE REDESIGN AND UPGRADE IS CONTINUING There will be some important and extensive upgrades to TMV starting early Saturday morning around 5 a.m. through 8 a.m. There could be some disruptions. We are doing a major server upgrade that should help TMV load faster and there will be some slight design changes to allow us to do some new things. This involves the investment of additional money in TMV but we’re gearing up for election year. (You will note that Cagle Cartoons have not appeared recently. We can’t post them until some changes are made.)
A REMINDER THAT PERSONAL ATTACKS ON TMV WRITERS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED: Personal attacks on TMV writers — whether they write posts that are perceived by some to be right, left, center right, center, center left will not continue. Despite repeated and persistent warnings in posts such as this and in the comments section, this problem has continued. Highly personal attacks have come from BOTH left and right commentors aimed at writers with whom they don’t agree. For the first time in this news commentary site’s history, we had to disable a post yesterday due to attacks on TMV writers despite repeated warnings from TMV management in comments.
Effective immediately, comments that are merely name calling and insulting will be deleted and more likely than not the commenter will not be allowed to comment again on TMV. There will be no pre-banning emailed warnings to those who ignore and have ignored our polite requests and our increasingly less polite warnings. Comments are not for people who wish to hurl abuse at TMV writers or work out their own personal “issues” on our site.
Comments detailing why a writer is perceived to be wrong and offering another argument are always welcome. Vigorous debate is what comments are all about. Other commentors who have been warned to drop a subject and resume commenting on issues raised in the actual post but ignore warnings will also be banned in the future. Email warnings will not be sent before banning.
NOTE: 99.99 percent of the comments on TMV are issue oriented, passionate and responsible so most people who give us their views will not be impacted by this.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.