One of the largest and most respected newspapers in the UK has made the news about my termination from HuffPo their lead story on their front page. See http://media.guardian.co.uk/This is the article, which is almost correct; the mistake is that my blog is back on HuffPo, but I'm not back blogging and I am still locked out.
HUFFINGTON POST BLOGGER BLOCKED
Stephen Brook, press correspondent
Thursday June 22, 2006
Influential website the Huffington Post tried to ban one of its bloggers after he discovered an anonymous heckler on his blog was actually the Post's technology manager.
In his Huffington Post blog, Peter Rost exposed the identity of the heckler - known as a "troll" in blogging parlance - which prompted the Post to temporarily block his access.
He recounted the incident on a new blog site he created separately to the one co-founded by journalist Arianna Huffington.
"This is a sad day for online journalism," Dr Rost wrote on his new site. "I was terminated without any investigation of the statements in my blog post, all of which were referenced using independent sources.
Continue reading here.
27 comments:
Thanks for comming by and clearing up the confusion Peter!
Hi Mr Rost - have been following this story in the last two days - highly suspect and interesting!
I didn't know if this would be relevant until you posted the MediaGuardian story, but in light of that I've sent an email to Jon Stewart and Daily Show people on this.
I bet Arianna hears about in Cannes now!
Great job - stick to it!
martinchill.gather.com
Your bad was totally uncalled for Dr. Rost. I enjoyed your incite into the pharmacudical industry and was entertained by your more personal posts. I find Arriana's explaination highly suspect and prejudicial. I hope you continue your blog here since I've added the page to my favorites.
Wow, it now seems that Arianna is removing polite, but critical, comments on her explanation. it might not mean anything to them, but thats over the line to me. Removing them from favorites now.
sinerely,
demadog
We love yah dok. keep blogging!
Holy shit. I just saw the comments on Arianna's response go from 49 to 43. They still haven't posted my 3 comments. And they're deleting ones they already posted. This is bad. I think Arianna is really shooting herself in the foot on this one. It doesn't look good that she's in Cannes at an advertising awards show hobnobbing with people who give her more than a mil a year for ad space.
Huffington Post are deliberately refusing to post any comments that exposes their censorship and hypocrisy. This applies to a number of issues, George Clooney`s made up blog, the controversary surrounding their manipulation of the results in favour of their employees in the Contagious Festival and major censorship of any post vaguely critical of Huffington Post that is backed up with fact. This started to get exposed in March when a blatantly fixed Contagious Festival chose a vacuous badly designed cartoon The Democrats get Balls over the most important anti-war video produced in the last 2 years We Will Not Be Silenced , and the suppression of the oucry from Huff Po`s own readership over this decision. Each month, Paul Hipp, who is without doubt shagging Arianna, submits a Kareoke soundtrack with badly sung lyrics, and get front page exposure to fix the results, so Ariann can keep on getting some, meanwhile, real designers and artists are removing their entries because of the disgraceful lack of integrity, shameful favouritism and corrupt stat manipulation carried out by Huffington Post.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and more will be revealed over the coming weeks I am sure.
This is idiocy.
Thrice have I attempted to comment on Arianna's article, and thrice have I been rebuked. I have noticed that supportive comments that were there earlier are now gone.
So I posted this at my blog.
Wow, the comments are falling like flies over there. Apparently as a first-time commenter mine never got through; I probably ended up in a moderation queue and straight into the bit bucket from there. Others are getting through and then disappearing. The thing just went from three pages of comments to two!
Oddly some very cricital comments are staying up, and last I checked most of them were the reader's favorites. I guess the more established commenters are given more leeway, since one of them says she spends an hour or more per day writing comments.
Anyway, I was planning to keep reading for a bit to see what would happen, but after seeing all of this going on I just deleted my subscription to the RSS feed. No way do I want to support whatever is going on over there!
It's very sad, really, because I had a lot of respect for Arianna. I think the fame has gone to her head...
Anyone can see for themselves that the comments are being censored. I've posted at least 5 reasonable comments defending the good Doc and none got posted. I personally saw 2 posts opposing Arianna disappear from page 3 even after I marked it best of. If you're skeptical, try posting a negative comment with one account, then make another account and try a positive comment. They do allow for more than one account per ip.
Great News that it made the papers in the U.K. be interesting to see if anyone else picks up on it.
I've written Jon, Keith, Kos, and dozens of other sites to see if anyone blinks.
It seems as though Arianna, if indeed Arianna wrote that horrendous piece of explanation and I have my doubts, has gone over to the dark side.
She is doing EXACTLY what she is always accusing Bush and his ilk of doing and that is punishing and attacking the messenger and avoiding or trying to divert attention away from the message.
And that was, that a troll was working within her ranks and possible more, who was letting Freepers and conservative posters get away with obscenity, nastiness and outright filth while banning liberal posters who may have disagreed with a Huffpost position.
That is why I am wondering if Arianna is really aware of what is going on or if some lacky wrote the "explanation" and she hasn't bothered to step out of the clouds where the rich and famous hang and take back control of her site.
It is being overrun with Trollz and I do mean overrun. It has gotten to the point on some posts where the trollz have three quarters of the comments and even some of the readers favorite comments.
Something is wrong over there and until I see Arianna HERSELF ACTUALLY SPEAKING, I am not sure she did the "explanation" we are seeing there. It was just too stilted and formal for her.
Huffpost can go blow now, they have turned into the same people they attack.
I wish there was a way to call for a liberal boycott of Huffingtonpost.
Anyone have any ideas?
The guys from We Will Not Be Silenced threatened to expose Huff Po and call for a boycott when Huff Po insulted them and the troops that have died. Perhaps you should contact them, I know they have a lot of influence and have destroyed many a site that has taken them on, and if anyone has the clout to do this, they have.
Regards
When did Huffpost insult the troops that have died?
This I have to see to believe.
Rosethejet said...
When did Huffpost insult the troops that have died?
This I have to see to believe.
Read above post....They chose an inferior submission rather than support a message...You decide for yourself, but, based on "originality, social commentary" can you honestly tell me that a submission to their contagious festival that outperformed their "supposed winner" by 2 to 1 was deserving of that award. They submitted a glorified porn advert and then promoted it giving an unfair advantage/ You doubt me go to Contagious Festival March , view first, second and third, and tell me which of those are the superior.
When Ava submitted her entry, again, this was ignored despite doing 95,000 hits, in favour of another Huff Po croney. A number of designers have since withdrawn their entries. By ignoring superior design and important message, because it doesn`t fit with Huff Po`s BS sanctimonious political views, you are by default insulting the troops who have died. I am not the first to mention this, Huff Po doesn`t give a flying toss about anything unless it falls within their cronyism and duplicitous ethics. This includes the troops who have died in Iraq.
Huff Po is a scam, elevating talentless friends of Arianna at the expense of others, Deal with it.
Regards
Doc, I wouldn't worry about it. Chances are good you've been blacklisted there and a few other places that have HuffPo connections.
Doesn't mean it's right, but that's the way these folks work (like the big business they rail against).
I'll still read you.
You might try Counterpunch.org since they have a wide array of columnists.
Btw, as far as comments disappearing, I keep reading the Firedoglake blog. And they're deleting comments they don't like too. They were gung-ho on Fitzgerald's investigation, but after 5 years and only one indictment to date (and no Rove to boot), it's been kind of ridiculous results. I mentioned this. Comment went. Comment came off.
These cliques have their own agenda. most likely to push old media out and become the new media.
You'd be surprised how much money and how many big wheels Arianna had backing her when she started her blog. She's not a flukey thing that took off. It was very well planned and organized according to New York magazine's article earlier this year.
So anyway, look for another outlet. It's there for you, and your readers (like me) will tag along.
Best of luck.
Okay I sort of, kind of, understand where you are coming from, but that is a bit of a stretch to say they are disrespecting the fallen soldiers.
To my way of thinking it is more disrespect of themselves. The "winner" could not have possibly been chosen honestly and after the events the good Dr. has pointed out, it's not even far fetched to suppose their tech crew did it for some odd reason. Well maybe not odd but trollish.
So I agree in principle that the 'winner' was a total joke and had no place in the top hundred.
I LOVED the WE Will not be silenced' piece. That was reallllly good. And it should have won. So I don't understand what is going on over there, but I still think Arianna (or maybe I am in denial having heard so many of her speeches in person) isn't fully aware of all that is going on or at least to the point of understanding how trolls who work for her work.
Thanks for the link by the way. I had not bothered going there before but now I wish I had.
Well we will see how this all plays out.
Over at DailyKos, this is getting a bit of a workout and it's been brought up in a few other sites as well.
I sure hope Arianna wakes the hell up soon.
Oh my lord what utter drivel. Having to trudge through your post and all your assertions and "proofs" demonstrating how you were violated by those dasterdly villians over at the Evil Huffo was the equivelant of shaving my head with a cheese grater while chewing on tinfoil!
I finally made it down to your email exchange and when I read the email, printed verbatum in which it very politely asked you not to re-print it while accepting the fact that you might (which of course you did) I realized the kind of 'stuff' you're made of. Seeing that you would post someone's phone number which they sent you in confidence should be proof enough of your low character but the rest of your post confirms it a dozen times over.
How did you, a person with so little to say, ever get a job at Huffpo in the first place. The only thing this fella Peter should be criticized for is giving you a Soap Box the size of Huffpo in the first place. You are living, breathing proof that a Ph.D doesn't give someone character.
Way to go Arianna and Huffpo. Sorry it took you so long to figure out what a chump you'd brought on board.
And for the record, I maintain a large blog myself and write Op-Eds for one national and one local paper. If this comment "disapears" from your comments section, I'll make sure my readers and the readers at Huffpo are well aware of it.
As someone looking from the outside in, this will be detrimental to the Huffington Post.
Huffington Post has lost readership recently, and this story just made front page news all over the United Kingdom.
I do think the situation with Dr. Rost had some fault on both sides.
Rost's fault was posting articles that were far too personal, to do with his lawsuit, and not keeping it on topic.
What he should have done is directed others to his personal blog, and left it at that.
Then he could have continued to enlighten the world on Pfizer and other injustice, which takes place in the corporate world.
Unfortunately Huffington Post is the one with the larger blame. An immature technology manager and staff who attacked Dr. Rost for his inflated ego if nothing else.
Huffington Post has turned into a corporation type influence now, and this will do nothing but severely damage their reputation.
Also the above "troller" could be a neocon/Zionist, as they above all seem to attack what Dr. Rost has to say and the truth that he informs others of.
http://www.barrychamish.com
Update for a linked view
Good history on the neocons
Dear Mr. Rost,
I was able to get in a post or two to your blog at Huffingtonpost.com (the one about the Rendon Group as I posted the Rolling Stone article link and the additional links about Bamford as well). Huffingtonpost.com has been banning me for making posts about Mearsheimer and Walt (and similar) like the following one:
Why aren't we discussing this Mearsheimer/Walt segment on the pro-Israel lobby which aired on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' this morning?:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=54755
The following includes the comments page at which I posted what was mentioned above:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-rost/how-a-public-relations-fi_b_22912.html?p=2#comments
Here is a tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/g6jkk
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
Huffingtonpost.com just banned me again within minutes for posting the following to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/the-freedom-to-blog-on-th_b_23712.html?p=2#comments as there is incredible censorship going on there:
The following was posted in the comments section of the various blog entries by Peter Rost via http://peterrost.blogspot.com
Dear Mr. Rost,
I was able to get in a post or two to your blog at Huffingtonpost.com (the one about the Rendon Group as I posted the Rolling Stone article link and the additional links about Bamford as well). Huffingtonpost.com has been banning me for making posts about Mearsheimer and Walt (and similar) like the following one:
Why aren't we discussing this Mearsheimer/Walt segment on the pro-Israel lobby which aired on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' this morning?:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=54755
6/24/2006
The following includes the comments page at which I posted what was mentioned above:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-rost/how-a-public-relations-fi_b_22912.html?p=2#comments
Here is a tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/g6jkk
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
By: HPcensoringtruthhere on June 24, 2006 at 03:01pm
Just noticed that Huffingtonpost.com even removed the above post from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/the-freedom-to-blog-on-th_b_23712.html?p=2#comments after I was banned for making it just minutes ago.
Dear NOMOREWARFORISRAEL,
You are not being censored by the Huffington Post. You are being censored by your fellow commenters. It was decided by many, myself included, that every time you post your spamming diatribes that the [abuse] button would be clicked. You are being systematically banned at the request of the users, not at the whims of HuffPo. I would like to take this oppotunity to tell you that most everyone is WELL AWARE of the Israeli situation and your spamming does nothing to further your cause.
It makes people STOP listening to you. It makes people ignore you. You are one of the largest sources of irritation that virtually every commenter can agree on. If you want to get your message out, that is fine, but spamming other blogs is not the way to do it.
I am trying to be reasonable with you. Please stop this nonsense. If you want to be a part of any community, then try being a part of it. Leave your Blog URL at the end of your posts if you like, but for the love of whatever god you may or may not worship, try to actually contribute something to the discussion that doesn't in some way revolve around how much you hate Israel.
Don't make me go find NOMONKEYWARFORMONKEYS.
Thank you.
So we have an apparent group of dedicated Zionist Israel firsters conducting the censorship at Huffingtonpost.com as I have seen posters make requests to 'flag' my posts - no surprise there that the apparent Israel first censors at HP go right along with such and 'ban' me right away...
Anonymous said...
They are censoring anything on Israel because, the Zionists know the jig is up thats obvious.
Israel and the Zionists can't hide or play the blame game now that they've ruined our country, via neocon intervention.
Those losers are all the same now, just like the trolls such as returnofdrevil2, Al Rogers, Nan Ellen of the Daily "KOS" propaganda press.
6/25/2006
Very much agree with the above.. My HPCensoringBigTime Username was just banned at Huffingtonpost.com for posting on pages 1 and 2 of the comments at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/24/excia-aide-reveals-new-d_n_23738.html about the Zionist war for Israel agenda and the Mearsheimer/Walt paper on the pro-Israel lobby segment which aired on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' program this past Friday..
Abraham Foxman (of the ADL) was hammered hard by the caller (a lady with the Brit accent calling from London) on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' this morning as she mentioned the USS Liberty attack/cover-up (http://www.ussliberty.org) and Paul Findley's 'There Dare to Speak Out' book and Jim Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book as well (both the Mearsheimer/Walt and Abraham Foxman segments can be viewed online via the links at the following URL):
http://www.c-span.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=Series,WJE&ArchiveDays=30
Here is the tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/dl5na
Additional at following URLs about how MSNBC's Keith Olbermann dissed the Mearsheimer/Walt paper:
MSNBC's Olbermann Disses Mearsheimer and Walt Critique:
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=412
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/stopcollection.htm#james_morris
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
I got banned again minutes after posting the following at Huffingtonpost.com via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/25/dem-senator-now-it-tur_n_23773.html and other blog entries there (incredible censorship still going on as mentioned prior):
JINSA/PNAC Neocon Richard Perle: Why Did Bush Blink on Iran?:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=54827
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
The censoring at Huffington Post is so pro-Israel now that if you say ANYTHING in support of the Palestinians or in any way link the neocons to pro-Israel groups, your post will get censored (not deleted mind you, because it NEVER gets posted).
But all the pro-Zionist posts get in there. How frustrating to have to sit back and read all this disinformation from other posters appear and you aren't even allowed to respond.
And when Alan Dershowitz's blogs are released don't even think about posting if you disagree with him, because you're wasting your time.
How do these Zionists gain control of ALL the moderator spots at HP?
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