ProgressiveMinds.bm = Biased?

To my surprise, neither of the two comments I've posted on the www.progressiveminds.bm blog site over the past couple days have been approved.

How come I'm good enough to be syndicated when writing from a pro-PLP stance, but when asking the hard questions, I get silenced?

Below are comments I posted earlier today (though others timestamped after mine have been approved) on the post Press Release - Tourism numbers SOAR!  Are these the kind of comments that shouldn't be allowed?

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I've said it before, I'll say it again.

"I'll believe it's been a banner quarter when you can tell me in statistics that include non-bermudian, bermudian, resident, non-resident, business, pleasure and hopefully how much is approximated to have been contributed to the economy by each group. Until then, these numbers mean nothing to me."

I've asked it in multiple places, even the PLP blog to zero response.

"What are the numbers in reference to "Tourists" in the breakdowns I suggested?

Suggesting simply 'arrivals' is ambiguous and potentially very misleading and I do not believe it is a fair statistic that truly represents the state of our Tourism industry.

While perhaps arrivals does mean tourists, I would like this clarification as if it does not then we may well be setting ourselves up for failure as the only true measure of our success is how much money we make from Tourism, not the number of people who visit."

Also, I'd like to see a comparison of the increase/decrease in the numbers over the last 10-20 years to give a fair estimate to how we're performing now when compared to pre-Fabian (total available rooms) and pre-9/11

Comments

[Combat Banker]

Sorry to hear you have been banned man, always appreciated your point of view.

Hope it's just a misundertanding. Maybe they think you're Larry Dennis? ;)

[Sal]

Bullshit beats brains,the latest press release makes no mention of the facts,since only the PLP spin masters have them,not even the Auditor General knows the figures, they locked him up when he tried to defend his constitutional rights.
Facts:
More than 80% of Bermuda's hotels have closed or failed in the past 20 years.
The only soaring numbers are PLP travel, wasted taxpayers money,corruption scandals,rising costs and inflation,road rage,traffic gridlock,road deaths and collisionscrime, especially against visitors.

Dictatorship is not far off,in the "new Bermuda":

Hitler,Mugabe and Chavez were elected in an open election,before they crushed the opposition,free speech and democracy.

if we do not learn from history: we are doomed to repeat it!

[Mike Taylor]

I think it was yesterday the admin. of that site posted that non-PLP supporters are moree likely to be censored and not given the same leeway as PLP supporters as the site is PLP and unashamedly biased. Fair enough, but I decided not to post there anymore after that. I posted something earlier yesterday which was not allowed through and it had absolutely no remotely offensive or even non PLP friendly components. I guess it just didn't fit into their narrative.

[Slowhand]

I too am not able to post it seems... so some of the notorious posters are having a field day... if nobody is there to argue, they will be even more convinced how right they are.

[Phil Wells]

The PLP blog also seems to have started screening out some comments with contrary opinions.

I have made two attempts to post the comment below at http://www.plp.bm/node/326#comments, so far without success.

"I don’t see that it matters who any of the contributors to this blog are. As long as they are respectful, I think it would be more constructive for you to deal with the points they are making on their merits, or point out the logical holes in their arguments, instead of casting aspersions on their motives.

The UBP website may, regrettably, not allow comments, however their Facebook group does, and is open to all. This is in contrast to the PLP’s Facebook group, which is invite-only and only permits members to comment."

I imagine the aim is to get rid of posters who challenge the spin. It's a shame - for a time the admin was making a genuine attempt to engage those posting contrary views and rebut their points. I guess they've decided that's just too hard.

[J Starling]

These are interesting developments that I was not aware of. I will investigate and get back.

As far as I understood it the decision was only to edit out personal attacks and profanity while simulteonously using a three strikes rule in regards to repeat offenders; tha tis people who continue to use personal attacks and profanity despite being warned. This included such gems as 'cracker brigade,' 'clown,' 'honkey,' and 'boy' - of course depending on context. A thread discussing the use of these words would naturally not be banned, but the use to dinigrate others and such would be banned. It was simple rules that we had at first neglected posting as we thought people would naturally abide by them. How naive we were perhaps. But the decision was never made - as far as I can recall - to censor contrary viewpoints, indeed it was decided to deliberately engae these ideological differences for the sole reason of mutual exchange and eductation.

If the blog is beginning to advocate political censorship then it must be destroyed or fought against.

[Slowhand]

All that aside, what really sticks in my craw is that Vanz is still laying it on thick with his racist references, but not only that, he has even told one poster to go back to the 'bottle'... referencing that posters admission that he has remained off of liquor for a number of years. No restrictions on those kind of comments, and clear censorship of non PLP views is very telling...

[wiaruz]

me too. I posted the fact that Dr. Brown also has a Face book site, as evidenced in a previous thread, when one of the bloggers cynically questioned why Michael Dunkley, as a non student, was on Face book.
Banned! I guess I should have upped the profanity a la Vance.

[Full Fullish]

If the blog is beginning to advocate political censorship then it must be destroyed or fought against.

J Starling, believe me it is. Problem is that I don't see anything being done about it, my voice on there has effectively been silenced so I don't bother, but rather will make any posts come to light on my own blog site if there are any points I wish to address. As I said to Guilden last night, PLP supporters may wish to get involved cause anything I say is taken as "Partisan Hack" comments.

[Wiraruz]

Actually had two posts accepted today, but seeing as I have been branded a hater I have decided to knock it on the head.