124 thoughts on “Common Dreams? Or is it censorship in common with the corporate media?”

1. Got banned today because I mentioned Craig Brown and his affiliation to Cranston.

2. Hi fellow disappeared Cders!

   I am the illustrious ‘highkarate’, also ‘known’ as ‘jasondylan.’

   I have been going there for over 7 years and find that all of my comments have been taken down, as well as my nom de plume.

   I am trying to organize a united effort to bring this issue out into the open. Anyone who is interested in signing a letter, we could just use our ‘CD Handles’, get a hold of me at highkarate@gmail.com or at my site.

   I will do the leg work for this operation, as I sit with wounded knee, all you guys/girls gotta do is sign on.

   I will most likely be on the radio this year and the nefarious activities of CD will be part of my schtick.

   Keep on Truckin!

   Come to think about it, it’s ’bout time for a Convoy!

3. Three months ago I got blasted on a Sunday for attacking Zunes and Juan Cole again…:)

   Nothing I said was a violation of ToS. I’ve actually made much more provocative comments and haven’t had a problem.

   But this is my second time, and both were on Sundays, and my theory is that this is the day that most of the staff are off, and Craig gets lonely and looks for trouble.

   I do know he has personal ties to Cole and probably Zunes from his days as a legislative mercenary. The whole thread was virtualy wiped out.

   The reality is that as long as Brown runs the place, this instability and arbitrary autocratia will continue. It’s a great editorial site, but Brown’s erratic bouts of tyranny really stink the joint up.

   Just like the real world, right? Some good drones working their, but the boss is a grade A dickbag.

   One thing you should know, however, is that CD’s funding is a bit murky. These guys are pulling in foundation and grant money, much of which isn’t all that transparent. A start would be checking out their non-prof funding filings to find out who’s money they’re taking. There is no way they’re operating that place on a measly 300k a year. In fact, I think most of the liberal or left-liberal sites have a financial conflict of interest, such as Alternet, which has really gone into the toilet since 2006.

   Anyway, nice to see the old exiles hanging around. I think if someone could get the money research done, and if there’s anything usable, there’s a remote possibility that Cockburn would publish a thoughtful, substantiated essay at CP.

   My hope is to push Brown out of the operation and let some of the younger ones more committed to free speech run the place.

4. This repeated censure of other Left opinion at Common Dreams continues and continues to discredit the general Movement for Social Change as a whole, since many writers published on the site keep totally silent about what goes on there. The intemperate moderation at CD which is in reality a censorship of those not tied to the vote the ‘lesser of two evils’ point of view, distracts much from the web site having any real value for Left activists in the future.

5. I expect it to pick up quite a bit now as we approach the general. In the end, I suppose, it’s as much about the cash for the liberals as it is for anyone else. One thing I’ve learned in the last decade is that Democrats are just as heavy handed about dissent as any right winger. Every one wants to rule the world, eh? 🙂

6. Unfortunately, that appears to be so, Drone.

7. Well I got banned AGAIN from CD, the third time in about 4 years, having used 3 different usernames from 3 email addresses (never at the same time – no sockpuppetry.)

   The first two times I was banned for criticizing Obama and supporting Nader. Now of course the site itself criticizes Obama sometimes. Shades (a second time, as farce) of the “premature anti-fascist” attacks on people who were anti-Nazi “too soon” in the eyes of the federal government.

   This last banning was a result of having criticized Dennis “Droopy Dog” Kucinich. They printed an article asking what would happen if he loses in the OH primary. I stated nothing since he’s pretty useless and only functions to suck people back into the Democratic Party. I hoped he might redeem himself by quitting said party instead of endorsing Obama… again.

   That was enough to get banned. The sick thing is that after banning people they will still keep you on their fundraising appeal email lists.

   You have a nice site, I think I’ll be visiting here in future instead.

8. You’re welcome. We need more Leftists writing and commenting here. Being in Colorado Springs, we tend to oftentimes just get the nitwit Far Right type of person spamming it up instead.

9. Good to see you all – Visiting Professor, Sabocat, actualleftist…

   I was just banned from CD. I think a lot of regulars – the leftists, of course – have recently been banned.

10. CD got a new comment system – Disqus, which does a lot of data mining. The CD censorship continues unabated. I only lasted an hour under my new disqus user ID “RustBeltProud” In this case I was censored and banned for discussing CD’s policy of arbitrary censoring and banning. This has always been the quickest path to banning.

    The arbitrary way the post deletions and bannings occur suggest that it is done by a certain person and not when others are moderating.

    I am highly skeptical of Craig Brown’s claim of sock-puppetry by the same users with multiple ID’s. The multiple ID’s were just a consequence of his bannings.

    Tony, I appreciate you keeping this blog up.

11. Hey thanks, Paul. I, too, don’t think we’ll see any real honesty coming out of Craig Brown’s mouth very soon either. His whole blurb on why he switched off to Disqus was quite bullshittty and contrived. I found it all to be rather sad and unconvincing.

12. I was banned from CD yesterday after being an active participant in the comments for 12 years or so (with a few time gaps here and there). My sin? CD posted excerpts of a NYT article about Obama’s drone assassination program. One commenter mentioned that large and important portions of the article were “edited out” by CD. I replied that CD often edits articles to present a specific point of view. POOF. Banned.

    It’s obvious to me that Craig Brown and the rest of the CD staff really don’t care all that much about their users, or the cause, or anything other than fundraising for their organization. Shameful.

13. This is all pretty strange to me. I’ve been putting links to the Green Party site (gp.org) and contradicting everyone. Did three recent articles last night, must have left 20 comments on each, ranging from my usual ridiculously hopeful to my usual extremely sarcastic about everything. I pretty sure I’ve done so many times before too.
    Possibly I’m so over the top that they think I just bring color. I’ve been expecting to get yanked for shamelessly shilling for the Green Party, and even linking to the platform where appropo. I feel I reason and make a point fairly well for an avowed anark. On the other hand, they will come to see that I have many email addresses if they do can me. I gotta wonder if you guys are just a mess of people who give up too easy. On the other hand, I have not been very consistent yet. thanks for the inspiration to do more. of course, I’ve been whining about how unfriendly they are to my party as long as they have been here. On the other hand, I just now see this article is nigh 4 years old, possibly recent news, some of which I’ve gotten from them, on Obomber, has changed their ways? This article is quite dated may be all that I can tell you. If I do get booted for such behavior, I can assure you I will report back here. (this one is used to being a canary in a coal mine, and at almost 50 years of doing it, can say they are not quite yet rounding us all up)

14. Monte, I assure that though my original commentary was written 3 and 1/2 years ago, that the practice of Common Dreams kicking readers to the Left of the Democratic Party offline continues by the moderators. Our many differing points of view as to why we actually reject pacifist Democratic Party mindsets matters not to CD moderators in the least. They simply don’t want to be outflanked by Leftists who reject their lesser of two evil mindset, or their often support to US government pushed ‘humanitarian’ imperialism, and to answer up to this opposing pov coming from the Left of themselves seems to be too much for them.

    I have lost track of how many times I personally have gotten the boot, and the last kick offline was about as gratuitous a form of censorship I have ever had used against myself. I merely had made some rather innocent comment about how the situation post US intervention against Ghadafi in Libya had not improved the country at all, and lo and behold, I was out of there once again! CENSORED! It’s just that easy to getting thrown off that site for expressing one’s opinion.

15. The #1 sin that will get you banned from CD is to mention their draconian censorship, publicly “notice” comments missing or criticize CD editors. Those things will get you banned for sure. Other ways to get banned is as many say here, be “too left” for CD.

    The ironic thing about all this is today, there was a couple articles posted slamming censorship.

16. The #1 sin that will get you banned from CD is to mention their draconian censorship, publicly “notice” comments missing or criticize CD editors. Those things will get you banned for sure. Other ways to get banned is as many say here, be “too left” for CD.

    The ironic thing about all this is today, there was a couple articles posted slamming censorship.

17. For those looking to be heard about the shady practices of CD, post your assessments here: http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/20-3368194/common-dreams.aspx

18. For the 2nd time in 10 days I and a couple others have had comments deleted in articles about internet spying and censhorship – pointing out CD censhorship and asking, very politely, why CD does this? We even refrained from pointing out the breathtaking beyond-Orwell hypocracy behind their behavior.

    I still am having trouble getting my head around this behavior. Does Craig Brown or whoever it is who is deleting these posts know he or she is pracing exactly what they claim to decry? That is, do they engage some kind of mental block? Or, do they know they are vile hypocrites but williingly do it – in which case, why don’t they suffer some kind fatal cognitive-dissonace breakdown – choking to death on their hypocracy (as Chomsky coined) or such. Or, do they willingly know and do it, but simply reject the concept of hypocracy?

    These are important questions – becasue this sort of behavior – From Craig Brown to Hitler, is the root of nearly all evil and violence in the world.

19. Awareness of hypocracy confirmed!

    I posted the following: “The hypocracy this action is breataking – this is the second time in about a week”. This could have easily been referring to the US actions that were the topic of the article; but, nonetheless, the comment “dissapeared” in the usual opaque way.

    This statement proves CD’s self-awareness of their hypocracy.

20. Yes, I know, its spelled “hypocrisy”…

21. Elmysterio had mentioned that ‘The #1 sin that will get you banned from CD is to mention their draconian censorship, publicly “notice” comments missing or criticize CD editors. Those things will get you banned for sure. Other ways to get banned is as many say here, be “too left” for CD. The ironic thing about all this is today, there was a couple articles posted slamming censorship.’

    elmysterio, I have come across this weird phenomena time after time across the broad spectrum of the Left. It is not just commondreams that will publish articles criticizing censorship and then go on to do exactly what they themselves have just criticized others for doing. It always amazes me when it I see it happen, too, but unfortunately it seems to happen on Left website after Left website.

22. This got a good chuckle from me…

    “We do not censor comments. However, anonymous posters who use our rare technical glitches to spread conspiracy theories about mass “censorship” will be banned from commenting on our site.”

    Thanks!

    Craig Brown
    for Common Dreams

    Now, I have not seen clear examples of censorship since early July, but, Jesus Crimony Christ, Mr. Brown could at least acknowledge his past obvious behavior!

    Paul D.
    aka Yunzer

23. UPDATE FROM VISITING PROFESSOR

    Make no mistake, the deletion of comments and banning of commenters is still continuing at Common Dreams. Indeed, it appears that the pace is accelerating considerably. It is understandable that many people might not notice this — because it is done with a lot of misdirection and, of course, it is impossible to contact former participants to ask if they have been banned.

    Right now, Craig Brown is using the real fact of some recent problems with spam that evaded CD’s firewalls to explain away many deleted comments that have nothing to do with this technical glitch. I know this for a fact because I read the posts before they were removed, and they were not spam-related — they were comments critical of Obama and the Democratic Party; comments questioning the policies of the CD editors; or comments that mentioned banning and censorship. Some of the people who were banned and had their comments deleted were long-time participants who added great value to the discussions. They will be sorely missed. The quality of the debate that occurs on Common Dreams has fallen a great deal already, and it will fall even more due to these recent actions of the censorhip-intoxicated staff at CD. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail…and if the only tool you have is the censor’s delete key, you see every problem as a fact that needs to be altered to fit your particular bias.

    Craig Brown has posted the following announcement in a prominent position right at the top of the comments section:

    “Spam Filter Glitches…

    “UPDATE: Wednesday, August 22, 2012
    The Common Dreams comments section has been under massive spam attack from China-based IP addresses.

    “Working with DISQUS, we have been tweaking our automatic spam filters in an attempt to keep the spam to a minimum. Over the past couple of days the filters were over-aggressive and sent many legitimate comments into our spam folders.

    “Earlier today we switched to the newest version of DISQUS 2012 in an attempt to solve the problem. We will continue to work on it.

    “We do not censor comments. However, anonymous posters who use our rare technical glitches to spread conspiracy theories about mass “censorship” will be banned from commenting on our site.

    Thanks!
    Craig Brown
    for Common Dreams”

    * * *
    It appears that the spam problem is resolved, but I expect this warning to remain up for some time. Here’s why: this caution provides an easy rationale for all of the “comment deleted” notices that now appear in place of perceptive remarks made by sincere contributors who had simply tried to tell the truth. The bannings and deletions are certain to continue as Craig Brown works furiously to prop up Obama and the other Democratic candidate heading into the fall elections.

    Craig Brown has the audacity to lie about this openly: “We do not censor comments.” He further smears anybody who mentions censorship by suggesting that they are only spreading false “conspiracy theories”. It’s easy to imagine him laughing out loud as he writes these words, isn’t it? It is truly all just a game to him; the only thing that matters is whether he can push his withered and stale belief in the rotting Democratic Party onto new, unsuspecting victims.

24. UPDATE #2 FROM VISITING PROFESSOR

    I used to comment on Common Dreams under the screen name Visiting Professor — until I was banned and had all 400+ of my comments erased in November of 2011. It is clear that I was not banned for violating any comment policy — because I abided by all of them — so the undeniable conclusion is that I was banned because of the content of my remarks. I did express views that were often critical of conventional Democratic Party politics.

    For example, I frequently pointed out that Obama’s policies are quite similar to the policies that had been promoted by President George Bush. I also expressed consistent criticism of Obama’s healthcare act, which is primarily a boon to the health insurance corporations and the pharmaceutical industry.

    In particular, I mentioned that this act fails to meet the three most important goals of healthcare reform: (1) it does not provide universal coverage; (2) it does not provide a single standard of high-quality care; and (3) it does not decrease healthcare costs. There is no doubt that these views were at odds with the positions that the Common Dreams editors wanted to promote.

    A MAJOR CONTRADICTION

    It is important to note that these criticisms are standard fare among many writers who are published regularly on Common Dreams, including Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, Ted Rall, Randall Amster, Lin Dinh, and others.

    Why is there this apparent contradiction? Why are published writers allowed to make these assertions on Common Dreams, but not the community of commenters?

    There is one possible explanation for this: writers generally do not engage directly in organizing and on-the-ground strategizing for social change. It is the community members who could organize around ideas and decide on specific local actions to promote change.

    Actually, Common Dreams could do a lot to bring people together, but instead it does just the opposite. The constant banishment of people without warning or explanation creates a pervading atmosphere of mistrust and fear among the community members who participate. This makes people very cautious and suspicious, and prevents effective organizing. It even leads to a lot of self-censorship in the community, which is the most effective type of thought control. Most important, CD keeps eliminating articulate leaders from its community, which prevents groups from uniting around a common vision.

    TOOLS FOR BUILDING COMMUNITY

    Other sites recognize that many people want to do something about the information they acquire on the web — beyond just discussing it. For this reason, many websites announce protest actions or speeches or other political events on their sites, but not Common Dreams. CD seems to prefer that its readers stay at home typing on their computers.

    What’s more, CD also specifically prevents people from reaching out to each other–indeed, simply posting your personal email address can get you banished. It is extremely difficult to get in contact with another member of the CD community with whom you share common interests. In fact, it is difficult to find out if you even live in the same country or city as that other individual.

    So, while Common Dreams claims in its mission statement that it strives to “encourage critical thinking and civic action on a diverse range of social, economic, and civil rights issues affecting individuals and their communities…” the actual truth is that it impedes organizing by preventing people from joining together — except in anonymous on-line written exchanges.

    The real shame is that this appears to be intentional. The closer you look at Common Dreams, the worse it seems.

25. Just to endorse and echo what North Star, Yunzer, and others have written:

    Since August 22nd, I’ve been blocked from posting comments on CommonDreams. It’s not the first time.

    I tried to avoid blatantly discussing Craig Brown & Co.’s authoritarian, draconian, Orwellian censorship on CD comments threads, but I politely, if imprudently, persisted in criticizing and challenging their editorial bias.

    I have no idea if the following comment caused me to be disappeared, but this reply to Erroll was one of the last things I was able to post there:
    __________________________

    erroll 08/21/12

    You are most welcome. It is puzzling why Common Dreams chooses not to publish any of Chris Floyd’s incisive articles.

    **********

    Obedient Servant

    Not so puzzling to me.

    There is a profound editorial ideological bias against publishing anyone who is a bit too radical, subversive, or uncomfortably immoderate, regardless of the quality and perspicacity of their work.

    A good rule of thumb is that writers regularly published at “Counterpunch” are the exception rather than the rule here. For instance, writers like Linh Dinh and even Dave Lindorff turn up occasionally, but only if their pieces are safe enough.

    Chris Hedges, now published regularly here, was limited to this “marginally acceptable” status for a long time. But my sense is that Floyd’s considered too scary and risky for this venue.

    An experienced observer may reasonably infer that the editors take great care not to afflict the comfortably progressive.

    [end of comment]
    __________________________

    I don’t see that this comment meets the criteria set forth in Craig Brown’s recent fatwa declaring that “anonymous posters who use our rare technical glitches to spread conspiracy theories about mass ‘censorship’ will be banned from commenting on our site.”

    I’m just quoting what he wrote; I won’t bother picking apart the mendacious elements in this excerpt, or the rest of his Big Lie.

    It’s nothing new, of course. It’s just a fresh declaration of CD’s standard doublethink: “We don’t censor, and we’ll censor anyone who claims otherwise, especially if they support their rebuttal by calling attention to blatant evidence of our censorship.”

    It’s an old story that Common Dreams poohbahs impose mass purges of commenters who don’t suck up– particularly those who dare to confront troublesome Comments Commissars favored and protected by CD moderators, and/or call attention to CD’s reprehensible censorship.

    They sometimes purge or “disappear” only a small group of troublesome commenters, typically while performing alleged site maintenance, or responding to an alleged invasion of “sockpuppets” or “spammers”.

    Even if the purported technical difficulties are legitimate, there’s no doubt that they exaggerate and distort the technical problems to provide cover for their wanton censorship; this tactic successfully bamboozles the majority of regular commenters, who are unfortunately inclined to be complacent, trusting authoritarian-followers.

    I suppose it’s understandable that CD editors can’t abide anyone who exposes their bad faith, and even politely suggests that their stated mission of “building progressive community” is pure hype.

    The site is a lucrative cash cow for Craig and his colleagues. It’s effectively a cyber-Veal Pen front for the Democratic Party, thinly disguised beneath a non-denominational (i.e., non-partisan) philosophy promoting moderate progressive liberal-lite lesser-evilism.

    If anyone presently able to post comments at CD doubts that CD harshly censors comments and spitefully “disappears” commenters, I invite them to post a comment that merely mentions that Obedient Servant and others have been blocked from commenting.

    I guarantee that any such comment will be promptly deleted, and the commenter most likely will be denied permission to post further comments. I’d be happy to be proved wrong, not that this would justify my being summarily banned.

    I regret being excluded from discussions with worthwhile commenters. But I guess my borrowed time had to run out someday, and it’s no accident that I was again a victim of an Election Year purge.

26. THE LOSS OF IDEAS

    It is a GREAT shame that Obedient Servant has been banned from commenting on Common Dreams. He often made valuable and perceptive contributions to the discussions on CD. Indeed, he was one of the most popular commenters on the site. Obedient Servant’s perspectives often gave people greater insights into the difficult political issues we face in the U.S. today.

    There is no doubt that Obedient Servant was banned for questioning the editorial judgement of the CD editors. I believe that if you question anything that the CD editors do, they will get rid of of you. I’ve seen it happen time and again.

    And it does not matter if your questions are legitimate, such as: Why was the search function eliminated on CD? Why do certain writers from The Nation magazine get published almost daily on CD when they already have a large national audience? What are the real reasons why a progressive website like Common Dreams would allow its discussion forum to be controlled by Disqus, an organization that engages in extensive data-mining? Etc.,etc.

    Banning Obedient Servant (along with all others who have been banned) is part of the systematic destruction of community that CD practices. The last thing that the CD editors want is for people to organize together to take independent action for social change — because this would undercut support for the corporate Democratic Party.

    It is disturbinging that Common Dreams hides its true purpose from the public. It is a Democratic Party organization, period. Its purpose is to limit peoples’ thinking about elections and force them to choose between the two corporate-supported parties and always adopt a “lesser evil” pro-Democrat voting policy. To further this goal, Common Dreams actively opposes independent and third party movements, which would be the only way to break the corporate-controlled two-partry electoral monopoly. Common Dreams also opposes collective civil disobedience actions that would challenge the power of corporate political parties.

    THE LACK OF TRUTH

    Common Dreams directly engages in deception by posting a comment policy that implies that there are rules that will determine whether you will be allowed to participate or not. The entire set of rules on CD is a lie, because many commenters violate its terms all the time without suffering any penalty. These rules have little or nothing to do with decisions to ban people — which are all ideologically based.

    Similarly, the efforts to encourage people to join the discussion and speak freely are deceitful. The plain fact is that telling the truth is dangerous on CD — whether it is the truth about the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party or the truth about the censorship that is regularly practiced by the Common Dreams editors, particularly Craig Brown. Doing so will get you banned almost immediately.

    There are few venues in which progressives can come together to share ideas and develop common strategies to resist the corporate control of our government. By masquerading as one such venue –but really working directly to undercut true progressive change — Common Dreams causes great harm to anybody who truly embraces democratic ideals and tries to fight for them.

    A NECESSARY DISCLAIMER

    Common Dreams should have this disclaimer posted right at the top of its website:

    WARNING: Common Dreams is a website that frequently distorts information and censors contributors who participate in its discussions. As such, it is an UNRELIABLE source of information.

    The true uderlying purpose of Common Dreams is to elect Democratic candidates to office, and so it suppresses support for all other parties, whether they are Republican, indepenedent, or third party groups. People who question this unequivocal support of Democratic Party candidates will be banned from this site without warning or explanation, and the reasons for their banishment will never be revealed. This is to maintain our phony image as a progressive organization.

    We rely on the continued support of writers like Bill Moyers and Ralph Nader and Naomi Wolf and others to maintain this subterfuge and allow us to continue our dishonest efforts.

    If you are not a believer in the need to support all Democratic Party candidates and views — and demonize all Republican Party candidates and views — this website will be detrimental to your mental health.

    * * *

    I think it’s time for people to fight back against this deceptive organization. As Obama’s presidency has revealed, there is nothing more harmful than a phony progressive.

27. Dear Tony Logan,

    I note that Common Dreams continues to censor comments and ban users apparently with no let-up since you first wrote about these problems in 2008. This leads me to ask the following questions:

    1) You mentioned that you might approach writers who are regularly published on CD to ask them to discontinue publishing their work on the site as long as it censors and banishes people. Did you do this? If so, whom did you approach and what was their reaction?

    2) Have you asked any well-known progressive journalists to investigate this censorship and write an article about it for national distribution? If so, was there any interest in the idea?

    3) Have you ever approached Naomi
    Klein or Bill Moyers and asked them to stop promoting Common Dreams? Both of them are on record as being strongly opposed to censorship, as you know.

    4) Do you know how to find out the exact details of the fundraising for Common Dreams? It seems that they must receive more financial support than they get from their donation drives.

    5) Do you have an estimate of how many people have been banned from Common Dreams, or had comments deleted for political reasons?

    6) Do you know how to try to recover comments that were posted in past discussions on Common Dreams, but have been deleted? Did you ever try to do this?

    7) It appears that getting banned on Common Dreams is more permanent since the changeover to Disqus in the comment forum. Do you know of anyone who has been banned recently that been able to establish a new identity and comment again? (It seems like they ban ISP addresses automatically now for people they want to banish.)

    8) Do you want to write an updated article on this subject? I think some people see the 2008 date on your lead article here, and assume it is old news. It is certainly not old news!

    I look forward to hearing your responses.

    North Star (on Disqus)

    formerly Visiting Professor on CD

28. Paul Donahue (Yunzer):

    I have noticed that you are still able to post on
    Common Dreams. Did you get banned recently for your comments about censorship?

    If so, how were you able to begin posting comments again? Did you get a new ISP address?

    Thanks.

29. North Star, I have not made Common Dreams my focus too much, as its censorship policies are fairly typical of Democratic Party oriented liberals everywhere I have found . Unfortunately, I find that they are also typical of many organizations that are further to the Left of Common Dreams as well. Because of these basic realities, I believe that about as much as We, the People can do when we run into this Left and liberal censorship online is simply to publicize what is going on, so that nobody being done bad this way feels so much alone about it. Nobody ever feels good when they are shunned organizationally in the manner that the commondreams site does to so many .

    Censorship of Left and liberal viewpoints on Left and liberal sites ultimately has the logic of discrediting the people who participate in such. Funny that you are using the name ‘North Star’. North Star itself is also the name of another website that censors and shuns readers with differing pov than their own, just like commondreams is doing. See http://www.thenorthstar.info/ to learn some about these Lefty creeps claiming to be bigshots in the Organize Movement, though kidding nobody much about it, in fact.

30. Tony,

    Thank you for your reply.

    FYI, I chose the name North Star because I couldn’t use the name Visiting Professor — and I like astronomy. I don’t know anything about the website you mention.

    I’m sorry you are not doing anything further about the censorship on Common Dreams — because it is such an important leftist website.

    I will repeat one of my questions, because some other reader may be able to offer assistance:

    Is there some way to recover lengthy comments that have been deleted by Common Dreams? I lost a lot of original research and reporting when they erased all of my comments from the site. (My back-up for this material was unfortunately destroyed by a virus.) I would really like to get this material back. Can anybody help me?

    Thanks.

31. North Star, I hope that you can find some way of getting your writings to Common Dreams back. And YES, I never thought it other than coincidence that your e-name chosen by yourself was ‘North Star’, while another website that censors Leftists expressing their opinions uses the same name. It just goes to illustrate though how common this problem really is on more than just commondreams. I wish there was some easy way to deal with this GIANT problem we have with our own petty tyrants.

32. Right now, I’m unable to see any of the comments on commondreams, let alone post there. I was totally censored in ’08 from their site for supporting progressive (Nader/Green) ideas over over Bilderberg/Democratic/corporate agendas. And now there’s a silly comment from Mr. Brown about “conspiracy theories” regarding censorship. No, this is real. Commondreams is not a “left” site in the illusory left/right false dichotomy. It’s just another divide-and-conquer site, hoping to see a fourth term of Bush II (a second term of Obama).

33. This silly censorship by common dreams’ owners continues… I just was told that my opinion was not valued when I went to post a totally innocuous comment about Occupy… Here is what was rejected by the staff censors there…

    ‘I think that it is great that at last we are beginning to see some serious Left criticisms of the many defects of the Occupy Movement’s theology, so to speak. Because of these many defects Occupy has failed to gain the trust of the so-called ‘99%’… which by the way, should never ever mean that we should include the cops as being part of our movement!!!!!!’

    When Left sites censor opinions, they lose the respect of our own people, let alone the many other folk out there. It is a stinking shame that the Left is burdened with having so many people like Craig Brown of common dreams and Louis Proyect of marxism list out there bottlenecking our discussions as they do non stop.

34. Obedient Servant,

    It is nice to see you are still alive! You will enjoy this article, where noting your (and others) sudden absence I speculate whether you are dead!

    If this doesn’t drive home the creepyness of the whole secret-censorship process nothing does…

    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/03-1

35. Hail and well met, Paul D.! (My name is Paul, too.)

    I hoped some still-active CD commenter would eventually stumble onto my August 29th comment.

    I haven’t visited CD since shortly after my banning; it was too aggravating to browse the comments as a “ghost”.

    I did check out the link you provided here, though. In fact, I tried to reply to you at CD just to test whether I’m still denied permission to post there. As expected, I’m still banned.

    I’m not saying this out of bitterness or envy, but I’m surprised that several “contrarian” commenters like yourself, who don’t suck up to the CD admins, are able to avoid being banned.

    I’m also surprised that smart and perceptive commenters like Elizabeth Tjader and others are so slow to acknowledge the possibility that CD ruthlessly censors its comments.

    It’s frustrating that they don’t immediately figure out that I and so many others– e.g. Elizabeth H., Vlorg, Corvo, and those “exiles” who’ve posted comments here have been insidiously “disappeared”.

    I honestly wonder what would happen if you openly posted on CD that I’ve been banned, and/or referred them to my explanatory comment here.

    I expect that such comment would be censored, and that you might even be banned for posting it, so I won’t put you on the spot and ask you to test my theory.

    It seems a bit pathetic to keep “milking” this thread as a sort of back-channel with past– i.e., banned– and present CD commenters. If you know of a better place to post comments, please tell.

    Meanwhile, thanks for thinking of me and happy holidays.

36. OS,

    sorry for the delay in checking back for your reply here.

    I don’t know why I survived another presidential election cycle without being banned, like I was about 4 times four year ago.

    CD’s reasons for censoring, which I had thought I understood, remain a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

    But I’m feeling cocky, and when the appropriate context arises, I’ll direct the commenters here.

    I appreciate the generosity of Tony Logan and his colony of sanity in that hostile land of Colorado Springs (I’ve been there once – investigating that big landslide at the rock quarry out towards the AF Academy a couple years ago) in giving us banned CD’ers refuge.

    Paul D.

37. Yep, you guessed it, another CD exiled expatriate. And my post-exile research experience has made me feel like I’m 11 again and just learned that sex went beyond a kiss, and it all sounds so abysmally gross. I never really imagined the existence of all of this, and my head is swimming.

    All the time I was reading and posting on CD, I think I had a vague idea that some form of censorship was occurring in the smarmy dark reaches of the administrative realm, but I never gave it much thought. I enjoyed the news and opinion, especially among the posters. It was a supportive enclave for me, as I find my thoughts and analysis of experience pretty far out on the left continuum. I broke off ties to the Dem party about 15 years ago.

    What got me finally censored from comment at CD was my critique of the recent poll they sponsored on the 2012 election. The results purported to indicate that over 75% of CD readers supported Obama.
    I,m a social worker (MSW) and was required to suffer through a statistics class, and from what I remembered, the methodology of their survey wasn’t scientific. For one thing, they never defined the population they were studying, and pretty much anyone with a particular agenda could participate or vote multiple times and skew the results. So the results weren’t valid to me.

    They removed my post. Then I re-posted it along with a statement against censorship. They removed that immediately.

    A few days later, I was remarking on the bogus quality of the poll and that my comments to that effect had been censored, and at that point I found I couldn’t post anymore on CD.

    Another exile stated that this reactionary behavior is more damaging to the left/progressive community than Fox News, effectively functioning as another ‘lesser of two evil’ road block to a unified, functional left. Another exile stated that CD discourages activism by precluding any personal connection between/among commenters and by excluding message boards to notify of protest events or organizational gatherings. I agree 100% with these perceptive observations. And would nadd nthat the format contains all the energies and talents of participants within the confines of the site, which is counterproductive to organizing.

    CD is, in effect, the Obama of prog/left websites. It APPEARS to be one thing, and lures in potential actors, but in fact IS another thing entirely, and the theatrical components never coalesce and the theater production never gets off the ground.

    My life should slow down somewhat after the first of the year (2013.) I would really like to follow up on this issue. If others want to participate in organizing efforts to expose this unfortunate problem and engage in a problem-solving plan of action, please contact me.

    Linda Willaredt (iowapinko)
    lindawillaredt@yahoo.com

38. I noticed yesterday that two longtime participants posted messages on Common Dreams wondering what had happened to make Obedient Servant stop participating in CD’s discussion forum.

    Good grief! Why can’t they figure out that people don’t simply leave a community they’ve become a part of without giving an explanation and offering some parting words. It’s obvious that something unfair is happening — because so many of us have disappeared without a trace.

    Part of the problem is that well-known left liberats such as Naomi Klein, Bill Moyers, Ralph Nader, and others give such uncritical support to Common Dreams. They do so for selfish reasons: they like having their work published on CD. If it was THEIR work that was being censored or deleted, you can bet they would all be furiously writing and speaking about this unethical and undemocratic practice — and would be calling for a boycott of Common Dreams by all progressives.

    FYI, I personally discussed CD’s censorship practices with Ralph Nader and handed him a letter documenting the widespread practice, and he never even replied to me after that. Not one word! He didn’t care.

    I also brought up this issue in person with Glenn Greenwald, and he brusquely dismissed my concerns by declaring simplistically that “It isn’t censorship if the government isn’t doing it.” Not only was his reply off-putting, it also cut off a very important discussion about how certain so-called leftists actually work to manipulate and undermine progressive causes. Could Glenn Greenwald have wanted to avoid this discussion because his work is featured so often on Common Dreams? Yes, I think so. Just for the record, Greenwald’s talk that evening focused on dishonesty and the manipulation of information by the mainstream media. Imagine that! I suspect that if the event’s sponsors had tried to tell Glenn what he could and could not say, he would have decried their attempt at censorship.

    I note that yet another regular CD contributor — one whom I appreciated very much — has been banned from Common Dreams for telling the truth. Iowapinko is probably known to all of you. The loss of her thoughtful comments further diminishes the CD discussions.

    In this way, Craig Brown directly harms decent, caring people who are trying to improve their communities and the whole world. What’s more, his decision to delete all past comments of banished contributors is particularly cruel.

    It is time for people to stand up to this dishonest bully who wants to control what people say and think. This kind of dictatorial behavior should not be tolerated by any true progressive.

    Naomi Klein? Bill Moyers? Ralph Nader? Glenn Greenwald? Are you
    listening? All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing.

    Visiting Professoe

39. I’ve noticed that Two Americas and Yunzer are able to post again on CD using the Disqus system.

    Everyone else I know who has been banned cannot post on Disqus no matter what they try.

    Can you share what you did to be allowed to post again on Disqus?

    Thanks!

40. Here are examples from today (January 13, 2012) that demonstrate censorship on Common Dreams continues unabated:

    G_Orez Bob • 6 hours ago ?
    I tried to link to an article at Counterpunch, but it went down the memory hole of Disqus deletions… after a minute or so of “moderation.”
    5 up votes •Reply•Share ›

    Bob G_Orez • 5 hours ago ?
    Links to Counterpunch seem verboten for some reason. Mine were never released from “moderation.” This seems unique to CD . . . I’ve not had this problem with DISQUS elsewhere.
    5 up votes •Reply•Share ›

    rosemariejackowski Bob • 4 hours ago ?
    Yes…My link to the anti-Drone Petition is being verboten here???
    5 up votes •Reply•Share ›

    Also, it is worth noting that CD does not require a reader to have a Disqus account to upvote comments, but DOES require an account to downvote comments. Thus, all such votes are skewed and do not indicate true support for the opinions — which is important because the votes are used to rearrange the comments in order of popularity. It’s just another method CD uses to manipulate people’s voices.

41. Final thoughts:

    The source of a substantial amount of the funding for Common Dreams has not been revealed. Out of a budget of $600,000 for 2011, for example, we know that $200,000 came from CD’s quarterly fund drives; $50,000 came as grants from small foundations; and a whopping $350,000 is completeluy unaccounted for. That is nearly 60% of CD’s total budget.

    It is my belief that the majority of the funding for Common Dreams comes from wealthy individuals or groups who wish to maintain the current status quo of Democrats vs. Republicans that prevents any real change from being considered in our country. This explains why almost all intelligent, well-informed contributors who are to the left of conventional Democratic politics are purged from the site — and why there is no mechanism on the site to allow people to organize or even contact each other.

    In my opinion, Common Dreams is a “sponge” organization that is primarily intended to soak up dissent and wring it out in a bucket — keeping it contained and under the control of the Democratic Party. The aim is to prevent people from getting organized into an effective, independent political force in the U.S. Of course, other online groups do the same thing — such as Moveon.org, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, etc. — and the only thing that is different among them is their styles. The overall goal is the same: the disempowerment of the citizens and the preservation of the status quo — the Democrat/Republican oligarchy.

    There are a handful of well-known leftists with direct connections to Common Dreams who could challenge this situation, including Ralph Nader and Naomi Klein — but they refuse to do so. On the contrary, they openly advertise for Common
    Dreams and thus give further legitimacy to the dishonest behavior that permeates CD. Their refusal to take any action to question the obvious and well-documented misbehavior by
    Common Dreams is very disappointing. The unethical conduct by CD should never remain unchallenged by people who claim to oppose censorship and dishonesty, as Nader and Klein emphatically do.

    “Left on left” censorship is a major problem in the U.S. that seriously impedes the chances of any fundamental political change. Until progressives deal with this issue openly and honestly, there is little hope for improvement in our situation.

42. Hi Tony

    Why are the comments loaded out of order now? My follow-up comments as North Star (my second screen name) now appear earlier in the list than my more substantial comments as Visiting Professor.

    The jump to load addition comments now goes from 2012 to 2008!

    This is very confusing to the reader.

    Can you restore the correct order?

    I have been referring people to your site for background about the issue of CD’s censorship, but I can’t do that now due to the mixed up comments. FYI, I learned about this disorder because a colleague of mine told me he could not find my remarks anywhere.

43. Interesting.
    I just got banned yesterday (3/3/14) from Common Dreams and all my comments were “Disappeared” after arguing with a poster by the name of “Tony Logan”.

    I argued that the Ukrainian Revolution should be allowed to work itself out and that the Russians and international community should butt-out. I was called by dozens of posters “fascist”, “nazi”, “NSA Agent”, “IMF Agent”…Yet, I was the person to get banned!

    I did also call the CD posters conformists and hypocrites…So, TONY LOGAN…did YOU get me banned and deleted?

44. The short answer to you, Novictim, is no I certainly did not get you banned. I also did not call you any of the names you mention that you got called by others.

    You are not a fascist or agent of any kind, but simply somebody who had an opinion different than my own. And I,too, get disgusted by the moderation on multiple sites, and cd has been one that in the past especially was particularly bad about using censorship. I thought maybe perhaps they had reformed some, but I guess maybe not.

    Sorry about what happened to you. I hope they let you back posting soon.

45. Visiting Professor, I am no longer part of notmytribe, so I really cannot do anything to restore order in the current chaos you report about. Sorry.

    ‘Hi Tony- Why are the comments loaded out of order now? My follow-up comments as North Star (my second screen name) now appear earlier in the list than my more substantial comments as Visiting Professor. The jump to load addition comments now goes from 2012 to 2008!

    This is very confusing to the reader. Can you restore the correct order?’

46. ‘Novictim’, I, too, just got banned once again off CD, immediately after they were asking for my money to help in their fundraising drive. I did not donate because I trust that site not in the least. CD censors people for their political views not supportive of proDemocratic Party politicking.

    Direct reason for being booted off again. Once again I left several comments to others about the site always pushing us to vote Democratic Party and how I thought that wrong politically.

    Do that, and one gets banned from CD. They are completely dishonest about their motives though. They are simply promoting lesser of 2 evil politics, and not supportive at all of breaking from that mind set. They will censor that idea and you fast, if it is ever expressed.

47. I got barred from CD because I was sick, tired and disgusted by their tolerance of obnoxious comments about Iraq, Iran, Syria, African Americans, Libyans, as well as other Arab countries. However my comments about Israel in less than a positive light (no more obnoxious and rude than comments about Muslims, Arab countries and other religions) got me banned. I have received no answer as to why the double standard therefore I cancelled Disqus and rarely go to CD much anymore!!! Next I will cancel Yahoo.

48. Common Dreams continues to ban commenters who dare to complain about it’s incessant promotion of faux progressive Dems. Having promoted Obama from 2008 through 2013, it switched to promoting Warren in 2014 despite the fact that the former Reagan Repub was installed by Obama, endorses Clinton, panders to AIPAC, etc. Several dozen were banned in Sept of 2014. Not uncoincidentally, the bannings came on the heels of a “revolt” against CD’s years of tolerance of a commercial astrologer (Sioux Rose, aka Susan Rosenberg according to public copyright records) who chronically alleges that independent progressives are actually paid right-wing trolls.

    While Common Dreams is a 501c3, it tells a blatant Madison-Avenue lie on its website, by claiming that it is
    100% supported by thousands of small reader donations.
    In fact, the bulk of its support comes from foundations funded by wealthy corporate capitalists. Their composition, moreover, helps explain why the Dem establishment inclusive of the faux-progressive wing that CD’s Brown helped organize is beholden to AIPAC and the wealthy. I was banned by CD for posting this information, which CD readers had a right to know:

    Common Dreams Foundation Supporters
    https://web.archive.org/web/20140713172135/http://www.commondreams.org/foundation_support

    Google search results

    (1) Al Schwendtner Fund [search yields snippets indicating NY-based, diversified philanthropy]
    (2) Astri Lindberg Fund [multiple entries for Dem campaign donations incl Obama, each typically in range of $5,000 to $10,000]
    (3) Blue Moon Fund, Inc. [operated by heirs of wealthy Citgo (oil) exec, assets $158 million, focus on addressing climate change]
    (4) Buell Family Fund [heirs of wealthy Chicago-Denver businessman Temple Hoyne Buell, foundation assets $267 million, focus appears to be children/education]
    (5) Carraway Charitable Donation Fund [search returns did not yield a clear, reliable picture]
    (5) Dal LaMagna Charitable Unitrust [Assets $1.8 million, Boston address, also operates as Domini Amy Et Al Ttee, activities unknown]
    (6) Dianne and Daniel Vapnek Family Fund [Santa Barbara CA, activities judging from search returns indicate interest in dance/theater, also operate a Vapnek Family LLC]
    (7) Domitila Barrios de Chungara Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation [SVCH officers and directors are heavily-laced with execs of JP Morgan, Microsoft, Facebook, etc]
    (8) Eifler Morello-Frosch Fund [apparently a smallish foundation supporting environmental, breast cancer and other activities]
    (9) Environmental Working Group [as name implies. Among its foundation funders are The Walton Family Foundation (Walmart wealthies), The Turner Foundation (Ted Turner CNN wealthy), and foundations of wealthy Hewlett-Packard’s founders]
    (10) December Second Fund [unable to find any information]
    (11) Flora Family Foundation [founded by heir of wealthy Hewlett co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, diverse grants]
    (12) Foundation for the Carolinas [assets $1.3 billion, focus on 13 Carolina counties, unable to ascertain why it would be a CD donor]
    (13) Greg and Anette Holland Charitable Fund [unable to find any information]
    (14) Hargrave Fund [unable to find any information]
    (15) Hough Family Fund [“Since the 2004 sale of William R. Hough and Co., a municipal bond firm, and Republic Bank, which Hough controlled, the St. Petersburg couple has made substantial contributions to numerous arts and educational entities through personal gifts and their Hough Family Foundation.”
    (16) John and Lou Stolzenburg Fund [search returns did not yield a clear, reliable picture]
    (17) John and Wendy Neu Family Foundation [New York, assets $5-10 million, activities unknown, source of founder/funder wealth is “Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities”]
    (18) Jolyn and Bob Kelley Fund [unable to find any information]
    (19) Lannan Foundation [oriented to culture, free expression]
    (20) Lear Family Foundation [Beverly Hills, the famous TV sit-com producer, avid Democrat, founder of People For The American Way]
    (21) Lutheran Community Foundation [in 2013 made 2600 grants to over 3000 different charities, average grant about $4,000]
    (22) Manners Golden Rule Foundation [Salt Lake City, appears small, name suggests its mission]
    (23) Park Foundation [NY, Assets $268 million. Founded by wealthy owner of Park Communications Inc (22 radio stations, 11 television stations, and 144 publications). Average pay of 5 officers is $82,800 for 10 hours per week.
    (24) Quitiplas Foundation [foreign, incorporated in Wilmington, assets $9 million, unable to determine activities]
    (25) Robin Cash Fund [unable to find any information]
    (26) Roseben Fund [New York, entries associate Rosenben with “Jewish Response to Hunger” and The Center of Budget and Policy priorities
    (27) Schink-Knowles Family Fund [Appears oriented to public media, links to wealthy Silicon valley philanthropists]
    (28) Schuman Media Center [Founded by John Schumann, former president of General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and Florence Ford, who brought to the foundation wealth that she had inherited from her father, one of the founders of IBM. Robert F. Schumann is chairman and W. Ford Schumann is a VP. Grant recipients include The Nation.*
    (29) Susan and Ford Schumann Foundation [Wealthy heirs, see above, activities etc not publicly reported]
    (30) Toronto Education Worker’s Foundation [small, name fairly describes]
    (31) Wilcox Family Foundation [Wilcox is a retired senior executive of Accenture, LLP, the technology and outsourcing company. ]
    (32) William Harold Davis Foundation Inc. [NY, founded by a real-estate and developer tycoon, unable to determine size or activities]

49. I was banned from Common Dreams today for two posts. The thread I was on started talking about how we couldn’t post links on Common Dreams anymore and about the censorship there. I made the comment that I felt like I might be banned for up voting the against-censorship comments and that Common Dreams had admitted to deleting comments against Israel because one of their donors said they wouldn’t donate if comments against Israel were on the site. That meant Common Dreams was censoring any anti-Israel comments. Someone asked who was running the place and my second comment said the pro Israel terrorism encouragement group. Then I was banned. After posting there since 2006 and actually having no anti-israel agenda. I did say that I suspected Common Dreams would become a propaganda site and I meant a pro Israel one. I kind of knew it already is. It is. Point proved today.

50. Well, as of this date, CD has turned off commenting altogether. At least it is an “egalitarian” solution.

    A useful experiment will be if their editorial perspective gets worse with this action. My impression was that they changed a little, just a little bit under commenter pressure. We’ll see what happens.