Courtesy of another forum I belong to that has a Current Events section, one of the McCain supporters there posted something from 'American Thinker' yesterday that puts DailyKos in the crosshairs of 'The Democratic Attack on Sarah Palin.'
Here is the link:
Follow me after the fold to my explanation to my fellow forum members, introducing them to what DailyKos is and isn't, making use of the handy dandy Kosopedia and FAQ:
Here is a money quote from the American Thinker article:
As usual, the DailyKos has been in the forefront of the attacks on Palin. Many of the more despicable attacks, such as the story that it was Palin's daughter Bristol who gave birth to Trig, have been removed from DailyKos' site -- not because they were inaccurate (which they were), but because they were becoming embarrassing to DailyKos and its owner and chief propagandist, Markos Moulitsas.
But DailyKos still has 51 lines of attack against Governor Palin up on their website, and to show you how depraved the mainstream media has become, many of them have been embraced by outlets such as CNN (embracing Kos Attack #4).
And here is what I wrote about DKos. Comments, criticism, and discussion on the article or on what to tell others who are ignorant of DailyKos and its purposes, sources,and role in the Democratic Presidential campaign are welcome.
As a member and diarist on DailyKos it might be worthwhile to note that it is a blog site. Individual members are welcome to post under a 'free speech' platform as long as the posts are substantive and provide some reference to politics. It is admittedly progressive-leaning. Here's some helpful information from the DKos FAQ:
Who posts here?
The quick answer is "anyone who wants to". There are a wide variety of people writing diaries and comments on dkos. They include elected politicians, candidates hoping to become elected politicians, experts in a range of fields, and active bloggers from around the net. The vast majority of writers, however, are ordinary citizens interested in talking about and participating in the political process. The majority of people posting here fall on the liberal side of the US political spectrum, however people of conservative views are welcome to come and debate. If you are polite, you will be treated politely. Unfortunately, there are some people who post comments or diaries with the sole purpose of provoking others. These people are called trolls. Some tips and techniques for dealing with trolls are described below.
The only one who 'speaks for' DailyKos is Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. He has contributing editors who can represent DKOS on certain issues, but the buck stops with Markos. So unless Markos wrote it, it is not DKOS's responsibility.
It is sort of like, say, (my forum's) blog section. Unless our site administrator wrote it, it does not represent our forum. People here are allowed to post in their blogs under the rubric of 'No Personal attacks'.
To accuse DKOS, and by this you would mean its owner, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, of representing or of planning, some concerted attack by way of a diarist in a personal blog, would be the equivalent of accusing our administrator of all of the various rantings and ravings in the blogs found on our forum.
Silly, isn't it?
As far as the Bristol Palin 'babygate' controversy on DKOS, one of the diarists, since identified as a troll (we all know here on our forum what THOSE are!) posted a diary with photos taken from Palin's official website of her family. Within about 8 hours of that diary being posted, it was taken off the recommended list and then removed by the moderators as definite troll material. Most of the comments on that diary were calls by other members of the community for the diarist to remove them.
The diarist had no posting history to speak of, and it is now speculated that he was planted by person or persons unknown, to draw fire and to raise havoc on the site. Does any of this sound familiar? Sure it does.
Markos went on CNN over the weekend and was asked about the Babygate diary and his comment was that he does not personally attempt to shut down discussions or blogs by individual members, but a certain amount of 'troll control' is done. Since he is not personally responsible for the views expressed on DKOS, he felt that the actions taken were appropriate for the situation.
So that should fill everyone in on the 'big DKOS conspiracy.' There isn't one. It's anybody posting whatever they like, and sometimes, chaos ensues. Just like any other blog in the blogosphere.
Update: 11:30 PM - Thank you for all the comments. I don't know what threshold of recs it takes to get on the rec list but I do appreciate all of the feedback and discussion - this is my first diary with any substantive discussion on it, and I just wanted to let you all know I really feel like a member of the community now after 6 months or so. I have learned so much, and am proud to be a KOSSACK!