After several e-mails the Times Union finally got back to me about their decision to remove my blog from their feed. This is what Bill Blotzfeild, Jax.com editor said:
Oh and the Times Union never covered the original story in the first place, something numerous other papers did. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/gov-scott-wont-attend-his-three-day-education-summit/2138554
Hello Chris,
The RSS feeds we pull in are automated and in no way censored so we have to count on any RSS feed provider we feature to adhere to our user agreement, which in my opinion, you did not do.
So in his opinion I violated the user agreement. To refresh your memory I commented about some controversial remarks Gary Chartrand said at a recent education summit. Chartrand talked about Florida’s values and how we should avoid controversial subjects like homosexuality. I proposed Mr. Chartrand would feel better if gays stayed in the closet.
You can read the blog here: http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-gary-chartrand-homophobic-too-union.html
To be honest gay rights is not a subject I cover on my blog. I wouldn’t have then either except Gary Chartrand is the chair of the state board of education. I however have been connected to the TU for the better part of three years, over 4000 posts and 82,000 links and none of them got me kicked off.
Which means the one time I write about our leaders anti-gay rhetoric gets me kicked off the site. The piece in question according to them violated their user agreement. I seems to me that the Times Union or at least Mr. Blotzfield would prefer gays stayed in the closet too.
I think this is what they're banging on about--I copied it from their User Agreement on their website:
ReplyDeleteBy using Jacksonville.com you agree not to post or transmit any defamatory, abusive, obscene, threatening or illegal material, or any other material that infringes on the ability of others to enjoy Jacksonville.com or that infringes on the rights of others. We retain the right to revoke the access privileges of anyone who we believe has violated any of these terms or any other term of this agreement. Although Jacksonville.com cannot monitor all the postings in the chat rooms, forums, and other public areas, we reserve the right (but assume no obligation) to delete, move, or edit any postings that come to our attention that we consider unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or other reasons.
I'm guessing they decided your post was defamatory about Chartrand, although in reality, (just a hunch on my part), like Facebook, they take it down if someone complains, and the blogger has to justify putting it back up.