Although members of the mainstream media, and our current president aren’t fond of blogs, I love them.  Blogs are a great source of information, and relevant opinions that keep us all informed.  Some blogs are full of outright lies, and uninformed opinions. Despite that, they’re still very helpful. They represent free thinking in an era where free speech is increasingly under attack from the mainstream information sources who are seeking to silence all of us regular people who want to express our opinions.

For about three years, I have been a regular reader at Consumerist.com.  Although I frequently disagree with a lot of the stories there, I have found their articles to be very informative.  It’s interesting to read the comments, and get a feel for what people really think about the issues.  I have always tried to add my own thoughts, and opinions if I feel strongly about something.  Often, my comments run counter to the feelings of the other readers.  I feel that a blunt expression of my thoughts and ideas is always the best policy.

In order to be able to comment at Consumerist, anyone who registers must first go through a trial period during which someone at Consumerist reads over the comments submitted, and then decides on the worthiness of those comments to be allowed to be visible on the website.

Screenshot of comment approval message.

While this policy isn’t unique to Consumerist, I know of no other blog that makes readers go through an ‘interview’ process whereby they must wait to be made worthy of participating.  By instituting this policy, Consumerist is essentially dictating what views can be expressed on their website.  While it is entirely their right to control the content on their website, this policy of holding comments for moderation, and later, banning readers for supposed offenses runs counter to what we the readers would expect from a website like Consumerist.com.  If you read their ‘About Us‘ page, you’ll get the impression that Consumerist.com is a great place for consumers to be informed about scams, and bad corporate behavior.  You won’t get the impression that the moderators will censor your ideas, and ban you when you express opinions that they don’t like.