Donor Money Scrubs Websites

[dreissig]

One way money can influence elections is by hiring public relations firms to scrub the web of links unfavorable to the candidate. DU unwittingly facilitates the dominance of money in political life by insisting that controversial claims be supported by currently-working hyperlinks. When a link to a website breaks, posts become "orphaned", i.e., they lack their authenticating link and are subject to challenge by another DU member.

I use some websites for the factual basis of opinions that evolve over time. Suppose I've been reading Salon.Com and they drop their political links? Then, any of my DU posts that link to Salon.Com can be challenged as unsupportable, my thread halted, and I'm given a warning about posting without links.

Seems like a formula for tyranny of the minority! The very wealthy Bush campaign will be delighted.

[AP]

1. I really don't understand what you're talking about.

Perhaps you can solve your problem and paste a few paragraphs from the articles you're linking, and, voila, money is magically removed from politics.

[overground1]

2. that conspiracy is way too complicated for me.

Vote HAMM.

[Eric J in MN]

3. try this

Download the full article, post a few paragraphs, and if someone wants to see the full article, email it to him or her.

[JCMach1]

4. BLOG the important parts

that's what I do.

It's my own little database of information.

[SoCalDem]

5. Lots of links "break" because of the passage of time

There may be some "scrubbing", but I think most of it comes from sites OF the politicians, which they CAN control.:shrug: