Just so you know… The Washington Post is a tad annoyed with all of you…

Comments Turned Off

As of 4:15 p.m. ET today, we have shut off comments on this blog indefinitely.

At its inception, the purpose of this blog was to open a dialogue about this site, the events of the day, the journalism of The Washington Post Company and other related issues. Among the things that we knew would be part of that discussion would be the news and opinion coming from the pages of The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com. We knew a lot of that discussion would be critical in nature. And we were fine with that. Great journalism companies need feedback from readers to stay sharp.

But there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech. Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being. It's a shame that it's come to this. Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it's a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about.

Blah…blah…blah… It seems the new Ombudsman at the Post is a tad miffed too…

Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell has reportedly posted a comment on the Post's internal message board announcing that she has learned the following "lesson" from exchanges with Media Matters for America: "From now on, I don't reply." Howell's language did not make clear whether she meant that she would no longer reply to any criticism, or only to that registered by Media Matters.

...

The "attack" to which Howell is apparently referring is a Media Matters item in which we quoted Howell's January 10 email to us, at her request. Howell claimed in that email that she had previously said that Post reporter Dafna Linzer "was giving the administration's point of view" in her January 4 article. In fact, Howell had previously said that Linzer "was simply giving the administration's point of view as well as others." But with regard to the claim in question, Linzer had not provided the point of view of "others" in her article -- an omission that constitutes the original basis of the entire dispute...

How…uncivil…for Media Matters to tell the Post’s Ombudsman that making lame excuses for slipshod reporting isn’t her job. Meanwhile, over at CNN, they’ve hired yet another right wing talk radio gutter crawler to host a show on their flagship Headline New Service…

On the January 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck called anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan "a pretty big prostitute," later amending, at the behest of his executive producer, Steve "Stu" Burguiere, that "tragedy pimp" would be "the most accurate description."

Beck referenced Sheehan during what he called a "search for the biggest prostitute," which, he said, sought to answer the question, "Who'll do anything for power or money?" The game initially pitted former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss against Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and suspended Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.

Beck, who claims that his radio show is "ranked as the 3rd most listened to talk show in America among Adults 25-54," was recently hired to host his own program on CNN Headline News.

Take a look at the photo of this guy on the Media Matters site and tell me he doesn’t look like the stereotypical schoolyard bully…the kind that is always threatening the smaller weaker kids for their lunch money, or shoving their faces into their locker doors and laughing.

And just the other day, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews (aka “Tweety” as he is affectionately known in the blog world), had himself a Brokeback Mountain moment with that prince of the talk radio gutter, Don Imus:

MATTHEWS (1/18/06): Have you gone to see it yet? I've seen everything else but that. I just...

IMUS: No, I haven't seen it. Why would I want to see that?

MATTHEWS: I don't know. No opinion on that. I haven't seen it either, so...

IMUS: So they were...it was out when I was in New Mexico and...it doesn't resonate with real cowboys who I know.

MATTHEWS: Yeah...

IMUS: But then, maybe there's stuff going on on the ranch that I don't know about. Not on my ranch, but you know...

MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who's on 570 in DC, who shares a station with you at least, he calls it [laughter]...what's he call it?...he calls it Bare-back Mount-ing. That's his name for the movie.

IMUS: Of course, Bernard calls it Fudgepack Mountain...

Just in case all you kids out there have forgotten…here’s a wee refresher on The Wonderful Michael Savage…

NEW YORK (AP) - MSNBC on Monday fired Michael Savage for anti-gay comments.

The popular radio talk show host who did a weekend TV show for the cable channel referred to an unidentified caller to his show Saturday as a "sodomite" and said he should "get AIDS and die."

"His comments were extremely inappropriate and the decision was an easy one," MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said.

But it was eminently typical of Savage, who well before MSNBC waved that fat juicy talk show slot in front of him, had bought himself a reputation as a screaming bigot who said gays are perverts, immigrants are from “Turd World Nations” and Asians are “little soy eaters”. A year after being fired, Savage was heard to say that “radical homosexuals” and “radical Islamists” are “one and the same, they’re all terrorists.” How…wonderful.

Fudge packers. Tragedy pimps. Civil discourse. Without the commercial news media, where would it be? We bloggers should be ashamed of ourselves. Just…ashamed…