The Guardian’s Comment is Free has published an article by the blogger Francisco Toro. One can get a sense of the prevailing mindset of those commenting on it, with remarks like, “I’m surprised that The Guardian has published such open and obvious propaganda. Are there no standards?”
Well, for the undefined Guardian supporters, it’s perfectly acceptable to receive a hefty dose of “news” about Hugo Chávez, whether from the propaganda agent Mark Weisbrot, the former KGB collaborator Richard Gott, or even the Stalinist Calvin Tucker.
But when you start calling them what they truly are, the moderators of that so-called “liberal” organization quickly switch to censorship mode. A case in point is Francisco Toro’s article. I posted the following comment, only to see it removed by a moderator without any explanation or preamble:
Let the European leftists enamored with Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez—and similarly infatuated with dictator Fidel Castro, Colombian narco-terrorists, Hamas, Stalin, etc.—tell Venezuelans what is best for them, because they know more.
I will not keep my broadness to provide a proper explanation as to why the comment violated the commenting rules and was deleted.
UPDATE 03/09/10 at 12:24 GMT: Not only did The Guardian fail to respond, both in the comments section and via email, but they also removed all traces of my first comment (as mentioned earlier) and deleted the content of the second comment, where I asked what rule my original comment supposedly violated. Censorship is alive and well at The Guardian.