Prichard Locks Us Out – Other Site Just Had Technical Glitches

On April 25th I alerted our readers that my comments were not being posted on two Kentucky education-focused Blogs. One was the Kentucky School News and Commentary Blog (KSN & C) hosted by Richard Day, and the other was the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence’s Blog.

At the time, I was not sure if this was due to technical problems or a conscious effort to censor my comments.

I now have answers.

Richard Day immediately and publicly confirmed that he indeed has some technical issues and in no way intended to block comments on the KSN & C site. We worked together to fix that issue, which now seems to be resolved.

I salute Richard for his open comment policy, which matches our policy here at the BluegrassPolicy Blog. We don’t censor posts, and we won’t remove them unless they engage in clearly objectionable things such as personal attacks or profanity. So, if your posts for some reason are not showing up here, please e-mail us at once, because the fastest way to know if something is technically wrong is if readers tell us, just as I did with the KSN & C site.

I also contacted the Prichard Blog master about the absence of my submitted comments there. I am sorry to report there was no technical issue. Prichard is intentionally not posting my comments and indicates, at this time, no intention of doing so in the future.

This means you can have no confidence in finding meaningful two-way discussions at Prichard. After all, if they censor my comments, they clearly can be doing that to others, as well.

So, here is an offer.

If Prichard writes about something but they won’t post your comment, bring it over here. If we don’t have a suitable Blog item already available where you can comment, e-mail us and we’ll create a new one so that both sides of the issue get a public airing. Keep it focused on the facts, rather than personal attacks, of course. While fact-based discussion is preferred, as mentioned above, we do include opinions of those who sharply disagree with us so long as they don’t become personal attacks or stray into profanity. After all, we think full interaction is what real blogging is all about. If it deals with Kentucky policy, and if you are blocked from discussing it elsewhere, then bring it here.

In closing, here is a tip of the hat to Richard Day. Goodness knows we don’t always agree with each other, but we both recognize the value in making full discussions available so that you, our readers, can make your own, informed decisions. That’s what real Blogging is all about.