“Characterizing (Latin America) as hopelessly drifting away from US interests…underestimates the complexity of both Recent entries on Latin America's political shift to the left: Mexico's Elections: Out-Foxing the Left; Kirchner's "tilt to the left " unnerves the Bush administration; Latin America: Elections in Review (November 2005).
I have an opinion in reaction to this item, but I've been told by a fellow blogger and academician that the graduate student-owner/editor of this blog strictly controls all posts and that if they do not meet certain standards of "utility," they will be deleted.
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, this constitutes censorship of the most basic (and base) form--something blogosphere prides itself in not invoking, as do the mainstream media.
Quite bluntly, I do not wish to waste my time contributing to the blog if, indeed, my opinion may not be acceptable (either in political content and/or the level of language--obscenities, of course, not acceptable) to this blog's editor and therefore may be deleted or otherwise altered.
To the editor-owner: Please state--clearly and unambigously--your policy on what "usefulness" is and what will be "useful" and publishable on this blog. I am used to free-wheeling give-and-take, both in my classroom and in my academic publications; if I may not continue this life-long habit, I will not contribute to this blog.
Please advise.
Professor (International Business), WIU, Phoenix, Arizona
Dear "Professor",
ReplyDeleteAwhile back someone left a nasty post with personal attacks on this site, which we do not allow. That person also used language suspiciously like that in your comment. While we welcome any and all opinions, calling anyone names or insulting anyone is frankly beyond the scope of a reasonable academic discussion. As long as posts discuss the issue at hand and do not attack the poster, they are more than welcome. Just for the record, only one single non-robot (spam) post has ever been deleted from this blog since it was created in September, which hardly constitutes strict censorship.
Sincerely,
Taylor
Dear Ms. Kirk,
ReplyDeleteThe WIU professor (International Business, specializing in Latin America) is a real professional colleague and personal friend (so you needn't place his title in quote marks) to whom I had some months ago referred your site--as an interesting attempt to stay abreast of current Latin American affairs.
In the course of a conversation with him a couple days ago, I brought up your site again, mentioning your reaction to my admonition about commentators who possess (or exhibit) little background information. BTW, I mentioned the incident to him in the event he or any of his students might logon and venture commentary on your site--I didn't want them to suffer your reaction, in the event they offered blunt commentary that did not meet your approval.
Your present characterization ("a personal attack", "name calling," and "insulting") of my introductory comments to the lengthy Costa Rican analysis is especially worrisome, because it is vastly short of veracity--and you know it (it's unfortunate that I don't have a copy of what I wrote).
Evidently, you confuse criticism of those who comment and analyze without possessing (and/or exhibiting) some minimal knowledge of the subject they address.
Would you so characterize your professors who deign criticize their students who display sub-par performance on an examination or on an oral presentation? If so, then there surely is little or no real academic discourse taking place in those seminars. Such sensitive students wouldn't last long in my own classes.
As you know, I discovered your site several months ago and conveyed to you highly complimentary remarks about your efforts. But as a professional educator, that does not subordinate my right to offer constructive criticism without having it mischaracterized--simply because you were offended by the perfectly appropriate (if blunt) criticism I leveled at several commentators--on ANOTHER site no less.
I am taking the time to outline my concern, precisely because I thought I had correctly identified your site as academically sound and intellectually challenging--a considerable exception to the blogosphere. It is a shame to have made such an unnecessary issue out of academic honesty by introducing questionable grounds to justify censorship. I hope my time and words will encourage you to re-think your attitude. Best regards, Grant
Thanks for your comments Grant, and I repeat: any comments that do not include personal attacks will not be deleted. All others will of course remain on the site. Your original comment contained derogatory statements of a personal nature, and thus was removed.
ReplyDelete