How to Annoy a Liberal

The answer is: Tell him or her the truth.

In this case, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist named Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times found it necessary to remove my comments on his Golden State/LA Times blog. He states:

As commenters to this blog--and especially to my recent posts on partisan criticism of the press--are well aware, my policy on comments has always been exceedingly tolerant. Comments have been welcomed and have been unmoderated, even when the opinions they express are immoderate. Throughout this week, I have seen fit to delete almost no comments on a topic that has provoked intense and sometimes quite emotional reaction on all sides.

One commenter has now queered this setup for everybody. Despite my polite request to him to cease posting inappropriately, he has continued to do so. Therefore, comments to this blog will be moderated, by me, hopefully temporarily. My intention is not to block comments simply because they're critical, even when they're pointed and, in my opinion, wrong. The purpose is merely to keep one particular user from fouling the whole pond. (You know who you are.)

My crime in this case was to state the declining circulation figures at his employer, the LA Times, as an indicator of reader discontent. As a public service, I reminded Hiltzik and his blog readers that the LA Times' circulation declined 6.5% in 2005, which if applied to current circulation levels, would mean a drop in subscribers from 907,000 to 849,000 in 2006. Sobering numbers, especially for a business writer like Mr. Hiltzik.

What triggered all this was the yearly review of the LA Times from a blogger named Patterico, who has for years pointed out the liberal bias of the once-proud newspaper. When it came out late last month, I read Patterico's detailed and compelling analysis of the LA Times' biased news coverage in 2005, and then thought little of it since I don't read the LA Times very often. Then, I read the transcript of an interview of Mr. Hiltzik by radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, where Hiltzik had a meltdown on the air, and basically couldn't admit that he's a liberal that voted for John Kerry.

I went back to Patterico's blog, and found reporter Hiltzik's response to the critique of the LA Times. Mr. Hiltzik came out with guns blazing, comparing Patterico (real name: Patrick Frey) to Stalin and basically calling anyone who supported Patterico's criticisms "brain dead" and "ignorant". Since I believe Patterico's assertions, that makes me a neanderthal in Mr. Hiltzik's eyes.

So I went back to Mr. Hiltzik's site yesterday and today, and pointed out his employer's declining circulation in a few comments as an indication of increasing reader dissatisfication. Soon thereafter, either Mr. Hiltzik or his blog moderator decided to remove my posts without warning, and then posted the statement on comments above. Contrary to his assertion, I received no warnings on the inappropriateness of my posts.

The moral of the story is that liberals despise the fact that ordinary people such as Patrick Frey and yours truly can challenge the biased newscoverage of the major media with facts and evewitnesses, and can make our voices heard to those willing to listen to reason. Through the fine work of Patterico and Hugh Hewitt, we can observe the hypocritical liberal in action, as he attempts to squelch our opinions through name-calling and outright censorship.

To conclude, I leave you with a quote from the late civil-rights activist Stokely Carmichael: "What the liberal really wants is to bring about change which will not in any way endanger his position. Now that I realize how phony they all were, how I hate myself for it."

That, my friends, is a perfect description of the modus operandi of one liberal named Michael Hiltzik, reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

UPDATE: I just received the following message from Michael Hiltzik.

"As you know, my comment thread is open to a wide range of opinion, not all of it complimentary. But I draw the line at comments like yours that are too stupid to countenance. There's a difference between my column and my blog; the column is off for another week. The blog, obviously, is open. You want to make a sensible, intelligent comment, fine. But don't fabricate a lie, and don't try to give me orders about what can and can't be posted. I'm sending this to you as a courtesy and hope you will take it as such; as you know, I've left all your other posts intact."

Simply pathetic.