JetBlue wants YearlyKos to remove all images and references

[JaJae]

So apparently Bill O'Rielly did a piece on his show about JetBlue sponsoring YearlyKos and giving 10 free plane tickets to the event. O'Rielly essentially brought up the "Screw them" comments and many other controversial things Kos and other leading front page posters have written in the past. Based on this public pressure JetBlue requested YearlyKos to remove all affiliations with them and just take their donations in silence. Their response was that since they only donated 10 passes and they're not a political organization, they don't see the need to be on their sponsor's list and cordially asked to be removed.

Kos immediately shot back on his website to write a hit piece on JetBlue, but as is not uncommon (despite the Kos fanfare) he later decided to delete the story: Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Go figure. He later revised an published a different article here.

Now in all honesty I can see why Jet Blue wouldn't want to be on this sponsor's list:



etc

It's mostly political organizations, basically every organization funded by George Soros is present. I can understand how they would want to stay as neutral as they can on the issue after their involvement in the event goes widely public.

However, I see nothing wrong with them donating the passes to this event. I don't think they did anything wrong and they shouldn't try to hide their donations. They gave to the cause as they have given to conservative causes.

[RMNIXON]

"Update: Oh, and JetBlue advertises with Fox."


I think Kos means more than just pathetic basement trolls will see their Ad campaigns!

[motivez]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

"Update: Oh, and JetBlue advertises with Fox."


I think Kos means more than just pathetic basement trolls will see their Ad campaigns!

More like, they have no problem advertising with people who have true hate speech on their airtime

[RMNIXON]

Unemployed hippies may write a whole lot of e-mail, but I doubt they buy that many Airline tickets?

[motivez]

Yeah, because Daily Kos readers are all "unemployed hippies"?

I'd suggest you actually do some research on the makeup of that community before making such pathetic and foolish, unfounded stereotypical statements.

[Thorgrim]

You're wrong

He didn't take posts from front pagers, infact he took the opposite of many recommended diaries and front page posts, and went and found, in all probability, GOP trolls who sign up to say junk on the website and then point it out to the media

For example, there was a highly recommended diary in support of Tony Snow...nowhere did I see anyone say anything bad about tony snow...but using the power of google and checking out millions of comments, they found one random user who wrote a bad comment about tony stow, and used it

I'd think you of all people would understand, would you ever want the worst or most hateful posts on this site to be attached to your resume? That's completely unfair, its an open site...same thing with DailyKos

They didn't use front page stories, they used obscure comments who could have been all made by BillO himself

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

As much as Fox going after Jet Blue for this annoys me, I can't help but admit that Jet Blue asked for it. It doesn't make any marketing sense to associate yourself with partisan sites when there are so many apolitical sites that can achieve the same end.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

As much as Fox going after Jet Blue for this annoys me, I can't help but admit that Jet Blue asked for it. It doesn't make any marketing sense to associate yourself with partisan sites when there are so many apolitical sites that can achieve the same end.

I disagree. I think it's great that corporations are supporting the netroots and assisting in the political game. From what I've read JetBlue is pretty balanced with their donations so alls fair. I think Bill O'Rielly is crying wolf here and needs to shutup.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by JaJae

I disagree. I think it's great that corporations are supporting the netroots and assisting in the political game. From what I've read JetBlue is pretty balanced with their donations so alls fair. I think Bill O'Rielly is crying wolf here and needs to shutup.

But the high likelihood of a Bill O'Reilly going on a witch hunt means this was a bone headed idea for whoever thought of it. If I had a company vulnerable to the criticism of O'Reilly, like Jet Blue, I'd fire my marketing guy for taking this kind of stupid risk. Of course, it'd be another matter if the CEO thought about all this beforehand and was prepared to defend his advertising choices. But obviously that wasn't what happened here. The CEO looked suprised as hell and apologized in short order. To me that means the CEO probably had no idea this was going on, and in all likelihood the marketing guy is a liberal who decided to use his job to help out Kos.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

But the high likelihood of a Bill O'Reilly going on a witch hunt means this was a bone headed idea for whoever thought of it. If I had a company vulnerable to the criticism of O'Reilly, like Jet Blue, I'd fire my marketing guy for taking this kind of stupid risk. Of course, it'd be another matter if the CEO thought about all this beforehand and was prepared to defend his advertising choices. But obviously that wasn't what happened here. The CEO looked suprised as hell and apologized in short order. To me that means the CEO probably had no idea this was going on, and in all likelihood the marketing guy is a liberal who decided to use his job to help out Kos.

They really shot themselves in the foot on this one, every major presidential candidate is going to be at YearlyKos, and the Democratic leadership, etc...

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by motivez

Yeah, because Daily Kos readers are all "unemployed hippies"?

I'd suggest you actually do some research on the makeup of that community before making such pathetic and foolish, unfounded stereotypical statements.

Have you done the same with your claim about Hate speech coming from Fox News?

[motivez]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

Have you done the same with your claim about Hate speech coming from Fox News?

Ann Coulter.

'nuff said.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by motivez

Ann Coulter.

'nuff said.

She has been a "guest" in many media markets. A google of her name and CNN gave me 1,630,000 Hits. Hit number two is Media Matters complaining about it:



Media Matters - Why does CNN continue to host Ann Coulter?

[motivez]

And that negates nothing I've said

[JaJae]

Well it appears Kos himself appears to finally recognize the trash that has been posted on his site and has decided to take a stand against it. Based on his "screw them" comment I don't see him moderating much of the filth, but at least he's recognizing it takes place and essentially admitting that the charges against his site have some merit and need to be addressed.

Yes, there's the impeachment stuff, but this nasty rhetoric is also rampant in the primary war diaries.
This points to a serious breakdown not just on civility, but in the ability of people to properly debate various issues. As such, it presents a serious threat to the integrity of this site.

This is my one and only warning on the matter. I'll try to be an optimist and hope that this is the last time I'll have to address it. I won't let this site become as nasty as your typical usenet forum, and those who encourage that sort of environment should consider themselves duly warned.

As a site, we strive to provide a safe haven for debate on these matters without it getting -- as has happened of late -- so damn ugly.

Daily Kos: "With us or against us"

I wonder if any of this has to do with his other sponsors contacting him about the bad press his site has been receiving and having their picture up on their sponsors list. I'd bet my two cents he's appeasing here and not giving in to O'Rielly.

[Thorgrim]

He's actually refering mostly to people viciously attacking each other as either "idiots for not being pragmatic" or the other side "selling your soul to special interests"

It doesn't happen often or by large inside the community, but it's such a large community things like this happen

Notice he didn't say "there have been some more racist/sexist comments" or "there have been a note of hateful comments towards certain non-ideological groups of people"

To the whole JetBlue/BillO thing, they did a great job at highlighting tons of hateful comments from BillOs website

[motivez]

I think that has more to do with the fact that people have been posting increasingly alarmist diaries regarding impeachment, rather than the JetBlue thing

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by motivez

I think that has more to do with the fact that people have been posting increasingly alarmist diaries regarding impeachment, rather than the JetBlue thing

Yes, it's gotten rather annoying, and I think Markos wants the site to return to its roots of Democrats being elected and reforming the party...not a site solely dedicated to impeaching Bush

[JaJae]

I think it goes well beyond the impeachment and conspiracy theories. I think it also has to do with a lot of the recent posts and blogs they've been deleting that have been overly vicious, anti-military, etc. Things that hurt the reputation of the site.

The timing is too convenient for it to be about the bullshit conspiracy theories and stuff. That stuff has been going rampant for years.

He clearly says: yea there's the impeachment stuff, but it's the nasty rhetoric.. that points to a serious breakdown on civility that causes a serious threat to the integrity of the site. Seems to me he's clearly stating the primary issue at hand, albeit a little off-hand.

Originally Posted by Kos

Yes, there's the impeachment stuff, but this nasty rhetoric is also rampant in the primary war diaries.
This points to a serious breakdown not just on civility, but in the ability of people to properly debate various issues. As such, it presents a serious threat to the integrity of this site.

I'm going by the watered down explanation that he gave.