WTAJ has been among the most trusted names in local news for the people in, and around, Central Pennsylvania, since long before I was even born.
More recently, they were the first outlet to cover the story about the avowed ISIS supporter, running for Altoona, Pennsylvania City Council, as a Christian, Conservative, pro-life, Trump Republican, after I wrote about it, here, on the Daily Kos, first, of course..
The story was, then, picked up by, local newspaper, the Altoona Mirror; and WTAJ's version ended up trending on Google, that weekend.
There was even a really sad, chopped up, regurgitation of my original post about it, run by some outlet called, People of Lancaster, which included the interview WTAJ did with Samantha Paule, after my having hand delivered the story to them.. (Although, I admit, I do wish I had thought of that stupid, "Tealiban," thing..)
Anyway, I'm not here to talk about that story (although, that entire situation is, horrifyingly, still in limbo--as Paule, defiantly, refuses to bow out of her race, and many people are still supporting her..
Instead, I'd like to bring to people's attention the fact that WTAJ--or, more accurately, whomever is running the WTAJ social media account(s)--has been censoring people of a certain... non-Trump-supporting mindset..
For hours, on the day they ran the Samantha Paule story, comment after comment, from people trying to repudiate the twelve minute stream of, "alternative facts," which was her interview, just kept disappearing. In some instances, people would keep reposting--thinking there must have been some kind of glitch--only to see their new comment, also, removed, within minutes.
To be clear, these weren't people trying to harass, or threaten, anyone. Most of them weren't even profane. They were dozens of normal comments, from regular people--terrified at the thought of an, admitted, ISIS supporter making her way, unopposed, into their city government--who, simply, wanted to say, "What she just said isn't true; and this is how I know.."
I, actually, messaged the WTAJ account, to ask the person running it why they were, selectively, deleting so many comments. Perhaps, needless to say, I received no answer. The person behind the account just opted to leave my message on, "seen," and, apparently, declined to respond.. Seems a little iffy, for a legitimate, and long-standing, news outlet, but whatever..
Today, however, I went to their page to search for an article a friend had posted about, and discovered all of my means of interacting with the page, and their posts, had been disabled.
Again, I messaged the account, to try to find out what was going on, and discovered my messages can't even be delivered, because they've blocked me.
The main local news outlet, for my hometown, blocked me on Facebook. I've never harassed people. I've never threatened anyone. I make a point to never even, directly, call anyone, "stupid," (admittedly, not because I, actually, feel bad; but, because I don't want Facebook to ban me).
And, over the course of the evening, I've been contacted by other people, who claim to have, also, been blocked by WTAJ for nothing beyond sharing their Liberal views on subject matter covered in the stories the station has posted.
One person told me he was blocked for commenting that the school district should rethink the way they handle bullying, by, basically, teaching non-violent deescalation techniques..
Meanwhile, people, who the outlet chooses to leave alone, are free to spew a neverending cacophony of fake news, hate speech, threats, and targeted harassment--seemingly, as long as it's directed at Liberals, and people who support Liberal policies…
Just what you want to see from your local, "trusted," news source. I mean, how do you trust your local news, when, it appears they want to control, even, what they see as, the visible public response to the stories they run??
And this isn't even a Sinclair station!
Wednesday, Jun 5, 2019 · 2:47:16 PM +00:00 · paulszebin
I got an email from WTAJ today, claiming they, "aren't aware," of any blocking, and that I shouldn't be having any issues.
Oh, ok! I guess I'm just stupid, everyone else is lying, and I faked the screenshots demonstrating the fact that I am, indeed, blocked, by my hometown's local news network.
Because, I'm sure whoever is blocking Liberals for no reason so totally going to broadcast that they're doing to their bosses..