Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and message board deletion - or censorship?

[Terezia V]

Oprah Winfrey is huge. Very rich, very powerful. She has placed her power behind Barack Obama's presidential candidacy.

Problem: Oprah's website hosted message board discussions. Many Oprah fans were NOT Obama fans and a lively debate ensued on the Oprah Winfrey message boards about the Obama candidacy. Many posters posted negative material about Barack Obama.

It appears that all of those many threads and discussions have been deleted from the Oprah Winfrey site, and posters are invited not to post new threads critical of Barack Obama.

Some posters call this censorship.

Is it censorship? The message boards belong to Oprah Winfrey. Oprah can do whatever she wants with those messages.

What do you think?
Surprised that some asked for links ... if you Google "Oprah Winfrey" and "message boards" you can find it. Anyway, here is a link:

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Were the deleted posts offensive? They were critical of Barack Obama. Some may find criticism of Barack Obama offensive.

In any case, they are gone now, and no new posts critical of Obama may appear, so you can't see them any more.


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[waeyeaw]

IT IS CENSORSHIP - everyone who wants to speak should be allowed. It is just that nobody wants to hurt anyones feelings.

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[Saxton Hardcastle]

you to post a link or prove everything that you have claimed and secondly its oprah's message board she can do whatever she wants, if you want critical message boards then you should start your own

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[crazy_crats]

It's an example of "free speech" as defined by the dnc:

It's only free if it supports the dnc.

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[Piper]

I think Oprah feels just because she has lots of money she can do whatever she wants, I used to be a fan until she became an Obama lover.
Vote for McCain in '08

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[His Divine Shadow]

Agree. You should stay out of the restaurant if you don't like what they serve. Those message boards are Oprah's house so you have to play by her rules. Free speech protections do not apply to private domains.

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[Alliekat]

I would have to ask the question--what was the content of the messages being posted? I would think that Oprah wouldn't want abusive language or wild acusations that have no basis in fact on her website. The website does belong to Oprah, but she started out as a journalist, so I would think that she would be the last person to censor comments unless they were totally offensive.

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[SMURF DOLL]

I would like to see some sources, please. That is interesting.

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[Nick B]

IT IS CENSORSHIP- which is very ironic because it is coming from somebody who never cared about politics enough before to vote in a primary since 1988.

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[monkey]

Oprah Winfrey, why would anyone put faith in anything she has to do with? I think ladies are finally seeing through her falseness.

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[India S.]

I agree with the fact that it is Oprah's website. Go on the Fox blog if you want to talk bad about Obama, Oprah doesnt have to support that kind of ignorant negativity if she chooses not too, (and I am happy for her that she is blocking it).

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[Slightly Dark Francis]

The First Amendment of the Constitution does not apply to privately owned websites, it would appear. Yahoo Answers does not allow freedom of speech either. I make no judgement as to whether this is right or not, it's simply a fact.

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