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Chris Quinn's Fundamental Misinterpretation of Free Speech

  • Writer: Fred
    Fred
  • 20 hours ago
  • 3 min read

Chris Quinn, the editor over at cleveland.com, came out and reversed his position in regards to the comments section at his website.


Too late, asshole.


Oops, (supposedly) that's the reason he eliminated the comments section back in 2020.


Now, because it's my website, I can slip up and curse every once in a while for effect, but Chris Quinn is fundamentally correct in this aspect: You should not be able to use anonymity to call people names on his website.


Let's be clear though, the website Quinn runs is cleveland.com, not Chris Quinn's Liberal Emporium. When Quinn banned comments in February of 2020, many newspapers, especially those in the Advance Local family, followed suit. There was instance after instance where my comments were disabled, not due to personal attacks, but due to differing opinions.


What was Quinn's rationale for banning comments?

According to AI: (Chris Quinn says using AI is okay now), comments were banned "citing persistent issues with hate speech, toxicity, and incivility."


Editor's Note: Screen shot from cleveland.com:



Now over 6 years years later, Quinn has reinstated comments. Again, according to AI:


  1. Paid Subscriptions: Only paying subscribers can comment.

  2. AI Moderation: Artificial intelligence blocks offensive words before they appear.

  3. No Anonymity: Users must register with their display names.

  4. Limited Topics: Comments are currently only allowed on sports articles.



7 Words You Can Never Say on Television (Extended Version)
7 Words You Can Never Say on Television (Extended Version)

Hmmm, I don't think I'm going to get a subscription until I know which words I can and can't say. Back in the old days, I got my content disabled for random reasons unrelated to verbiage.


But Chris Quinn is the poster child of the Liberal Elite, his take on free speech mirrors many on the Left. Here's our rebuttal:

  1. Only paid subscribers can comment? That's not free speech then, is it? That's pay to play.

  2. AI Moderates words before they appear? Then I want to see the bad word list in advance. I'm an adult, I don't think there's going to be any "new" words on that list.

  3. No Anonymity? No problem. My name is on the top of the blog. I have absolutely no problem with that policy.

  4. Limited Topics? You can say the Cleveland Browns suck (oops, sorry again, I meant to say 'not good'), the Browns are coming around, or you can say you're done with the Browns. Basically anything you have to say are derivatives of those 3 statements. Cleveland.com doesn't really want your opinion if it differs than theirs, they just want the clicks that drive the Sports Section.


Newspapers used to be about the public trust.

You can argue that newspapers used to be the gatekeepers of the community.

But now they are neither, whining about how everyone doesn't agree with their version of free speech or claiming that they can't exist without the shortcuts that AI provides.


And I want Chris Quinn to define what hate speech is. Everything Right of Center is not hate speech.


We define free speech in the depths of our website:



If he wants my money, he needs to show me his fence posts. I'm not trying to take his money.....


Wait, I take that back. If Chris Quinn PAYS ME, then I'll play by his rules.


I ain't payin' him shit.


(Oops. I mean, crap.)



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