Reply #38: I put it on the homepage.

[Skinner]

I feel that we handled the story appropriately, and I do not feel an apology is necessary. I believe that one reason why members come to this website so because they will learn almost *EVERYTHING* that is being discussed on on the Internet, including the rumors and other stuff that has not made it (or may never make it) into the mainstream media. Discussion forums are different from newspapers or magazines or TV news -- intelligent people should expect that not everything posted here is reliable. We believe a large number of our visitors are capable of making their own judgments about the reliability of the information they get here. You are not children, even if some of our members act like it sometimes.

But just to be sure, it is worth noting that when we posted both Jason Leopold stories on our homepage, we changed the titles to indicate that this was *the word of one guy*. In both cases, when we posted the articles on our homepage, we preceded the titles with the name "Jason Leopold" to indicate it was him talking. Check it out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/index.php?page=4

Title as posted on the forum: ROVE INFORMS WHITE HOUSE HE WILL BE INDICTED
Title as posted on DU homepage: Jason Leopold: Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted

Title as posted on the forum: KARL ROVE HAS BEEN INDICTED.
Title as posted on DU homepage: Jason Leopold: Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators

On that second one, I also took the fairly uncommon step of adding my own editoral comment: "At the moment, Truthout appears to be the only only media outlet reporting this. Time will tell if they are correct. --Skinner"

That editorial comment should have been a BIG RED FLAG to anyone reading the post that they needed to exercise their own judgment.

And, just for good measure, on Monday morning when there were reports that the White House was denying the report, we put that on the homepage too: Rove Indictment Report Denied (By White House)

On that one, I added another editorial comment: "Not taking sides here. But I figured I should put this on the homepage in the interests of keeping DUers informed. --Skinner"

Bottom line: People come here to get the stuff they can't get anywhere else. If you read a nugget of inside poop on DU that you don't read anywhere else, you really should be skeptical.