Reply #51: Yes I choked on the word "mainstream" too

[marions ghost]

which seems to give greater weight and legitimacy to corporate mass media over any other. Personally I take ALL sources of any kind with a lot of skepticism these days. If there are going to be approved websites to reference on DU, it would be helpful to provide a listing--at least as examples. We need to know clearly where DU admins stand. At the same time, it seems reasonable for the admins to require that posters not present pure speculation as fact, and to check over websites before posting (otherwise their topics could get moved or deleted). Since the moderators always have the nuclear (delete) option, it would seem to me that they have the means to control the situation entirely.

Re. the London terrorist acts, I would not like to see complete censorship on topics about that, even ones currently labelled 'conspiracy theories.' As someone said elsewhere in this thread, there is a severe erosion of public confidence in this country and much speculation that "comes from distrust and contempt." This DOES quite literally reflect the current crisis in media and govt in this country, a crisis which may not even be understood or appreciated by our British friends, as their media is not so severely hog-tied.

Maybe the best way to handle this is--as you have done--is to allow discussion on certain hot-button topics in a designated forum, rather than general forums. That way it's less likely to offend the sensitive or be taken for prevailing opinion. We live in turbulent times where much of what we thought was legitimate has been proven false. These issues are cropping up everywhere in our culture and deserve expression. But of course we must go with whatever decisions are made about this at DU. I hope that reasonable compromise can be reached.