Satire Piece Gets Me Banned on the SF Chronicle Site.
It appears that the San Francisco Chronicle has no room for satire in their space for public comments. This became clear when my account got banned for posting the satirical phrase, “BART…and you’re dead” beneath a story about the killing of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) commuter Oscar Grant. As I noted in an earlier post, the phrase is a play off of the BART advertisement “BART…and you’re there.” In my original SFgate.com post I had initially included a link the image in my blog post – I soon learned this was in violation of their “no posting of direct image links”. So, I reposted with simply the phrase “BART…and you’re dead.” I was quickly banned.
My emails to them asking for explanation have gone unanswered. I can only imagine that they think they may be liable for my playing off of a trademarked (is it?) phrase. My gawd! What has this society come to when you can’t make fun of corporate symbols and sayings?! Especially when it is in such direct context. What upsets me more is if you read many of the comments that go untouched by the SF Chronicle editors you get the feeling that you are reading a Fox News web page. Did Fox News purchase the SF Chronicle? A majority of comments left are about how people like Oscar Grant deserve what they got because they are “smelly low-lifes”. I guess it boils down to this, I don’t see how a thoughtful piece of satirical shenanigans is worse than mean-spirited, reactionary and often racist nonsense. Oh well, I guess that’s why I don’t subscribe to the Chronicle and suggest you don’t either.
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