[Imc-web] Inappropriate Post

[Mike Lehman]

I never really thought that I'd ever need to make a request like this of 
an Indymedia editor, at least if I wasn't at SF IMC or some other 
benighted IMC backwater, but I suppose there's a first for everything. 
In fact, I waited a couple of hours to write this, so that my comments 
here deal with the issues and not the pain I'm feeling over this.

One of the first unwritten principles of Indymedia is what we're here 
for: Indymedia exists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the 
comfortable. This can often be disconcerting, particularly when we see 
things that push our personal comfort envelope.

However...
I do NOT see the reason behind the need for a comment that suggests that 
regular users of UC IMC are engaged in writing fiction -- most 
especially one made by an editor of the site. We might as well leave the 
editing to the trolls if that is the best we can do. Even worse is to 
think that such a suggestion was important enough to rate being the 
subject of an article, in addition to the comment itself.

Wendy, I know you well enough to realize that you probably made these 
posts in jest. But in the context, just like the context of the story 
the comment was first associated with, it was monumentally insensitive. 
Are you really suggesting that the idea that the justice system in 
Champaign County, let alone Illinois or the US as a whole, is not 
afflicted by endemic racism? That such an idea is a fiction? Because it 
sure sounds like that is what you are referring to. I can't help but 
think that others, who perhaps don't know you as well, would jump to 
that conclusion. And I do NOT -- in fact -- will NOT defend that. Hell, 
we might as well hand editing over to the News-Gazette editorial staff 
as trouble ourselves with trying to offer any alternatives, no matter 
how imperfect they might be.

I realize you have a discomfort with some of Brian's reporting. I'd 
suggest that you either meet with him to discuss your issues or you 
refrain from further editing if you feel that such comments are in 
order. The state's attorney is a big girl -- she can defend herself. It 
is completely inappropriate for you to engage in activity which, if it 
had been anonymously posted, I would have dealt with for the obvious 
trolling it seems to be on the face of it, because holding the reporting 
of others, as well as what are surely the heartfelt comments of what 
appear to be regular users of the site up to contempt is simply 
unacceptable for an editor to engage in. It calls into question the 
judgment we all use, if you engage in such behavior.

I would feel much better about this if you removed both posts immediately.
Mike Lehman