By Michael Bielawski
A woman who says she was banned from the local social media website Front Porch Forum is voicing her concerns over alleged censorship and political bias.
It has been reported that the site took more than a third of a million dollars in public funds last summer, which calls into question FPF’s categorizing itself as a private media company as it pertains to free speech laws.
The woman is Wendy Wilton, she is no stranger to Vermont politics. A Republican, she served on the State Senate from 2005 to 2006, she was the GOP candidate for Vermont Treasurer in 2012, and she had been treasurer of the City of Rutland for several terms. She has numerous commentaries posted online.
In an email to VDC, she said when she tries to log in to FPF now it tells her, “You are attempting to log into a deactivated FPF account.” She wrote, “I assume I have been banned from FPF as a result of my submission.”
Her submission was itself a critique of FPF’s policies concerning what gets posted vs. what gets denied. She sent a copy to VDC.
“Most people I know in political circles are well aware of Front Porch Forum’s censorship double standard,” she wrote. “I have experienced it first-hand. Users are fully aware of how the moderation seems to work: It’s OK to demean people who lean center-right, even if they don’t post on the forum, but not OK to challenge those who express extremely liberal views.”
She continued that attempts to reason with the management have been fruitless.
“And don’t try to appeal your right to speak your mind and encourage your opinion to be published. Challenge too hard and they kick you out. Sorta like the way Twitter used to work, and Facebook still does to some degree.”
She cited a VDC story about the apparent censorship of a faith-oriented event while supporting a pro-Hamas rally as “the ultimate expression of FPF censorship”.
She questions how much user support the site will continue to garner if it keeps up these policies.
She wrote, “I also noticed that FPF is seeking donations to support its operation, yet the faith group above was willing to pay for advertising space. After the pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses, high-end donors are having second thoughts about funding their alma mater in news stories this week. I wonder how many FPF donors will continue to do so with censorship in place that favors opinions so far from the mainstream?”
She concludes, “Maybe the folks at FPF are happy as a far-left echo chamber and a garage sale marketplace, rather than a balanced community outlet to truly serve the public good. If so, perhaps FPF should change its name to something more truthful.”
Company took public money
Though officially a private company, FPF did take $361,500 in public funds via Federal Disaster Relief Funds. TechJamVt.com reported in September of last year “The Vermont Council on Rural Development has directed $300,000 in federal disaster relief funds from the Economic Development Administration to help upgrade Front Porch Forum’s capabilities.”
In a later report by Seven Days, the amount received was reported as $361,500.
According to CarnegieLibrary.org’s explanation of how 1st Amendment free speech laws work, it states that only a truly private company can refuse or censor content based on personal beliefs.
“The First Amendment only protects your speech from government censorship. It applies to federal, state, and local government actors. This is a broad category that includes not only lawmakers and elected officials, but also public schools and universities, courts, and police officers. It does not include private citizens, businesses, and organizations. This means … A private media company can refuse to publish or broadcast opinions it disagrees with.”
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Media
more public private partners/// every body sucking the dole/// the federal reserve needs to print more money to help with the bonding ////
Thank you very much for this article!
It’s great…..
If people had read Sheryl Atkisson and Yuri Bezmanov….this will not come as a complete surprise…..but if you haven’t this will be much to take at once.
https://choiceclips.whatfinger.com/2024/02/17/tucker-the-national-security-state-is-the-main-driver-of-censorship-and-election-interference-in-the-united-states/
Guy…you would do your readers a great service to feature this video….
Hope you all enjoy this. So much so concisely bringing it all together….
I can’t understand people’s obsession here with FPF, one of the lamest websites around. What I do understand is that W Bush made it so taxpayer dollars can be used to fund all sorts of stuff we don’t like. Don’t like taxpayer dollars going to FPF? That’s how I feel about my money going to charter schools. The Right made the rule, so suck it up buttercup.
Fixed: “That’s how I feel about my money going to Government schools.”
Fixed 2: It’s Front Fascist Forum. 🤣
I was just going to say the same thing. I would give ANYTHING for all my tax funds for “education” to actually go toward education and NONE of my tax funds to go to public schools. I’d like it to go exclusively to charter schools and home schoolers and religious schools and NO money for the indoctrination factories the US and Vermont call “schools,:
The real question Chris is how you would feel if you were barred from posting here? What if your voice was silenced? Mark me if I am wrong, but isn’t VDC a private enterprise that rely on donations? Which means the next time YOU log in, YOU may get a “trying to access a deleted account”. But we conservatives don’t do that. We believe everyone has a voice.
The real answer is I’d laugh and move on because I don’t come here for validation.Your “free speech” conservative line has me in stitches though. Are you not aware of Mothers of Liberty and the thousands of books nationwide that conservatives have banned? That news probably didn’t permeate the bubble.
Chris,
Banning evil pornography? You’re correct. Conservatives want to ban pornography propagated towards children. Chris, you’re merely replicating Satan’s manipulated language, from Genesis, which is what the Democrat party promotes – writ large – and sheep like you, regurgitate. Baaaa…
daughterofthegreenmountains,”Chris” is a troll.
Charter schools aren’t illegal. Obstruction of freedom of speech is. And the founding fathers made that rule.
So tired of seeing leftist sites intentionally misrepresenting Section 230 – it never provided any ability whatsoever to censor, nor could it.
Though there wasn’t anything funnier than my getting banned from FPF for remarking about freedom of speech. Kinda like real-life Monty Python. Pure slapstick.
Well, sue. You have nothing to loose but opposing cousels legal fees
If you ask around, W Bush and his father are not looked upon too kindly by any of the commentator who are in the know.
His father signed the Agenda 2030, one of the original pimps for the New World Order back in the 1990’s, in Rio. Many of us were duped.
You’ll find many did not want money going to churches either, which are no funding and helping illegals by the millions come across our boarders.
It’s giant grifting scheme…it’s unbelievable how big. All those big book advances…….bribes.
No, the uniparty made the rules, just like the stupid PAC’s….and the unlimited funding, they both wanted it desperately. The minority would clamor, we don’t want it, then when they were the majority….forgot to get rid of it. Convenient…
This Koolaid is not good for you, best you not drink all of it.
Facist Front Porch and Vt Digger are political operatives/lobbbists, hiding as non-profit unbiased press that doesn’t allow free speech on their platforms. Why wouldn’t you be upset about that?
Charter school policies aren’t breaking the law. FPF has no right to the money because it is in violation of law. Also, you are lying about its influence. It is on NPR.
If only we were a Constitutional Republic, we wouldn’t be paying personal taxes and there would be no FPF, NPR or PBS. 1871 and 1913 – the Republic was mortgaged and later incorporated. Over a century of lies and deception, led down a path to ruin by design – the owners care less about the left or right. Once the useful idiots are no longer useful, they will be left wondering what happened? Enjoy those Fed debt notes while you can! $34+ Trillion in debt equals worthless vapor paper.
They are not truly public any more. The standards will have to be hashed out.
It’s way worse than people realize.
They have everybody’s email addresses…..
They know what you think, they know how you vote, surely.
They allow incumbents to post for free, unfettered, unchallenged.
If you challenge local thought, or more accurately the NWO Pimps…you will be censored and removed. They have many ways of doing this. They have been doing this for almost a decade.
They keep us divided; they keep everybody in place.
They are unregistered lobbyists, government operatives, like Facebook, like VT Digger……They cannot survive without the government teat, they are but pawns.
Speaking of teat suckers, has anyone seen the x interview with Paul Dame???
If truth cannot see the light of day, nothing can change.
They grow stronger and richer by fear and lies.
Their biggest fear? Truth and love. It is their kryptonite.
First I would like to add I really think Paul Bean for having that interview. I was very surprised she allowed me to speak as long as I did and asked the questions I asked.. I admire him for granting me freedom of speech however that is something that guy page has done a very good job at.
Neil, I made quite a lengthy comment on that interview with Paul Dame…
I was amazed when Paul Dame claimed to be a conservative republican… I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dispute that…
I asked several questions that remain unanswered…
I hate to say it but our governor and the head of our GOP are taking us down a long dark path by denouncing president Trump and supporting Joe Biden…
Vermont has been sold out by the very people we vote for..
I apologize for typos
Front Pourch Forum, Burlington Free Press, VPR, MSNBC, and so on … they all are, or have become tools of the Left – we all know it – they are an inbred oddity and full of self-importance but really, influence no one.
Charles Russel, you’re quite mistaken. They have serious influence.
I agree Scott. Most people go there for information aka the uninformed voter who is easily manipulated by propaganda and too lazy and uninterested to actually read or did deeper into the issues of the day.
Our confiscated resources go to a plethora of recipients. We continue to squabble over who gets it an how much. This is the main enterprise of our government. Wouldn’t much of this go away if we returned these areas of interest to the citizens and collected less of their resources? Why have we relinquished so much of our pursuit of happiness to the commonweal?
Fascist Porch Forum. Quit that libby cesspool 3 years ago after my non-threating non-profanity posts questioning BLM were censored.
These clowns are awful and I can’t understand why anyone wastes their time with them.
Alex A., such censorship is grounds for stripping them of non-profit status.
FPF isn’t a non-profit 501(c)3. It’s a Vermont ‘public benefit corporation’. A wolf, in sheep’s clothing. Donations to FPF are not tax deductible.
Re: “Donations to FPF are not tax deductible.”
However, businesses that advertise on FPF may deduct those costs as advertising expenses from their taxable revenue. And, apparently, at least according to this article, Federal Disaster Relief Funds and grants from The Vermont Council on Rural Development and Economic Development Administration, have been awarded to FPF.
A legitimate strategy to counter Front Porch Forum’s bad behavior is to file a complaint with these organizations and contact advertisers to let them know your displeasure with FPF. In other words, give the advertisers the ‘Bud Lite’ treatment.
Wow, even your fellow Republicans see through you inaccuracies. Sad. So sad.
361k of complete fraud on taxpayers backs? That’s actually shocking. The list of Democrat fraud around covid and disaster relief is loooooooong but this company operates our of their mother’s basement, which was high n dry in Burlington the entire time. How could they possibly justify this payment? That’s easy, they have a monopoly currently and sensor/cancel any conservative views, therefore the Dems in charge just gave it to them. What a joke.
Front Porch Forum, and the public service organizations that place announcements on it, are discriminating against Vermonters with whom they and the crony FPF operator, Michael Wood-Lewis, disagree politically. In the last month alone, the local FPF for Putney, Westminster, and Rockingham, published various public service announcements – from Green Mountain Power announcing text alert apps, the Vermont Dept. of Health announcing Radon Gas testing, energy rebates from Efficiency Vermont, and a local legislator’s invitation to discuss current local political issues.
Not only are some of these announcements funded by Vermont taxpayers, the announced services are intended to inform and serve the public, regardless of their political persuasion. But Mr. Wood-Lewis, and those enabling him, are restricting the audience through political banning and censorship. Not only does this practice offend the Federal and State Constitutions, in some cases it presents a real and present danger to the taxpayers who would otherwise be able to take advantage of these announcements and who, indirectly at least, pay some of the fees FPF receives.
For example, if anyone in the Putney, Westminster, and Rockingham area learns that they have a Radon issue that affects their health, jeopardizes the sale of their house, or they purchase a house with a Radon problem that could have been mitigated by Vermont Dept. or Health testing services, the offended parties should consider suing FPF, and the agencies placing public service announcements on it, for damages and breach of contract.
The complainant “questions how much user support FFF will continue to garner if it keeps up these policies” of silencing critics.
Seriously?
What allows FFF to be a cash cow for its taxpayer-subsidized owner is a user base interested in one thing – buying their neighbors’ crap at garage sales.
Perish the thought that the forum’s owner has any interest whatsoever in lively political discussion.
His taxpayer-financed business is about promoting garage sales so he can afford to pay property taxes in one of Burlington’s priciest neighborhoods.
H. Jay Eshelman; Not to mention the quite illegal censorship of Christopher-Aaron Felker when he campaigned for local office.
No one is stopping anyone from reading fpf, just posting, so your argument is false.
speaking of the bush family/// are we talking /// skull and bones///skull and bones/// skull and bones ///do your research/// a new world order///
ops/// i forgot i was not duped/// this was well known back in the nineties///
c. i. a. all the way/// remember mena ark. drugs bill clinton/// study your history///
02/15/24
•
NEWS
Kennedy, CHD Win Injunction in Landmark Censorship Case Against Biden Administration
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21h
We are so thrilled about this and glad the judge mentioned all 12 of us and we know we can have a victory too with our lawsuit connected with this one. With Bobby in DC courts. . It’s a start. And a good one
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-chd-win-injunction-landmark-censorship-case-biden-administration/
I was kicked off FPF, too, in 2021. First, they censored several of my posts, and then when I stumbled upon their “content” policy–their censorship policy– and wrote a post about that and submitted it, they kicked me off. I had, obviously, very carefully read their “content” policy a number of times and there was nothing in it which my post violated. They just didn’t like what I had to say. I know others who have been kicked off, too. There are a lot of us! In case you are not familiar with it, there’s even a website one outraged person put together: http://www.frontporchflimflam.com
What FPF owner Michael Wood-Lewis needs is to be a defendant in a good old-fashioned lawsuit. For one thing, to compel him to return the $361,500 taxpayers gave him. He’s a little tyrant who is in desperate need of a legal lesson.
Since I am the only one here allowed on FPF, let me tell you Saturday’s topic posts:
Local handyman seeking odd jobs
New EV chargers coming downtown
Local Drag Queen Story Hour schedule
New abortion clinic opening on 7
I can’t believe the conservatives gave us football
FORUM: How can we make property taxes higher?
Free COVID vaccines with extra mind control
So what?
You ain’t tricking me with no free vaccine…..