community news service

Roper: FPF really means “For Progressive Favoritism”

By on • ( 13 Comments )
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Partisan platform Front Porch Forum should not receive public taxpayer subsidies.

This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com

By Rob Roper

Last week I read an article in VT Digger about Front Porch Forum, the Vermont community-based “classifieds” social media platform where one can get help finding a lost pet, advertise a lawn sale, sell that thing that’s been sitting in your basement for ten years, and ‘tis the season, play a little politics. In the Digger article, FPF’s founders, are cited boasting that FPF, “is a decidedly friendly online place where neighbors go to interact civilly with one another… and discuss local issues without resorting to personal attacks. The site is heavily moderated by real people who read each posting and filter out items that offend, incite or misinform.”

[A] “critical part of our model is that each member-submitted posting is reviewed by our professional staff before publication (which) is absolutely not how any other social media works.”

FPF enforces a strict set of rules in its online public square, including no personal attacks. “We’re not going to let people basically weaponize Front Porch Forum to do harm to our democracy, to our public health, things like that,” he said.

To which I thought, Huh! Really?

Then this weekend in my local Stowe FPF feed I was treated to an 800 word screed that included the following:

Let’s be honest, the Vermont Republican Party, Lamoille County’s included, have recently aligned themselves with MAGA, which does not represent Vermont & our shared community. At the same time, they are trying to present themselves as reasonable & measured, as recently seen in posts here on this Forum. This is intended to provide a permission structure for Vermonters to align with a party that despite what it frames as banal is radically out of touch with the Republican Party of the past & the people of Vermont in the present….

[T]his year they have aligned themselves with MAGA, which denies women’s bodily autonomy, threatens the foundations of our democracy & offers fear mongering without real solutions. They are co-conspirators with forces that threaten all the values they claim to believe in, which undermines the platform they extol.

Call me sensitive, but to my ear that was not what I’d call a “friendly,” civil interaction devoid of personal attacks. I would even go so far as to say it was intended to “offend, incite and misinform.” It’s also baloney, given, among other data points, that Vermont Republicans made ours the only state to give Trump’s opponent Nikki Haley a victory in the primary. Begging the question, what FPF employee reviewed this and decided it was okay to post given FPF’s stated standards and terms of use, and why?  If this is about free speech, okay! I’m on board. But that would mean Republicans are allowed the same leeway. Are they? Um…. No.

I will confess that this issue is somewhat personal to me as I have been asked by several communities and Republican committees to come give talks about the history, impacts, and potential future of the Clean Heat Standard (aka the Unaffordable Heat Act). The organizers of these events in Brandon, Ferrisburgh, Cambridge tried to advertise them on Front Porch Forum and were flat out denied. This was the boilerplate explanation:

Thanks for your inquiry. We decline to publish postings promoting events by this individual because the information presented has been identified as misleading. Please see FPF’s Terms of Use (provision 2.8). [2.8 You agree not to submit content that is false, deceptive, misleading, or misinformative.]

For current information on the Clean Heat Standard’s impact, please see VT Digger’s latest story on the topic.

Thanks for your understanding.

Best, -Janeane

First of all, the ads these good citizens were trying to post contained no deceptive or inflammatory content. They just stated the date, time, and place of my presentation along with a brief explanation/title of the subject. All true!

So, someone at FPF, with no knowledge of what the content of my presentation was going to be, made a – and dare I say defamatory – conclusion that what I would say would be false, etc. Who exactly “identified” the things I hadn’t said yet as “misleading” and on what basis? As readers of BTL know, I bring receipts from original source materials to back up every claim I make about these policies, and, not for nothing, the Public Utilities Commission’s recent conclusion that the Clean Heat Standard is too expensive, too complicated, ripe for fraud, and “not right for Vermont” rather vindicates the truth of everything I’ve been saying about this terrible policy for over three years.

FYI, here’s the presentation FPF refused to advertise.

The case could even be made that those who have disagreed with my conclusions about Act 18 were the ones spreading misinformation, and that the Digger article FPF referred to as some sort of gold standard was, in fact, “false, deceptive, misleading, or misinformative.”

Now, if Front Porch Forum were an entirely private organization, it would certainly be free to do and say, include and exclude, as it pleases. But since we the taxpayers of Vermont from all political persuasions contribute about a third of a million dollars from the state treasury each year to Front Porch Forum, I for one think it is highly inappropriate for them to be using public money to further partisan policy and political agendas.

Vermont taxpayers are under enough pressure as it is. We need to cut back on spending to reduce taxes, and every little bit counts. If Front Porch Forum can’t play fair, then cut their taxpayer funding out of the next state budget. They don’t deserve it. 

If you have an example of FPF’s political bias in your community, please share in the comments section, which I will open up to all subscribers for this post.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.

Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Categories: community news service

13 replies »

  1. I’M not a lawyer. Since all taxpayers of all political persuasion are contributing to this, is there any class action legal option to bring this to court? It’s a direct violation of the Constitution of our Republic.

    • FPF isn’t a non-profit 501 (c) 3 corporation. It’s a privately held Social Benefit Corporation. So, all taxpayers don’t contribute to it.

      On the other hand, FPF partners with Vermont Public. And Vermont Public is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 corporation, obligated to be politically non-partisan. And anyone who listens to Vermont Public knows it is anything but non-partisan.

      There is a process for filing a complaint against Vermont Public.
      https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

  2. Wednesday, last week in the Corinth/Topsham FPF was an attack piece on a GOP candidate running for Orange-1.

  3. I tried to post in South Hero FPF a reference to an article by Mr. Roper in Vt Chronicle regarding voting for the education tax and the Clear Heat Standard and was censored for no reason! I thought it was because the word “friggin” was in the title, so I tried four times to not include any wordage that might be labeled inflammatory, but was denied each time with no explanation. Now I know the real reason! This is not a forum where readers can make up their own minds, as it has now become apparent that all information is controlled through censorship! Pathetic!

  4. Filing with Vermont Secretary of State dated September 13, 2024 indicated they are a “domestic profit corporation” with a business purpose of “any legal purpose.” Registered as Front Porch Forum Inc. Perhaps why their annual report has no financials. If they are listed as corporation, should they have an EIN #?

  7. VT Socialist politicians need an outlet to spew their garbage and it seems VT Digger obliges and cut out all other points of view even if the comment was in the form of “Jack and Jill went up the Hill” on a great la-de-da day. Why waste time with Digger, they will dig their own graves. They publish against “Community Standards” being the truth.

  8. Well Rob, this probably explains why FPF declined to post a comment I submitted a few weeks ago. I reported on one of your postings on VDC comparing the imagined costs of the “Unaffordable heating bill” and the newly released in depth analysis of the Act’s potential costs. Apparently, my mistake was in citing your VDC comment in case anyone wanted to read it in full. FPF informed me that I could not include the citation. At the time I assumed they did not want to send support to another news source. More likely it was your name that triggered the rejection. So, I removed the citation and told readers to e-mail me for either a copy of your report or its source. Happily quite a few contacted me.

    vtbean

  9. FPF abhors any hint of conservative dialogue. They consider it misinformation because it may disagree with the ideals and political leanings of its governing folks. Their definition of political correctness is liberalism/progressivism.

    I stopped donating years ago. I did not realize they have Vermont budget funding. What is the dollar amount they receive? Thanks for the information.

  10. I was booted from FPF after challenging their condemning my questions to a candidate running for VT Rep…who was holding an informational session the next day. FPF said my use of “meritocracy” in point 4 was against their FPF Rule: 2.5 You agree not to submit content that intimidates, degrades or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, or disability; sexual orientation, gender identity or expression; or economic, housing, or immigration status.

    Here is my post:
    In anticipation of tomorrow’s event, I have come up with a starter list of questions for this candidate, or any candidate. I don’t think we will have time to address all, so I am posting here in advance for consideration.

    1) At 2023 Town Meetings in Halifax, Whitingham and Wilmington voters expressed to Rep. Roberts they largely were against H.5 which would absolutely increase our heating costs tremendously. At the Chamber of Commerce meeting this spring, the Representative admitted he voted for it despite it being largely against constituents wishes. This act strives to take away our choices for heating our homes by making propane, heating oil and wood extremely expensive, so we “choose” heat pumps operated with electricity. What is your view of this harmful act, and how would you vote on anything your constituents were clearly largely against?
    2) Do you understand Carbon Credits, and how they give the very wealthy an excuse to use whatever energy they use as they have climate controlled homes using heat and/or a/c 100% of the time, and hire private flights, etc. Please explain how this financial instrument works exactly and how it impacts Vermonters.
    3) How will you promote school vouchers and school choice so the money follows the child rather than the assigned schools? This way even home-schooled children would be funded, and public schools would have to compete for students or see decreased funding.
    4) What will you do to remove CRT and DEI from our schools? What will you do to remove DEI practices from State government and how will you promote meritocracy in its place?
    5) What will you do to reverse Vermont’s sanctuary state status which puts us all in danger of illegal actions?
    6) What will you do to decrease our property taxes and bring them to below 2020 rates?
    7) What will you do to reverse the 30 x 30 and 50 x 50 plan? This plan to make 30% of Vermont land conservation by 2030 and 50% by 2050 requires the unconstitutional act of forcing the sale of private land to the government. It also requires overriding local zoning laws. With 75% of Vermont land currently privately owned, there is no getting around this unconstitutional plan.
    8) How will you reverse requiring EV’s and shunning our vehicles of choice without penalty? How would you disengage us from California laws which is required to allow Vermonters buy and own vehicles of choice? Keep in mind that most Vermonters keep vehicles much longer than the life of these environmentally unfriendly EV batteries.
    9) How will you proceed to require identification to vote in Vermont for Federal, State and Local elections?
    10) What is your position on the Vermont DMV significantly increasing fees (effectively taxes) in 2024 even though it was determined that the agency did not need increased funding?
    11) Are you aware that as of this April Vermont was the #3-ranked state in Tax Burden on residents? The ranking will be worse once this year’s property tax increases are included in the calculation. How will you work to reduce this Tax Burden, and what ranking will you target?

    Thank you for your consideration.

    Whitingham and Halifax property tax payer.