Two days ago a NewsBusters reader alerted me to some missing comments on a February 26 blog post by Evening News anchor Katie Couric at CBSNews.com.:
When I first saw this post on Couric's website last night (around 10:30 PM ET), I thought it was great that there were *12 pages* of comments appended to her post -- with every single one criticizing her and Al Gore for being limousine liberals and attacking the mistakes in her post. But when I looked at it again today (11:00 AM ET), all the comments have disappeared.
CBS's Greg Kandra addressed concerns about the missing comments in this February 28 post to "Couric & Co.":
Notice anything missing from Katie's post on Al Gore?
Early this morning, we had about 170 comments there. (Thanks, Drudge.) But around 8:30 we started experiencing some technical glitches all over CBSNews.com. The system went down for a few hours while our crack team of computer mechanics put the web page up on cement blocks and looked under the hood. In the process, a lot of comments all over the web site went pfffffft (that's a technical term.)
Our apologies for the disruption. Everything is now back to normal. Feel free to flame away.
So that explains that. But apparently it's too late to re-post your comment, at least too late to post it to Couric's original post. Here's a note at the bottom of Couric's February 26 post, which of course lists no reader comments due to the CBS servers going "pfffffft.":
Comments Are Closed For This Story
Commenting closes 72 hours after this story was published.
If you would like to make a comment, you may:
comment on today's post(s) or e-mail Couric & Co.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Freedom of speech
March 2, 2007 - 11:08 ET by blackrain4xmasPffffft
Cinder blocks, indeed
March 2, 2007 - 11:19 ET by ecnirPAh, CBS. Still reaching out to red-state America with the imagery of putting the website up on cinder blocks to look under the hood. Why must CBS continue to torture us?
Just like that...poof...Prest
March 2, 2007 - 11:25 ET by bigtimerJust like that...poof...Presto!...just like a magic trick...gone into the land of dead air-space....like Couric.
cough cough (**bullshit***) c
March 2, 2007 - 11:32 ET by nicksmith112cough cough (**bullshit***) cough cough
CBS lies through its teeth.
March 2, 2007 - 11:56 ET by ScottyDogCBS lies through its teeth. Anybody that buys that story is naive.
CBS does this all the time, free speech at their website does not exist.
Is this Mexico or the USA
I can't know for sure if al
March 2, 2007 - 12:09 ET by Ken ShepherdI can't know for sure if all the comments were erased when their system went "pfffffft," but it does seem odd that all of them would be deleted.
There certainly are technical issues that can gum up any site, including ours, so I'm willing to give CBS the benefit of the doubt. And blocking comments 72 hours after a post might be an attempt to curtail porn spammers and the like.
That said it would have been nice of them to reopen the comments field for that post for maybe 24 hours or something.
I'm not much of a google-jo
March 2, 2007 - 12:24 ET by sarcasmoI'm not much of a google-jockey so I'm not close to lookin' for 'em, but there could be an archive on google or elsewhere containing the missing postings...
JMR
Well I'm just starting to rea
March 2, 2007 - 18:56 ET by AtheistRepublicanWell I'm just starting to really learn databases and such, and I don't know how they have their system set up, but it seems bizarre that comments were all lost.. its hard for me to imagine a technical glitch that would take out comments like that.. maybe a piece of code meant to take out individual posts went haywire or something, assuming they are using PHP and mySQL it wouldn't have taken a huge mistake, I think leaving out two or three words in a delete statement could do it, but I don't know why they would be changing that code at all. Actually if they are telling the truth I would really like to know what happened, could be very interesting to hear. I'll give them the benefit of a doubt that they don't deserve.
You think if I was to ask what happened in an email they would eloborate?
How much other information
March 2, 2007 - 19:59 ET by Mean Gene Dr. LoveHow much other information was lost?
Anyone with admin rights could've deleted the posts.
I'm sure they won't elaborate.
Gun Safety Tip #8: No matter how responsible he seems, never give your gun to a monkey. (www.imao.us)
There was a time when CBS DID
March 2, 2007 - 12:10 ET by FastEdThere was a time when CBS DIDN'T mean "Can't Buy Sanity". Now it seems to have become "Can't Blog Shortly", especially if you have a different view
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
The "backup" went PFFFFT also
March 2, 2007 - 12:20 ET by nicksmith112The "backup" went PFFFFT also????
Ridiculous!!!
I think OUR biggest problem i
March 2, 2007 - 12:33 ET by BrownCowI think OUR biggest problem is that we expect these news agencies (hehe I called them news, hehee) to have integrity. They don’t . . . . They don’t care . . . . no one will ever call them out because they have a strangle hold (great Nugent song) on the general American public. People seeking truth or questioning what they hear from MSM is not the majority. . . .Even Fox News is to busy covering Anna Nicole Smith’s state of rigor.
Sorry . . . morning vent . . . .
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem. -Ronald Reagan
Brown Cow Don't worry, they'r
March 2, 2007 - 13:08 ET by JayTeeBrown Cow Don't worry, they're gonna Bury nicole today....officially, she stayed out of the ground longer that Gerald Ford....and that was a long time.
At Times like these, it becomes more than just a Moral Obligation to express ones opinion, it becomes a Pleasure.
I hope she gets buried today
March 2, 2007 - 13:20 ET by bigtimerI hope she gets buried today along side her son...and rests in peace.
So we can get some.
I have never seen anything like these yammering excited reporters...Rita Cosby may take a breath now and throw in Greta too...enough already.
Don't forget that Florida jud
March 2, 2007 - 23:01 ET by dahliatraversDon't forget that Florida judge. His behavior should get him tossed from the bench. Embarassing doesn't being to describe.
With all the recovery technol
March 2, 2007 - 12:50 ET by Dan The Man 2With all the recovery technologies and backup techniques you would think a multi billion dollar organization like CBS would have better geeks manning the systems. Of course Im sure they went the way of the Rather original memos for Bush's service. Yep.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark. -- save my gun, shoot a liberal.
Dan...Actually, that would ha
March 2, 2007 - 12:54 ET by Clear thinkerDan...
Actually, that would have been a good excuse for them... CBS could have said the postings were forged and they had to keep them off the blog.
The liberal MSM has become an enemy of the USA.
It is without a doubt ANOTHER
March 2, 2007 - 13:23 ET by nicksmith112It is without a doubt ANOTHER CBS LIE!!!!
Ask Google about backups....They backup the WHOLE internet on a regular basis...lol
See BS
March 2, 2007 - 13:31 ET by Dave REarly this morning, we had about 170 comments there. (Thanks, Drudge.)
But around 8:30 we started experiencing some technical glitches all
over CBSNews.com............
So, you not only can tune in to the network to see BS, you can also see it on their website as well. At least they are consistent.
"Technical glitches?" Yeah, right.
I hate newspapermen.....I regard them as spies.....If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast. -Gen. William T. Sherman
Katie has a BLOG?
March 2, 2007 - 13:33 ET by Six String SpiffKatie has a blog..? Hmm... I must spend some time there. Maybe If I go over her place, she'll try and fix our relationship... $-)
Sure, I watch the MSM... Through a pair of crosshairs.
And Couric remains...LAST and LEAST
March 2, 2007 - 13:46 ET by Guy Arthur ThomasThis woman is as frail an ego as they come. Listen up FOX...all you need is a nightly evening newscast for your major network and you will take Katie from 3rd/last to 4th/last...what is Fox waiting for?
If you claim to be a conservative, please don't disgrace yourself and conservatism by thinking and arguing like a liberal. Go Rudy!
In the words of SNL's Churc
March 2, 2007 - 13:50 ET by Mean Gene Dr. LoveIn the words of SNL's Church Lady: "How conveeeeeeenient!"
Gun Safety Tip #8: No matter how responsible he seems, never give your gun to a monkey. (www.imao.us)
I know where all the commen
March 2, 2007 - 13:53 ET by Tim the EnchanterI know where all the comments went- Winston Smith archived them in the memory hole.
Sandy Berger stuffed them int
March 2, 2007 - 15:49 ET by alcatrazSandy Berger stuffed them into his socks...
LOL My dog ate my backup
March 2, 2007 - 16:06 ET by nicksmith112LOL
My dog ate my backup
Saved my comments to "Perky"..Interesting
March 2, 2007 - 15:13 ET by HG AbrahamsonIt is interesting that you use the sainted spotted owl as an example of noble scientific "consensus" verses evil moneygrubbers. Obviously, you and 200MM other Americans never heard the rest of that story. Sadly, the truth didn't fit the liberal agenda and was therefore not broadly covered. The decline of the spotted owl is being caused by the invasion of a far more efficient predator, the Eastern Barred Owl, not the loss of noble forest primeval. I only saw one article on the results of further study. It was in the Seattle Times on August 10, 2005. "Prospects bleak for spotted owl" By DAVID AMMONS
Quote "The barred owls migrated to the West from the Great Plains and prey on the food of the smaller birds, push them out of nesting areas, mate with them and even kill them. Their numbers are exploding, displacing spotted owls, which are in a steep decline, experts told the panel."
Moneygrubbers 1, Scientific "Consensus" 0.
How many loggers must lose their jobs over a mistake?
Link for those interested.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002430863_owls10m.html
If anyone, be it a company,
March 2, 2007 - 16:29 ET by DyneIf anyone, be it a company, government, etc. makes a big deal over "technical difficulties" or something normally considered trivial, then it's immediately obvious that they're covering something up.
This happened before I was born, but my US history teacher in school really got this through to me. For those who survived the Cold War, do you remember a national press release about a US "weather" plane that crashed somewhere within the USSR? Turns out it was a spy plane and he was captured.
"And [Moroni] called it the Title of Liberty" - Alma 46:13