Editor’s Note

I pulled a post here this evening, the first ever on We Love DC for content reasons. You might have seen it, it talked about the AIDS rate in the District of Columbia, news and media coverage of that rate, and it made some comments that I considered deeply harmful, ill-advised, and unacceptable to the level of quality that we try to hold ourselves to here at We Love DC.

If you were offended, either by the original piece, or by its disappearance, I apologize. If you want to talk about it, either here in the comments, or via email, I am absolutely glad to discuss it. My email is tom at we love dc dot com.

We’re serious about the AIDS epidemic, both here and abroad, and we’re serious about media criticism in a way that helps media grow and be held accountable for their writings. This post was serious about neither, and frankly represented some poor choices. That’s why I pulled it.

Tom Bridge

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.

6 thoughts on “Editor’s Note”

Thanks for the note, Tom.

Thanks, Tom. I commented on the original post and appreciate the concern you’ve shown over this.

Thanks, Tom. I hope WeLoveDC continues to cover public health issues in DC, even when they pertain to DC’s residents who may not read this blog.

I wonder what the author of the post thinks about your decision to pull it — if s/he realized that you were right, or if s/he thinks s/he’s being unfairly censored. In other words, I wonder if s/he learned anything from this experience.

Thank you for pulling the post and for posting this response. I hope Wayan will post his own apology as well.

I’m a fellow philosopher of technology that Tom consulted about the decision to pull the post. We weighed issues of transparency and ethics, what was right for the WeLoveDC community as well as the DC community at large.

While I was not privy to the content of the conversations, I know that there was discussion between Tom and the writer of the original post before the final decision was made, and it was not made lightly.

As Tom said, AIDs is a global health concern that doesn’t just affect people in remote lands, but our friends and family as well – maybe more than we were aware.

KatieT on March 15, 2009 at 10:27 pm said:

Thanks for the note, Tom.
JMS on March 15, 2009 at 11:03 pm said:

Thanks, Tom. I commented on the original post and appreciate the concern you’ve shown over this.
Caro on March 15, 2009 at 11:30 pm said:

Thanks, Tom. I hope WeLoveDC continues to cover public health issues in DC, even when they pertain to DC’s residents who may not read this blog.
Simon on March 16, 2009 at 10:22 am said:

I wonder what the author of the post thinks about your decision to pull it — if s/he realized that you were right, or if s/he thinks s/he’s being unfairly censored. In other words, I wonder if s/he learned anything from this experience.
Karli on March 16, 2009 at 1:38 pm said:

Thank you for pulling the post and for posting this response. I hope Wayan will post his own apology as well.
Lisa on March 16, 2009 at 1:52 pm said:

I’m a fellow philosopher of technology that Tom consulted about the decision to pull the post. We weighed issues of transparency and ethics, what was right for the WeLoveDC community as well as the DC community at large.

While I was not privy to the content of the conversations, I know that there was discussion between Tom and the writer of the original post before the final decision was made, and it was not made lightly.

As Tom said, AIDs is a global health concern that doesn’t just affect people in remote lands, but our friends and family as well – maybe more than we were aware.