Why Does Deadline Keep Censoring Hollywood in Toto?

At first, this reporter chalked it up to a glitch.

Your humble HiT founder has struggled with the site’s comments section of late. As a solopreneur, I write and edit stories, promote them on social media and oversee the behind-the-scenes operation.

Dammit, Jim, I’m a writer, not a tech guru.

That means some reader comments have slipped through the cracks, although recent modifications mean that should happen less. That’s both an explanation and an apology for those who have shared their two cents and didn’t see it on the site.

So when I posted some feedback at Deadline.com a few weeks back I wasn’t shocked that it didn’t make it to the site’s comments section. 

It happens.

Then again, the site appears to have a full complement of editors, reporters, and related employees. Deadline attracts dozens of comments per story, meaning they must have a system in place to ferret out the problematic posts.

Vulgarity, personal attacks, etc. Keep it classy, folks, an approach I try to follow here, too. HiT removes as much profanity as possible, hoping to keep the reading experience a PG:13 affair.

Yet my Deadline comments kept falling through the cracks. So I tried it again. And again.

Nothing.

Recently, I took a screen shot of my feedback to a story just before I hit the “post comment” button.

I waited for the comments to go live on the site. I refreshed the site several times over at least two days. I also used an Incognito browser just to make sure the issue wasn’t related to any web-based cookies.

Nothing.

I reached out to two of the site’s editors for help, sharing the screen shot posted above for clarity. Why is this happening? Is there an explanation? I’ll be writing about this shortly, I told them, but I wanted to give their team a chance to explain the issue.

I’m all for olive branches between the Left and Right.

No answer.

The comments in question are often critical of Deadline.com. So what? This site allows readers to hammer HiT as they please. Hate my reviews? Let me know about it.

Think my political posts are beyond the pale? Let your voice be heard.

Some comments are critical of HiT contributors (it’s rare, but it does happen). I feel uncomfortable posting them because I feel protective of HiT scribes, but I allow it. That’s the risk we all take by posting our views online.

Here’s hoping Deadline.com changes its policies moving forward. Criticism can be painful, but sometimes it suggests a better path forward.