Fox Rejects Hillary Questions

Yesterday, I submitted a comment to Major Garrett of Fox News.  See http://look2thewest.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/my-questions-for-hillary/.

Incredibly, they were rejected.  Yes - it's true.  On some sites, comments are reviewed so they can be screened for various reasons.  Here's how they put it:

FOX News encourages you to participate in this discussion; however, comments that include unlawful, threatening, libelous, or obscene content will not be allowed. For this reason, please note that all comments are moderated and therefore may not appear immediately after submission. For more information, read our Terms of Use and Privacy Statement.

You can judge for yourself if anything I said was "unlawful, threatening, libelous, or obscene" - I think not.

The real reason that many of my comments are screened remains a mystery.  It's not simply along ideological grounds.   Obviously, any comments about Rwanda are screened from HillaryClinton.com.  But Rwanda comments are also screened from Obama web sites (Clinton's competition and an African-American leader) and, even leaning-conservative sites like Fox News.  I'm constructing an inventory of what is screened and where so I can solve the mystery.  Let me know your thoughts.

In any event, my initial comment to Major Garrett's interview was not posted so I re-submitted another version of my comment (below) that is shorter, and to the point, but still has the Rwanda elements.  I'll let you know what happens.

Major - Nice interview.  My sense is that Hillary 2008 is coming to a close and precious few interviews remain to ask substantive questions from reporters like yourself.  Below are some questions I would ask Hillary.

After the Holocaust, we promised “never again” at the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.  In 1994, over 50,000 blacks per week were butchered to death during the Rwanda Genocide.  To avoid our UN obligation, President Clinton tried to convince the world it wasn’t technically “genocide”.   Incredibly, the world believed President Clinton and, for 14 long weeks, the slaughter continued until over 800,000 blacks died. 

1. Senator Clinton - As someone who has fought for women and children for 35 years, why didn’t you speak out publicly against your husband when you saw the news footage of the Kagera River, red with the blood of victims and clogged with the bloated & hacked body parts of women and children?  You call yourself a feminist and yet you remained silent while hundreds of thousands of black women, young and old, were raped and mutilated.  Why did you remain silent?
2. Do you believe your husband’s apologies are enough given that over 800,000 blacks lost their lives on his watch?  Recent reports indicate your husband and V.P. Gore may have been aware as early as week three that a horrific genocide was happening, but did not acknowledge it publicly. 
3. By week three, the Hutus had slaughtered over 100,000 Tutsis.  When did you begin to think it was genocide?  If early on, why not speak out publicly to save lives?  If not until later, why should America trust you to be President if you failed to see such a significant human disaster was unfolding and that urgent action was needed? 

I know these questions are a little rough but the subject matter is rough.  I truly believe journalists have a solemn obligation to hold leaders accountable, even if questions are difficult.