[Lnc-business] Publishing links to candidate articles with some platform deviations

Tue Mar 27 15:14:09 EDT 2018

What if we just ask staff to include in the blog post a disclaimer of sorts
with any such link....acknowledging that there may be specific opinions
held by the candidate that are not 100% our own...?

Whitney

On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 1:36 PM, Wes Benedict <wes.benedict at lp.org> wrote:

> Dear LNC:
>
> I'm bringing this to your attention now, because it has not been an issue
> for several months, but likely will come up again soon given that we have
> lots of candidates and will be writing lots of blog entries about
> candidates this year.
>
> Staff works to publish articles that comply with the LNC Bylaws and Policy
> Manual. The Advertising Publications and Review Committee is tasked with
> ensuring publications comply.
>
> I'd like to point out that I think Staff and the APRC have had a pretty
> good working relationship for at least 3 years and perhaps even longer than
> that if I think about it. So, this is not meant as a complaint in general
> about the APRC, Staff, or the overall procedures. Most things are fine in
> that area, in my opinion. I just want to focus on one issue.
>
> Nevertheless, it should come as no surprise that various members of the
> APRC and various staff don't always agree with each other on what
> constitutes a violation.
>
> A particular area of uncertainty has been articles with coverage of
> candidates where the articles include some positions that violate platform.
>
> I'll use public schools as a hypothetical, and the article below from the
> imaginary "Alexandria Beach Times."
>
> ====start article====
>
> [Sentence 1] John Doe, Libertarian candidate for Congress, says he wants
> to cut taxes, cut spending, end the war on drugs, and bring our troops home
> from overseas.
>
> [Sentence 2] When asked about public education, John Doe says "I'd like to
> use some of the savings from those cuts to increase spending on public
> schools."
>
> ====end article====
>
> I think most of the APRC and Staff would feel it's okay to write a blog
> and to quote Sentence 1 of the article above. Most of the APRC and Staff
> would probably feel it's NOT okay to quote Sentence 2.
>
> The area of likely disagreement is whether or not we could include a link
> to the source article in our blog entry.
>
> If there was an article where 50% or more of the content about the
> Libertarian candidate had platform violations, probably most of us wouldn't
> want to publicize it.
>
> There can be a great article about one of our candidates where 90% of the
> coverage is positive, but if 10% of the article includes a platform
> violation, we maybe should not link to it, or maybe we should.
>
> I used public school spending as an example above, but all kinds of things
> have come up in the past, such as opposing legalization of hard drugs (or
> letting the states decide on that), the Fair Tax, welfare, some
> regulations, and so on.
>
> I would like direction from the LNC on whether or not it is okay to
> publish things like blogs that links with some positions that might violate
> the platform.
>
> Based on feedback, I might float a suggest amendment to the Policy Manual
> for you all to consider at the upcoming LNC meeting.
>
> I can work comfortably with whichever direction the LNC might go on this
> particular issue, but I think it's an important enough issue that has come
> up quite a bit in the past, that it should be considered by the LNC.
>
> If the LNC prefers to leave the decision up to the APRC, that is another
> option I'm comfortable with. In fact, I think that's the status quo right
> now, however, given recent changes in the APRC, I could not tell you how
> they'd rule on the above issue.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Wes Benedict, Executive Director
> Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
> 1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
> <https://maps.google.com/?q=1444+Duke+St.,+Alexandria,+VA+22314&entry=gmail&source=g>
> (202) 333-0008 ext. 232, wes.benedict at lp.org
> facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
> Join the Libertarian Party at: http://lp.org/membership
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
   What if we just ask staff to include in the blog post a disclaimer of
   sorts with any such link....acknowledging that there may be specific
   opinions held by the candidate that are not 100% our own...?
   Whitney

   On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 1:36 PM, Wes Benedict <[1]wes.benedict at lp.org>
   wrote:

     Dear LNC:
     I'm bringing this to your attention now, because it has not been an
     issue for several months, but likely will come up again soon given
     that we have lots of candidates and will be writing lots of blog
     entries about candidates this year.
     Staff works to publish articles that comply with the LNC Bylaws and
     Policy Manual. The Advertising Publications and Review Committee is
     tasked with ensuring publications comply.
     I'd like to point out that I think Staff and the APRC have had a
     pretty good working relationship for at least 3 years and perhaps
     even longer than that if I think about it. So, this is not meant as
     a complaint in general about the APRC, Staff, or the overall
     procedures. Most things are fine in that area, in my opinion. I just
     want to focus on one issue.
     Nevertheless, it should come as no surprise that various members of
     the APRC and various staff don't always agree with each other on
     what constitutes a violation.
     A particular area of uncertainty has been articles with coverage of
     candidates where the articles include some positions that violate
     platform.
     I'll use public schools as a hypothetical, and the article below
     from the imaginary "Alexandria Beach Times."
     ====start article====
     [Sentence 1] John Doe, Libertarian candidate for Congress, says he
     wants to cut taxes, cut spending, end the war on drugs, and bring
     our troops home from overseas.
     [Sentence 2] When asked about public education, John Doe says "I'd
     like to use some of the savings from those cuts to increase spending
     on public schools."
     ====end article====
     I think most of the APRC and Staff would feel it's okay to write a
     blog and to quote Sentence 1 of the article above. Most of the APRC
     and Staff would probably feel it's NOT okay to quote Sentence 2.
     The area of likely disagreement is whether or not we could include a
     link to the source article in our blog entry.
     If there was an article where 50% or more of the content about the
     Libertarian candidate had platform violations, probably most of us
     wouldn't want to publicize it.
     There can be a great article about one of our candidates where 90%
     of the coverage is positive, but if 10% of the article includes a
     platform violation, we maybe should not link to it, or maybe we
     should.
     I used public school spending as an example above, but all kinds of
     things have come up in the past, such as opposing legalization of
     hard drugs (or letting the states decide on that), the Fair Tax,
     welfare, some regulations, and so on.
     I would like direction from the LNC on whether or not it is okay to
     publish things like blogs that links with some positions that might
     violate the platform.
     Based on feedback, I might float a suggest amendment to the Policy
     Manual for you all to consider at the upcoming LNC meeting.
     I can work comfortably with whichever direction the LNC might go on
     this particular issue, but I think it's an important enough issue
     that has come up quite a bit in the past, that it should be
     considered by the LNC.
     If the LNC prefers to leave the decision up to the APRC, that is
     another option I'm comfortable with. In fact, I think that's the
     status quo right now, however, given recent changes in the APRC, I
     could not tell you how they'd rule on the above issue.
     Thanks,
     --
     Wes Benedict, Executive Director
     Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
     [2]1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
     [3](202) 333-0008 ext. 232, [4]wes.benedict at lp.org
     [5]facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
     Join the Libertarian Party at: [6]http://lp.org/membership

References

   1. mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org
   2. https://maps.google.com/?q=1444+Duke+St.,+Alexandria,+VA+22314&entry=gmail&source=g
   3. tel:(202) 333-0008 ext. 232
   4. mailto:wes.benedict at lp.org
   5. http://facebook.com/libertarians
   6. http://lp.org/membership