Mooned and Gagged

Son of A Bigot Wes Pruden has announced a new policy concerning blogging by Moonie Times writers:

"Any staff member who sends an e-mail or written correspondence or posts an item to a blog or other electronic posting service must always avoid comments that would reflect adversely on The Washington Times generally or the staff member's professionalism."

Fran "the Klan" "the Man" Coombs denies the new policy has anything to do with Audrey Hudson's wackjob blog response to a Media Matters critique.

I'd say the memo had something to do with the racist ravings of Moonie Times reporter R.S. McCain on FreeRepublic, but that was more than three years ago and Pruden and Coombs no doubt think McCain's comments reflect positively on McCain's professionalism.

Dear Pruden also says that "[a]t a minimum, editorializing about a topic or person can reveal an employee's personal biases, if he or she has any." McCain's bias in favor of burning crosses was certainly revealed by his blatherings at Freeperville.

The question now: Will Pruden allow McCain to maintain his site in light of this new directive, or will the site disappear? If it remains, it must have the blessing of Pruden and Coombs.

Alternative scenario: Somebody at the Moonie Times posted some dirt about the One True Pappy in a blog's comments section, and the paper tracked the comment back to a Times computer.