WP
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The deluge, which overwhelmed the Web site's screening efforts, began after Howell wrote in a column published Sunday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties." That is incorrect. As Howell noted on Thursday morning in a short piece on Post.blog, Abramoff did not make direct contributions to Democrats but directed his lobbying clients to do so.
By then it was too late. Spurred in part by various liberal Web sites, readers had begun flooding Post.blog with comments, most of them criticizing Howell. Many of them used language unsuitable for a public forum. Unable to keep up with a stream of more than 1,500 postings, editors of the Web site decided to close it down until order could be restored.
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The critical postings appear to have been generated by a group of liberal Web sites that began criticizing Howell not long after her Sunday column appeared. This group includes MediaMatters.org, Dailykos.com, FireDogLake.blogspot.com and Atrios.blogspot.com, according to Jamison Foser, a senior adviser to Media Matters for America, which describes itself as a progressive media watchdog organization. The group is partially funded by insurance magnate Peter Lewis, a major contributor to Democratic candidates and party organizations.
"I certainly understand that readers can get out of hand," said Foser, whose own organization has dealt with a flood of virulent comments in the past. On the Media Matters Web site, he said, "we try to make clear the importance of dealing with substantive and not personal insults. Those kinds of comments are not encouraged by us and we do not approve of them."
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