Opinion

Editorial: Blogger banned and Turtle Mountain Band

Thursday, May 17, 2007

"There are ways to criticize that make the subject of your criticism defensive, and ways that make him or her attentive instead. And when Rob Port went beyond documenting conditions he observed on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation to rip into the character of the people living there, he naturally drew lots of angry rather than thoughtful responses.

But there are effective and ineffective ways to respond to graceless attacks, too. And the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa's chosen response is ineffective. The band has banished blogger Port from the reservation as a result of his critical article, which appeared first on his sayanythingblog.com Web log and then in a political magazine, Herald staff writer Susanne Nadeau reported.

By doing so, the tribal council members have hurt their own cause, because they seem to be responding to a critic not by engaging or even disputing him but by putting their hands over their ears.

That's no way to help a culture and an economy grow."

Get the Story:
OUR OPINION : Overzealous blogger and council alike (The Grand Forks Herald 5/17)
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Relevant Links:
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians - http://www.tmbci.net