“I believe that civility and respect for the opinion of others is essential to the democratic process. I also believe in the Freedom of Speech.
Over the past 24 hours, I became aware of concerns that comments responding to my statement of support for traditional marriage were being deleted from this Facebook page because they disagreed with my stated position.
Our longstanding policy, on this and other social media sites, has been to delete inflammatory comments that include name-calling, vulgarity or comments personally insulting to others. It was my understanding that the comments which were deleted all met this standard.
On careful review, it appear that this was not always the case and some comments were being deleted simply because they expressed disagreement with my position. I regret that this occurred and sincerely apologize to all those who were affected.
I have instructed our staff to review our policy and develop a standard of conduct similar to that of other elected officials and news organizations in the days ahead. We will post that policy prominently on this site.
Hoosiers expect our public debate to be open and respectful and we will ever seek to live up to that standard. In agreement or disagreement, I respect the opinions and the freedoms of all the people of Indiana.”
Sincerely,
Governor Mike Pence
Friday, June 28, 2013
Governor Pence Issues Classy Apology for Staff's Deletions of Negative Comments on Facebook
More politicians would be wise to do what Governor Mike Pence does here - admit when you are wrong and apologize. People can be surprisingly forgiving when politicians are willing to admit they are human and make mistakes. Governor Pence initially stumbled in his response to the Facebook deletions, but today he hit the ball out of the park with a classy apology.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Pence is for discriminating against people he doesn't like or agree with, removes opinions that don't agree with his, and he's classy? I have no problem with calling a bigot a bigot, and he was lying when he said they only removed uncivil comments. He's a goddamn liar, and you're a goddamn fool. Keep YOUR religion out of MY life.
Sadie, I could see where your comment if made in this tone might be legitimately removed. A bit over the top, aren't we? By the way, you're attacking someone (me) who supports your cause.
I really doubt Pence was sitting at the computer on Facebook removing comments.
Pence's initial comment was made when the situation first broke out. He said he didn't know the facts about why the staff removed the comments until he investigated it further. I don't know why we should just believe that isn't true.
We have a politician who admitted making a mistake and apologizing. You know how rare that is? We ought to encourage that sort of thing.
Sadie, you might look up the term bigot in a dictionary.
Something like "a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices... especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance."
Seems to me that someone who insists on characterizing Governor Pence with a string of undeserved insults fits the dictionary definition of a bigot.
And by the way, I think that state and federal law should treat all spouses equally, I'm just not willing to call a union between two men or two women, marriage.
Sorry Paul, I was still upset from your abortion blog when I wrote that. I'm tired of men telling women what they should or shouldn't be able to do with their bodies and their doctors. The hypocrisy drives me insane. You are suppose to be the party of small government, yet you want to tell people who can marry and who can't, what women can do with their bodies, and what people are allowed to smoke and aren't allowed to smoke. The guy that said small government to Republicans means helping those in their small circle hit the nail on the head. I'm pro-life, I want the government out of mine.
I don't agree with Pence's position at all as we discussed the other day, but his apology was a very smart move on his part. It is very rare to hear a politician apologize, so that was very unusual and nice.
Post a Comment