Digital Dicks

Or should this post be titled "Digital D****"?

The Flint Journal's online forums, which regularly feature overtly racist commentary and right-wing blather that would make the founding fathers wonder where America went wrong, apparently has a problem with the word "dick."

It seems the Journal's screening system is automatically filtering out the word, even when it's someone's actual name, not the slang that was oh so popular on Delmar Street when I was growing up.

That means comments from readers about Dick Cheney get automatically removed. (If only that were true for the real Dick Cheney.) And it means references to Flint Super Chief Richard Dicks also get deleted. (And please, no jokes about someone being named Dick Dicks. That man has suffered enough. Grow up!)

The whole unfortunate situation prompted this post from Matt Bach, the community conversation producer for the Journal. (How'd you like to have that for your job title? I guess if you've got a job in Flint, you don' t quibble.):

"It's not me. I'd let the word go through when it's someone's name. In fact, I regularly grab those posts where Dix is used and publish them. We're trying to get it changed so that the screening system doesn't remove them. We're part of a larger network so it takes some time to get things changed. But please know, we're working on it. It also removes any posts with VP Richard Cheney's abbreviated first name if you were to use that."