Pete Hoekstra is taking a page out of the Chinese government’s book: censorship.
We posted a comment several hours ago on Pete Hoekstra’s Facebook wall with a link to our post regarding Hoekstra’s despicable, racially-charged television commercial which ran during today’s Super Bowl. Shortly thereafter, we noticed our comment and link was removed and the Facebook account was blocked from further comments.
We then logged in on an alternate Facebook account and posted two comments. The first stated that Hoekstra’s campaign was deleting negative comments, and the second contained another link to the post “Hoekstra Running Racially-Charged Super Bowl Ad.” We took this screenshot at approximately 4:18pm Pacific time when the second set of comments were still live. Notice there are a total of 68 comments in the thread regarding his Super Bowl commercial:
We continued monitoring the negative comments that were coming in at 3 or 4 to 1 ratio, and saw the comment count pass 100 comments before shifting attention away from the computer to watch a little bit of the Super Bowl. However, at 5:58pm Pacific time, we took a peek and noticed the comments down to 41:
What’s with the censorship, Pete?
We’ve made it very clear we don’t think Pete Hoekstra has the intellectual chops or the judgement to be the Governor of Michigan or a United States Senator, but it doesn’t take much to see the irony in practicing China-like censorship after getting negative feedback about his commercial chastising his Democrat opponent, Debbie Stabenow, of helping make China stronger.
By running the racially-insensitive television commercial, Pete Hoekstra showed tremendously poor judgement. His team’s actions of censoring negative comments on Facebook question his belief in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Thank you for this. On his Facebook wall, I posted a simple “Mr. Hoekstra please remove the video and shut down the ‘debbiespenditnow.com’ website,” and my comments were removed within 2-3 minutes. Pete Hoekstra clearly has fascistic tendencies and should not ever be allowed to serve in any branch of government in this country.
My comment, around the 110th, on “Pete Hoekstra, Politician” FB page was: “It scares me that you approved this ad”. I was censored, in America, by a government official. I then posted a letter on “Pete Hoekstra, Government Official”, FB page, which I expect to be gone by morning.
I haven’t seen the commercial, so I’m not defending it or him, but this Facebook “censorship” thing and questioning his belief in the first amendment seems like a stretch.
I’ve deleted offensive comments from my Facebook wall. Does that mean I believe in censorship? Not really – people can say whatever they want on their own page, but I reserve the right control the message on mine.
To look at it another way, would you accuse him of censorship if he refused to allow Debbie Stabenow campaign signs in his own front yard?
Hoekstra is not even a natural born American … he’s an unsuccessful state governor loser that can’t win doo doo on his own merits … he’s just another do nothing representative … we don’t need his kind in congress … we need people with integrity in legislature … In 2006 Hokémon made headlines by announcing at a press conference in the Capitol that weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq, and we all know how that lie turned out!!! We lost thousands of American lives because of Pete Hoekstra and others in his party lied about WMD’s in Iraq … I say send him back to Holland, if not, at least don’t vote for this jerk for Senate he has already done enough damage to OUR COUNTRY!!!
[...] but “probably just another level of the unfortunateness.”Accusations soon arose that the Hoekstra campaign was deleting critical comments from its Facebook page. A spokesman, meanwhile, insisted that the ad was satirical, and that its use of broken English was [...]
The ad is deceiving and offensive. It certainly is not just one politician that has helped us to lose our middle class and help to create one in China. This is a trend that began under the Bush Administration…our wealthy want to continue to get wealthier and have done that on the backs of our hard working Americans. You can’t blame China…blame yourselves!
[...] shortly arose that the Hoekstra debate was deletion vicious comments from a Facebook page. A spokesman, meanwhile, insisted that a ad was satirical, and that a use of damaged English was [...]
[...] issue of authorities censoring comments on public websites is not new. In fact, politicians are often caught up in these debates. But, it is my firm belief that it is never a smart PR move [...]
In response to Jonathan’s comment, I absolutely agree that we have every right to adjust our privacy settings and censor our personal FB pages as we please. However, when he creates a FB page as a political tool, such as “Congressman Pete Hoekstra Government Official” or “Pete Hoekstra, Politician” and specifically states the purpose is “About Representing Michigan’s 2nd District!”, and the privacy settings are public, he invites comments. Also, as a former Congressman and current Senate Candidate, he is, and should be, held to a higher standard re protecting citizen rights and listen to other opinions. As further proof that, to quote Jonathan, that ‘“censorship” thing and questioning his belief in the first amendment seems like a stretch.” I’ll share with you the reply I received from Mr. Hoekstra to my personal email concerning “that censorship thing”:
“Thank you for reaching out to my campaign. I always look forward to hearing from people all over Michigan. In addition to following my campaign by visiting my website, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook…Sincerely, Pete Hoekstra”.
Automatically generated or not, he again invites, and looks forward to hearing from constituents. Or so he says. BTW, the ad was just ignorant. The censorship is his more serious crime, in my opinion. So, no, it’s not a stretch.
Not only that Mr. Hoekstra’s ad clearly shows that he’s unamerican, but also he’s unchristian!