Haaretz To Charge Users To Submit Non-Left-Wing Comments

“Providing quality journalism is not cheap, and what Haaretz does costs money, too.”

Tel Aviv, June 6 – To maintain the ideological consistency of its online platform and to boost its struggling bottom line, the Haaretz newspaper’s web site will begin charging people who comment on articles in ways that do not match the hard-left, anti-Zionist, and anti-religious sensibilities the company desires to foster.

A notice on the site posted this morning (Monday) alerted users to the change in policy, which until now allowed all users to submit comments on most articles. According to the notice, as of July 1 Haaretz will require all users to register with a credit card number before being permitted access to the comments section below the articles. Users will not be charged if the content of their comments remains in keeping with the company’s editorial line and that of its writers Gideon Levi, Rogel Alpher, Amira Haas, and contributors such as Peter Beinart.

“Moderators already monitor comment submissions for abuse, inappropriate content, and other violations of the site’s policy,” explained the notice. “They will continue to serve in the same capacity, but the definition of policy violations has now expanded, and with it, their role in the process. The decisions of the moderating team are final, and there is no appeal.”

By instituting the new policy, publisher Amos Schocken said he aims to help the company back toward profitability. “Providing quality journalism every day is not cheap,” he explained. “And what Haaretz does costs money, too. Until now we have ignored a potential source of income. Essentially, anyone who is already willing to pay the subscription fees to gain access to our articles, and is not already hard-left liberal, displays a dedication to engaging with our content enough to pay for the privilege. Such people are much more likely to feel compelled to react with disagreement to the opinions and slant in our articles.”

“The seemingly nominal one-shekel-per-comment rate will seem minimal at first, but one comment invites responses, and each time the user submits non-hard-left content with the ‘Submit’ button, his account will be billed, resulting in significant revenue for this operation. We anticipate profitability within two months of launch.”

Schocken rejected the notion that the policy is discriminatory. “As any reader of Haaretz already knows, discrimination is only a problem when it affects liberals and the causes they champion,” he noted. “Since the so-called victims here are people whose political leanings disqualify them from victim status, such an accusation is ontologically meaningless.”