Kenneth Bradford used to be a guide for About.com. But when they refused to allow him to post a holiday message supporting our troops, he resigned. Here's his story:

Our Military at Christmas:
I am a guide for About.com and during this holiday season, I thought it would be nice and very appropriate to post the following article on my site. The editors at About.com removed the article, stating that since it was not concerning Business Insurance, they could not allow it. I did my best to explain to the editors that I realized we could not post personal content on the site, but during this one season of the year, I thought it would be nice for the men and women of our armed forces, all over the world to know, publicly, that we appreciate all their sacrifice, whether it be in the topic of "Airplane Repair" or "Zebra Striping".

Here is the article I posted:

Without The Brave, There Would Be No Land Of The Free !
I just wanted to take time out from talking about business insurance and pause for a moment to thank all the brave men and women of our armed forces, who, so unselfishly each day, risk their very lives to see that we might remain free of the attacks from those who would cause us harm. May you all soon safely return home to your friends and family. Thank you for your sacrifice.

As we enjoy this holiday season and the special times we have to spend with our friends and loved ones, we must never forget those who are spending this season in far away lands, not enjoying a baby's first Christmas, a parent's last, or trimming the tree with their first love. On a personal note, my son is spending the holidays in Army basic training and my son-in-law is spending Christmas in Iraq, on his eighth deployment.

To all of you, I wish you a safe and happy holiday season and may the year ahead bring you the enjoyment of life you've only dreamed about.

The above article was censored and deleted from the site by About.com, what do you think ?

As a result of their actions, I resigned as a guide. About.com accepted my resignation to be effective January 10, 2007; however, they have already removed my name from the site and have locked me out of the site's administration area, which, except for the "off site" links is all my original work.

A copy of the original article showing exactly how it appeared (except much smaller) is attached.

If you have comments you would like to send to About.com, here is some contact info:

This article was designed with respect and dignity and all I ask is that you respect the intent by not using any profane language.

Caryn Solly, Senior Editor at About.com - csolly@about.com

Michael Daecher, Senior Vice President Content & Guide Operations - miked@about.com

Eric Hanson, Content Development Editor at About.com - gimail@about.com

About.com is part of the New York Times Company

New York TImes - Executive Editor - executive-editor@nytimes.com
New York Times - Managing Editor - managing-editor@nytimes.com

You can also go to any subject at http://www.about.com and post your comments, if you like.
You can also post comments to the Business Insurance site - just go to http://businessinsure.about.com and click on the
"Comments" link under any article.

You have my expressed permission to forward this message to everyone in your address book, whether it be - friends, family, church members, local newspaper, or organization members.


Thank you for your time and Happy Holidays.

If you are a present or former member of our armed forces, I extend to you my personal thanks for your service.

Ken Bradford


I didn't want to post this without checking a few things out. Indeed, the article has been removed from the About.com site, as has just about anything else concerning Mr. Bradford - not entirely surprising, if he no longer works for them. But what about his claim? I contacted About.com and the New York Times for their comments. Here is the only response I received:

Hi Pam,

Thanks for your question regarding Ken Bradford's article on the U.S. forces serving in Iraq.
Mr. Bradford's article was removed from the Business Insurance GuideSite, pursuant to a longstanding policy which requires content on a GuideSite to directly pertain to that site's focus, which in this particular case is business insurance.

About.com and The New York Times have a strong commitment to our troops in Iraq and the removal of the article was not a reflection on About.com's or The New York Times's position on the War.

In fact, we are publishing information to help our readers support the troops on the About US Military site (http://usmilitary.about.com/od/deploymentsconflicts/a/militarysupport.htm). We are disappointed by Mr. Bradford's resignation over the matter, but wish him the best.

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Daecher
Senior Vice President Content & Guide Operations



So what do you think of all this? For my money, in one post a year, it isn't going to compromise About.com's integrity to allow a simple holiday message of support for the troops. Yes, they have a policy, and are entitled to do so. However, allowing a slight modification of that policy, for this type of post, shouldn't be all that difficult. And given their association with the New York Times, doesn't this create an impression of being just one more way the NYT (and everything associated with it) advances its anti-war agenda?

Perhaps I'm just biased where the NYT is involved, but I can't help but wonder...