Radio Host Hosed by Facebook. The Risk & Reward of Social Media.

hurley wpg radio
Social Media. Friend or Foe for Local Media?

Local newspaper, broadcast and business beware. Over-reliance on social media like Facebook & Twitter could be hazardous to your health…of your business, that is. Just ask award-winning radio host, Harry Hurley. LISTEN BELOW >


Known locally as the Mayor in the Morning, Hurley is the popular conservative talker on WPG Talk Radio, a part of TownSquare Media in South Jersey. In addition to his daily 4-hour show, social media is another way that Harry easily….and cheaply… stays connected with listeners, friends and family. So when the veteran broadcaster discovered his Facebook account was suspended on Friday Aug. 19, it was like somebody pulled the plug on WPG’s radio transmitter. Hurley’s online voice was quickly silenced. Just like that.

UPDATE: After 4 days of persistent appeals and badgering, Hurley’s Facebook page is back.

Why the Facebook suspension? Something to do with a conflicting and fake Hurley page, we’re told. FB claimed the radio personality was impersonating someone. Whereas the phony page… was created by a yet to be identified cyber-creep. When Hurley complained, the social media giant played it safe. Maybe too safe? Facebook pulled down both pages until further notice and took it’s time in trying to figure out who the ‘real’ Harry Hurley was. To be fair, Facebook probably has a huge back-log of this kinda stuff.

Will the real Harry Hurley please stand up.

Harry Hurley WPG

5,000 Facebook friends of Hurley got cut off from the man they call ‘Mayor of the Morning’.

Competitors may chuckle at the temporary squashing of a radio host or political pundit. But don’t laugh too hard. This FB take-down is another sobering example of perils that come with building a business, or growing a circle of friends using Facebook, Twitter or other free web services. (Digital Sharecropping)

See > The Dangers of Digital Sharecropping

Can Facebook legally delete a radio host’s personal FB page? Yes. As a free service, FB, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat can add, delete, suspend, warn, or punish users as they deem fit.

KEY TAKE AWAY: Don’t rely too much on free social media as a primary way of sharing info and keeping in touch. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Do conservative viewpoints face greater online scrutiny? Was the interruption / take down of Hurley’s Facebook page an honest mistake or something more?

Harry has sharp, anti-Hillary, conservative viewpoints. Could it make him a target for…shall we say… a little digital interruption? Conspiracy theorists might think so. It certainly is technically possible to disrupt a web-based megaphone.

Another pro-Trump influencer was recently silenced by a social media platform. It was the gay, conservative writer for Breitbart.com; Milo Yiannopoulos. The un-abashed, proudly offensive Milo was banned from Twitter on July 19, 2016 for alleged hate speech. The offensive tweet revolved around Milo’s negative review of the latest Ghostbusters movie. Yes, the flamboyant British journalist is a feelings-be-damned sh*t stirrer. But a purveyor of hate speech? Not sure about that one. Either way, Twitter didn’t like his vibe and banned him. ‘No worries’ says Milo. The ousted Yiannopoulos dusted himself off, and set up shop at his own website domain.

In yet another example of filtering / hiding content, Google has been accused of altering its search results. News reports have shown the Google search engine preventing searches for “Clinton body count” from auto-completing, despite the term auto-completing when typed in on virtually any other search engine (bing, yahoo). See More > Web giant caught censoring negative information

Pretty sure Hurley & Milo are busy re-thinking & upgrading their online communications tools / strategies / tactics. How about your media company or local business?

Need help in re-thinking your online strategy? Ready to build your own email database? Serious about hosting your own podcasts or hyper-local website? Reach out. Let’s see if we can help.

 

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