Refusing Censorship: Why I Stopped Blogging at Psychology Today
I was told to stop appearing to criticize Pharma in blog titles or subtitles because this would discourage drug companies from buying the ads that would be inserted in my blog posts.
2023 Introduction to my timely story of quiting as a Psychology Today blogger in 2012.
My last Skeptical Sleuth post at Psychology Today was on June 27, 2012. It was my last because the management of the website insisted on changing its title, as I describe in a PLOS Blogs Mind the Brain/Quick Thoughts post on July 10, 2012. That story follows this introduction.
I initially refused polite requests from Psychology Today’s management that I play nice, meaning that I voluntarily change the title of my blog. Someone kicked my rejection up the mysterious hierarchy of the magazine website. The indignation of whoever responded increased as we got higher up. Soon, their insistence was that I pre-submit all titles for someone’s prior approval before I post a blog. I was being bullied, but the management spokespersons told me that it was not personal. They told me that they wanted to keep me blogging at Psychology Today because they appreciated the level of my intellectual and scientific conten…