YES Censoring Affiliated Bloggers

As you all know, Yankees fans had varying opinions of the Rafael Soriano signing. Some liked it, some hate it, and some are taking a wait and see approach. Where you sit on that fence is not important right now. What is important is that TYU's Moshe Mandel reported earlier today that some bloggers weren't allowed to express those opinion freely:

Pinstriped Bible is directly affiliated with the YES Network, as the site is designed to look like the YES homepage and is frequently featured on the YES front page. A few hours after being posted, Steve Goldman’s post was suddenly pulled, only to reappear a number of hours later with a new title (Soriano Strengthens the Pen, But Do Dominoes Fall?) and a softened stance. A visit to the page shows the altered title and article, but the URL still contains the original title. I have the original article saved (available upon request), and the primary differences are a few sentences added in support of the deal, as well as the moving of a positive paragraph to the beginning of the article. When asked about the incident, Goldman declined to comment.

River Avenue Blues has a slightly weaker affiliation with YES, as they simply have a YES toolbar at the top of their page, but they too are featured on the YES website and in commercials that run on the YES network. After seeing what had happened to Goldman’s post, I kept an eye on RAB to try and see if something similar occurred. Sure enough, a few hours after their criticism of the signing, I noticed that the YES toolbar had disappeared. When I asked the guys at RAB about it, they declined to comment, and continue to do so. I am not sure when it returned, but I did notice that it was still missing at least 4 days after the signing. It is now back in place.

Geeez, I didn't know Joseph Goebbels worked for YES.

I wish I was surprised by this, but I'm really not. More disappointed than anything. Very lame move by the Yanks and YES.