At the tail end of the dozens of Reader Comments submitted about the traffic accident story from last Friday were a few suggestions that the Times no longer should allow people to voice their opinions online at the end of stories.
I completely disagree, and it would take a lot of convincing for me to believe otherwise. But Ill ask you anyway ... what do you think?
One person, whose comments werent posted online because they made an assumption of fault in the accident that cannot be published, said:
There is no reason that the Monroe Times should let people make comments online. There are eight pages worth of people fighting back and forth about this. ...
The reader then went on to defend the Times for publishing the story in the first place, but then said:
To the Monroe Times, you should really take this feature (comments) off of your Web site so people cannot do this anymore. Every time there is something posted in the paper, there are many pages of comments, and its just people fighting. Its stupid and it makes the newspaper look stupid.
Another submission, which was posted, said:
I think this kind of open forum is very destructive. I feel the Times should put at end to this type of forum. Just look in past postings of other articles, too. They usually end up in very negative and hurtful comments. This is of no help to anyone. And could even turn harmful in the hands of the wrong people.
Yes, the things people have to say often are negative, sometimes are hurtful and on rare occasion could be destructive. For better or worse, that is life. Americans have a freedom of expression that also covers words that are brilliant or instructional or uplifting or degrading or, yes, sometimes stupid.
While some of the comment threads have devolved into finger pointing, many of them also have included interesting, insightful discussions. Some of them include compliments and good news. Again, that is life.
I want our Reader Comments to reflect the diversity of life and opinions. Ill take the bad with the good. To me, silencing the publics voice on our Web site would go against everything we stand for as a newspaper, which includes informing the public and facilitating a community conversation.
Also, frankly, Reader Comments can be really interesting, and they bring visitors to our Web site each day. Im certainly not going to apologize for that.
Im going on vacation for next 10 days, but Ill still probably weigh in a time or two. Where were going, we dont have cell phone or long-distance phone service (thankfully!) but we do have wireless Internet access (hooray!). In the meantime, feel free to read other blog entries and comment on them.
See you in a while.
I completely disagree, and it would take a lot of convincing for me to believe otherwise. But Ill ask you anyway ... what do you think?
One person, whose comments werent posted online because they made an assumption of fault in the accident that cannot be published, said:
There is no reason that the Monroe Times should let people make comments online. There are eight pages worth of people fighting back and forth about this. ...
The reader then went on to defend the Times for publishing the story in the first place, but then said:
To the Monroe Times, you should really take this feature (comments) off of your Web site so people cannot do this anymore. Every time there is something posted in the paper, there are many pages of comments, and its just people fighting. Its stupid and it makes the newspaper look stupid.
Another submission, which was posted, said:
I think this kind of open forum is very destructive. I feel the Times should put at end to this type of forum. Just look in past postings of other articles, too. They usually end up in very negative and hurtful comments. This is of no help to anyone. And could even turn harmful in the hands of the wrong people.
Yes, the things people have to say often are negative, sometimes are hurtful and on rare occasion could be destructive. For better or worse, that is life. Americans have a freedom of expression that also covers words that are brilliant or instructional or uplifting or degrading or, yes, sometimes stupid.
While some of the comment threads have devolved into finger pointing, many of them also have included interesting, insightful discussions. Some of them include compliments and good news. Again, that is life.
I want our Reader Comments to reflect the diversity of life and opinions. Ill take the bad with the good. To me, silencing the publics voice on our Web site would go against everything we stand for as a newspaper, which includes informing the public and facilitating a community conversation.
Also, frankly, Reader Comments can be really interesting, and they bring visitors to our Web site each day. Im certainly not going to apologize for that.
Im going on vacation for next 10 days, but Ill still probably weigh in a time or two. Where were going, we dont have cell phone or long-distance phone service (thankfully!) but we do have wireless Internet access (hooray!). In the meantime, feel free to read other blog entries and comment on them.
See you in a while.
