Please, No More Hateful Comments
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Washington Post is taking steps to curtail online commentary from anonymous bloggers that is particularly abusive. They have no intention of stopping anonymous bloggers from posting, just a more careful moderating. Online commentary is important, it draws attention to the issues of the day and provides a forum for the public to express their views.
However; some anonymous comments serve no purpose but to convey hate. Andrew Alexander cites the following examples:
"Excellent!" exulted a Post commenter when conservative columnist Robert Novak died in August. "Hope he suffered."
When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died a week later, a commenter wrote: "They are going to have to bury him in a secret location to stop people from defecating on his grave."
And after The Post reported last month that the wife and daughter of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been badly injured when their car was hit by a tractor-trailer, a commenter applauded: "I would dearly LOVE to shake the hand of the driver of the other vehicle."
The Post would implement a system of tiers where some bloggers would be considered "trusted commentators" and placed in one section and those that do not provide their names or first time bloggers may be placed in another tier and still others who violate the rules in another or blocked.
I applaud The Post for taking steps to curtail these hateful comments. A public forum is no place for some of these distasteful and sometimes heinous comments. It is no wonder that are children are bullying each other on Facebook and in text messages when this is the example that is set.
