.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN THE EVENING...THEN PARTLY CLOUDY AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE MID 50S. NORTHEAST WINDS UP TO 10 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 20 PERCENT.
.INDEPENDENCE DAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 75 TO 80. NORTHWEST WINDS UP TO 10 MPH.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 55 TO 60. SOUTHWEST WINDS UP TO 10 MPH.
.SUNDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 80 TO 85.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 55 TO 60.
.MONDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 80 TO 85.
.MONDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 55 TO 60.
.TUESDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID 80S.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. LOWS IN THE MID 60S.
.WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. HIGHS IN THE MID 80S.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. LOWS IN THE MID 60S.
.THURSDAY...PARTLY SUNNY. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. HIGHS IN THE MID 80S.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. LOWS 60 TO 65.
.FRIDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS 80 TO 85.
Time to clean up the vile bilge on newspapers' sites
Voicing an opinion is a good thing. Slandering, name-calling, racially-charged comments by nameless, faceless, gutless people is not. Because of that, it’s time for some newspaper Web sites to start cleaning up their act.
I speak of the “comments” sections that are now a standard part of almost every newspaper Web site in the U.S. and perhaps the world. You know how it works: A newspaper posts an article on its Web site and there is room afterward for readers – anonymously, always anonymously – to post their comments about that article.
The idea is a good: To allow readers a forum in which to give feedback on the article – to voice an opinion or offer an insight that, in the fantasy land of newspaper idealism, would further and deepen the discussion about the article or the topic.
Just one problem. It never happens. Instead the comments section becomes a haven for nameless, faceless Internet trolls who hijack the quote-unquote discussion and turn it into an embarrassment. Name-calling, baseless accusations, slanderous material, vicious personal attacks. Stuff, basically, that these people would never have the guts to say to someone’s face. Not even on a barstool, where lots of silly things are said.
The contribution to society, or at least to the furthering of any rational discussion, is exactly zero. And maybe less.
What got me going today was a story in the local paper, and my former employer, The Forum. (And don’t mistake this for a rant against The Forum, because the same thing happens at dozens of newspaper Web sites every day.) The Forum posted an article about a small memorial rally held for the young man who was shot in Moorhead last month, Daniel LaFromboise. Controversial topic because LaFromboise walked into an unlocked apartment late at night and was shot point-blank in the chest by the apartment dweller, Vernon Allen. Combustible stuff.
Predictably, the comments section under the article – as of about 1 p.m. today – had about 230 comments in it. Some actually had merit. But it didn’t take long for the nameless, faceless hate to fly. The dead person, LaFromboise, was raked over the coals by a bunch of people who presumably had never met him and know absolutely nothing about him.
I’m not going to get into details because I don’t want to give any more attention to this crap than it’s already getting. But suffice it to say, some of it is pretty nasty. And while some of it may be true, none of it – repeat NONE of it – has been corroborated by the police or other authorities. It is, at this point, just baseless banter. Much of it is just garbage, basically, made by people with nothing better to do than bash a dead kid.
It’s time newspapers – all of them, not just some – begin monitoring this stuff and making sure it doesn’t make it on to their Web sites. They have a duty to do that, to make sure that material appearing on their sites isn’t racist or baseless or slanderous or libelous. To be seen as a legitimate news organization, and not an off-the-wall message board or blog of some kind, newspapers need to clean up the crap that makes it onto their Web sites. Failing that, they should just shut off the comments section.
They won’t do that, of course, because that would slow traffic to their sites and drive even more nails into their collective coffins. It’s all about survival now and newspapers don’t have the bodies or the will to risk driving people away.
So, unfortunately, the vile bilge will continue to roll unfettered into the comments sections and once-proud news organizations will continue to be held hostage by nameless, faceless people who don’t hesitate to drag people they’ve never met through the mud.
As long as they can remain anonymous, of course. That's the key. Because putting their name and face on such garbage would take way too much in the guts department.
Mike McFeely can be heard from 2-5 p.m. Central Monday through Friday on "The Mike McFeely Show" on KFGO 790. The show goes statewide in North Dakota at 3 p.m. on KFYR 550 in Bismarck and KCJB 910 in Minot. Mike McFeely's blog can be read by clicking here.
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