When Comments Attack

There are plenty of headaches for media companies large and small; the economy certainly ranks as number one, with a close number two figuring how to ride out the wave of seismic changes hitting the journalism and communications landscape. But the one that may provide the biggest heartburn strikes directly at the First Amendment.

I like to point out there's a reason why freedom of speech is the First amendment; after all, the freedom to petition for redress of our grievances, assemble with others of like-mind, even the particular (or peculiar) way we choose to worship all stem from what many Americans take for granted.

This right of expressing our opinion runs deep in the American psyche, even if most Americans would be hard-pressed to actually point out what most of our constitutionally-protected rights actually are.

Which brings us to commenting features on the web.

This feature of letting it fly is nothing new to newspapers, but they've kept it in check by having an editorial page editor sift through letters to decide which were worthy of jumping through the journalistic salmon ladder we call publishing. Some might even be good enough to warrant treatment as a column, although that was still under the control of the editor. That's the way Op/Ed pages in newspapers still work, even today.

Talk radio (and our fresh-faced cousins, talk TV) follow in a similar vein. When you listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck or even Howie, your couple minutes of airtime can depend on whether a producer thinks you are worthy or even something arbitrary such as being caller number four when there's only time left for three.

The web is different.

We expect our thoughts to show, immediately, after clicking. Once sent, never recalled. The heat of the moment laid bare, which explains how so many comments are often rude, insensitive, unkind and disrespectful. The send button isn't much of a recall device.

On recent posts to AkronNewsNow stories, especially those dealing with crime and mayoral recalls, we've been treated to occasional glimpses of passionate thought but that also comes with plenty of bile. Some comments, hiding behind the ease of a screen name, call others names they would never use face-to-face.

Calling out someone who has a different opinion as an "idiot" is tame; we've seen some suggest that people suffering from some kind of impairment should be required to wear dog collars and be restrained on leashes. Readers have seen some wish physical harm, even rape, on those targets of their disdain.

We try to remove those posts as quickly as possible because we believe personal attacks, especially those advocating physical harm, have no place on this site. It's no different than considering the discussion you would allow around your dinner table, or in the backyard with a house full of summer barbecue guests: would you express yourself so openly if engaged in a debate with someone just as passionate sitting across from you?

Disagreement over ideas is one thing, but hate disguised as indigestible discourse is another.