Online Newspaper Comments

I prefer to get my news online.  I got the subscription to the Statesman paper edition and it’s difficult to re-train myself to sit and read it.  But reading the paper edition is infinitely preferable to reading the online edition and accidentally scrolling to the comment sections.

For the love of Pete.  Do real people, with intelligence, humor and compassion, ever read that paper online?  If they do, they have certainly learned not to venture into that inner circle of Hell that constitutes the comments section.  Dwelling there are trolls, assholes, and lost souls.  The poor lost souls wage an endless and winless war against the sheer volume of vitriol and unabated spite coming from the other two groups.  It’s demoralizing and horrifying and I can’t believe it’s been allowed to continue.  Is this what free speech is all about in Idaho?

The Idaho State Journal (Pocatello) and the Spokesman Review (Spokane) are both open sites like the Statesman, and their comment sections seem to be hit and miss.  I’ve seen times when the comments get out of line, but there also seem to be plenty of both sides in the mix.     

I don’t know about the Idaho Press-Tribune (Nampa), or the Morning Tribune (Lewiston), because those are subscription sites.  The Post Register (Idaho Falls) makes a point of saying that it requires real names and it monitors the online bashfest, but again, I can’t tell unless I subscribe.

Anonymous commenting (opines this anonymous blogger) is apparently a license to spew.  I don’t know if that’s progress that we allow it, or spineless.