No matter how vile the comments get on the left-wing
sites, I never read about them in the press.
As Reynolds Explains Decision not to Host Comments, Reuters* Provides Case In Point
Media Blog
Stephen Spruiell Reporting
It seems like half the questions asked in today's Washington Post Live Online chat with Jim Brady, Jay Rosen, Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis and Jane Hamsher about interactivity and the media were addressed to Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) and asked why he doesn't allow comments. Here's one example:
<<<
Washington, D.C.: Hi, my question is for Glenn and then maybe Jane would like to comment.
Why is it that most of the high traffic right-wing blogs don't take comments, while most of the left-wing blogs do?
From my perspective, it looks like the conservatives can dish it out, but can't take it, that they are uncomfortable subjecting their ideas to scrutiny on their own Web sites.
Glenn Reynolds:
I think that one reason has to do with media treatment.
Charles Johnson, for example — who does have comments —
has repeatedly faced media stories about his site in
which comments made by his readers are directly attributed
to him, as if he had written them. I certainly worry about
that sort of thing, too. I think that lefty sites expect,
and get, less of that kind of mistreatment.
>>>
A little later, he got another question about it:
<<<
Ann Arbor, Mich.: Some of you have comments on your weblog, and some don't — notably Glenn Reyholds and, now, parts of the Washington Post. We know about the Washington Post situation. Would Glenn Reynolds explain about his decision not to have comments?
Glenn Reynolds:
I've already done this in one of the other posts. Basically
it boils down to time, and my fear that comments by trolls
would be attributed unfairly to me, as has happened to
others. Plus, it's not like it's hard for people to get
their own blogs.
Jay Rosen: I must say I have never heard of that concern before: "media reports would attribute comment trolls to me, so I don't have them."
I have comments at my blog, and they are completely open. I not only monitor them carefully, I'm an active presence in comment threads and I argue a lot with readers. I get mad at them too. A great many users have told me that while I write good posts, what they really like is the range of reactions from others in comments. For some, that discussion is a primary, not a second-order good on offer at PressThink.
Glenn Reynolds:
It happened to Charles Johnson and he was quite upset.
Perhaps the press would be more sensitive where you're
concerned, Jay.
>>>
As if on cue, Reuters delivered a perfect example of what Reynolds was talking about this afternoon in an article about the controversy over Joel Stein's "I Don't Support the Troops" op-ed:
<<< The article, which ran on the Times opinion page on Tuesday, was quickly linked on conservative sites across the Internet, where readers poured scorn on Stein, on the newspaper and on liberals in general.
"If I ever run into the a**hole, I'm going to knock his frickin' block off," one man wrote on the Little Green Footballs (www.littlegreenfootballs.com) Web site, one of nearly 500 people who had commented on the article by mid-afternoon. >>>
The article doesn't directly attribute the comment to Charles Johnson, but his Web site is nevertheless represented in the mainstream press by this comment, which he had no control over. The authors of most Web sites that have commented on the Stein article, like Blackfive, have disagreed strongly with Stein without threatening him. But the AP finds one comment and uses it to paint the entire conservative blogosphere as violent and crazy.
No matter how vile the comments get on the left-wing sites, I never read about them in the press.
It's just an amazing coincidence that Reuters provided an immediate answer to all the people blogging about the chat who thought Reynolds's excuse was lame.
media.nationalreview.com
washingtonpost.com
instapundit.com
journalism.nyu.edu
asia.news.yahoo.com
media.nationalreview.com
blackfive.net |
