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The following is my reply to one reader's favorable response to yet another of those wholesale deletions of reader comments from the pages of the online version of our local newspaper. The managing editor of which has just announced that, as of January, the full print edition of the newspaper will be reduced to three days per week with the balance of the publication to be online. Where we have been experiencing the problems which are described in slightly more detail below.
Not sure what you're referring to unless it's the statement that "freedom of the press is for those who own the press." If that's it, then hopefully you understand that the man was speaking ironically.
While I agree that the comments here can range from off-topic to off-color to, well, you name it, this is a public forum and has a tendency to be self-correcting--sort of the way that my Republican friends feel the economy would work if simply left alone.
And I'm not saying that in a disrespectful way because I honestly feel that I've learned something from just about everyone who's commented here. And because I do believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press--for the great advantage this free exchange of ideas provides our republic--I'm very skeptical of any attempt to justify censorship.
Unfortunately, this past summer has seen a marked increase in the number of capricious and arbitrary (in my opinion) deletions of reader comments, some my own, some belonging to others which I happened to read before they were removed.
And that worries me because, as this newspaper attempts to find its place in the digital age, it's very important to assure that not only the institution survives but, along with it, the forum it has provided in the past for the free and universally accessible exchange of opinions and ideas.
LPK
LiveJournal
8.30.2012 (b)
Not sure what you're referring to unless it's the statement that "freedom of the press is for those who own the press." If that's it, then hopefully you understand that the man was speaking ironically.
While I agree that the comments here can range from off-topic to off-color to, well, you name it, this is a public forum and has a tendency to be self-correcting--sort of the way that my Republican friends feel the economy would work if simply left alone.
And I'm not saying that in a disrespectful way because I honestly feel that I've learned something from just about everyone who's commented here. And because I do believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press--for the great advantage this free exchange of ideas provides our republic--I'm very skeptical of any attempt to justify censorship.
Unfortunately, this past summer has seen a marked increase in the number of capricious and arbitrary (in my opinion) deletions of reader comments, some my own, some belonging to others which I happened to read before they were removed.
And that worries me because, as this newspaper attempts to find its place in the digital age, it's very important to assure that not only the institution survives but, along with it, the forum it has provided in the past for the free and universally accessible exchange of opinions and ideas.
LPK
LiveJournal
8.30.2012 (b)
