Does the News Journal enable hate?
I read the Letters to the Editor now like any typical fan of the National Enquirer does. With disgust, shock and disbelief. What I think surprises me the most is the letters that the News Journal posts. I have seen letters that mock the President with flat out lies. I have seen letters that suggest taxing makeup like cigarette’s are taxed. I really don’t understand what the benefit to the paper is to publish some of the hateful, uneducated and uniformed letters. Here is the latest letter they published:
Bleeding-heart paper should publish all salaries
April 5, 2009
If The News Journal is going to print salaries of all state employees’ positions, when will they post how much people are getting for state assistance? They have posted salaries in the past of teachers and other state employees who work overtime.How about printing the names of everyone on welfare, food stamps and Medicaid? That way, all the paying citizens of Delaware know who is getting our tax money to help support them. Better yet, the bleeding-heart liberal newspaper might as well just print everyone’s salary who lives in Delaware.
Robert Kunicki, Newark
You have to ask this about the paper that publishes wRong Williams?
“I really don’t understand what the benefit to the paper is to publish some of the hateful, uneducated and uniformed letters.”
Pretty much for the same reason that Delaware Liberal and Delaware Politics and DWA … etc … provide an open forum for hateful, uneducated and uninformed commenters.
If you want to be a public forum for discussion and get real, honest input, you’ve got to take the good with the bad, or the good with the terminally stupid.
DL and other blogs could easily start comment moderation, only publishing those comments that you approve of. But you choose not to. Same thing with the NJ. They at least have some basic simple standards they apply to screen out the super nutjobs. (Think you know crazies? You haven’t seen a thing until you’ve worked a week editing letters to the editor.)
In the case of letters such as this, which rely on a faulty premise, I do think papers should add editors’ notes putting things in the proper perspective. In this case, a line reminding readers that public-assistance information is confidential and not public or publishable would be ideal.
anon idiot,
the difference is they r supposed to have standards
anon idiot, Geek outed you as Annone the other day. Isn’t he a peach?
King Don,
They do. It’s called a committment to a free and open exchange of ideas. The standard is not whether you agree with the ideas. Then I’m sure you or someone else would be accusing them of choking off free speech.
Nancy,
Did he? I missed that. I’m not, but I am pleased to hear (if true) that he’s continuing his fine track record of accuracy.
Anon Idiot is actually hitting pretty close to the mark on this. I have not worked as a Letters editor, but if what gets posted in the NJ on-line comments, or what is phoned-in to the State News’ Sound Off is any indication, there are much worse crazies out there.
I look at the letters to the editor this way: now we know what some folks are thinking out there. and they are required to sign their names, which is a good thing.
Better that this sort of opinion be expressed than it fester in someone’s mind. Better it be out there for folks to mock, or refute, than it be expressed more privately and gain some sort of legitimacy through back-channel repetition.
I’d rather know what foolishness abides in the minds of the public than not.
I understand what you are saying, but isn’t it in a way validating these people
I once had a theory that the editors who picked the letters to publish were actually trying to show up the yahoos by printing the letters that showed how stupid they are.
Now I am not so sure.
Isn’t what you’re doing – responding to someone with the name “anon idiot” and a guy named Mike who is too polite and courteous to be a real blogger 😉 – validating crazies as well?
all these variations on “anonymous” are really getting to me. be creative people!
agreed a.price (aka mr.creative)
1) Yes.
2) anonone doesn’t sock puppet.
ya know… Don (sarcastic dick head) viti, i was just trying to quell some of the confusion that comes along with a ton of anons… i’ll have you know a lot of thought went into my handle and there is no need for the snide remark. that is all you ever do.
Aside from some of the trolls’ personal issues with this site; back to the topic…
I’ve always had a problem with the State News ‘Soundoff’, now also or instead called ‘Public Forum’ as being irresponsibly anonymous, or graffiti-like. And I have told the owner, plus the various editors, while I was employed there. But I still enjoyed my modest wages.
There are other reasons to like that paper, and even though I’ve left almost 5 years now, we still subscribe 2x, dead tree version + e-version.
Editorial error correction to lie-filled posts at both papers (WNJ + DSN) happens too seldom. This should be pointed out to them by reasonable readers more often!
btw im not really mad at DV. i was practicing fake outrage to see what it is like to be a wingnut.
i think the publishing of the letters actually does damage to the wingnuts. you have Gene Robinson’s column on the left, and on the right. some moron talking about how we are all commies because of hussein obama.
Nancy – your idiot meter is broken. I refered to anon idiot as AI, or ai but not as a1 or A1. please try to blog sober.
Here is the link for my supposed outing of anon idiot:
http://delawareliberal.net//2009/04/02/longhurst-introduces-election-realignment-bill/#comment-108452
As all can see, Nancy is just being bitter commenter. I am certain that this is a surprise to all.
I was asking if anon idiot was commenter that formerly used the plain old anon moniker. sigh. How much time do we have to spend to keep the mentally challenged commenters up to speed?
“please try to blog sober.”
where’s the fun in THAT?!
lol,
I was just about to reply to your original message. got me…now go fuck a goat
one step ahead of ya bud
just wondering, what would you have said if i was serious, or continuing the gag?
Geek dear must you further elevate your sleaze level with such tripe? The Nancy is Loaded meme will get as old and stale one day as your bare noggin’. What I proposed, peachy, was not out of line seeing as you can’t let people you don’t like go into an anony phase without outing. You certainly did it to me.
I accept your correction. Give your BFF Selander my best. The bitter commentor routine will only get you so far.
Nancy, I addressed you as yourself on a different blog because I recognized your bitterness, grammar, punctuation and lunacy, not from any inside info. Your hiding was akin to Frankenstein putting on a fake mustache and pretending that he was someone else.
One of the reasons I stopped subscribing to the NJ years ago was the letters to the editor column. It was neither fun nor enlightening. The run-of-the-mill letter that got selected! had! far! too! many! exclamation! points! and rehetorical questions and far too little sense, sensibility, or sense of humor.
Frankly, the letters are not representative of the Delaware I know.
Where, I wondered, do they get these clowns?
aka Hester Prynne, Boston, MA.
Besides, if she has to wear her scarlett letter, why can’t everyone who ever did anything bad be outed in the public.
Let’s bring back public hangings and beatings.
Hear ye hear ye! John Doe hath been found guilty of accepting public assistance and hath been sentenced to spend the following 12 months wearing a creepy Burger King mask. He shall donne the mask at high noon, at the town square.
Geek, your game was tripped up. Boohoo. Next time Selander tries to pull this kind of crap, don’t bet Markell will play ‘proud papa’ again.
None of you guys have admitted you were wrong to flaunt your fawned-upon access but it was very well scribed over at DWA. Mat even had the audacity to spell out that Selander set this meet up as a payback for campaign support.
DUDE! Funny I don’t feel bitter.
Kunicki, as with most on the right, cannot have a proper argument unless it’s mired in false equivalency.
So sad – minds wasted.