How two local Rochester news sites handle reader comments

It’s my personal policy to get my news from multiple sources. For local Rochester news that means the Democrat & Chronicle and Channel 13 (the best of the local television stations on the web). One thing I’ve noticed about both sites is the awful racism and intolerance that plague their reader comments. There’s just something about the supposed anonymity of the net that brings out the worst (in) people. If you wonder where the hateful extremism of the right comes from, just check the comments in any story mentioning non-white people or for that matter any Rochester city resident.

Each site has taken a different approach to the matter. Channel 13 has decided to eliminate comments altogether. This move brought them a lot of hate mail from the usual sources, but at least site visitors don’t have to read it. Although they say they hope to bring them back some day, I seriously doubt that will happen. The violence, racism and hate are just starting, we’re nowhere near the end of it.

The Democrat & Chronicle has taken a far more stealthy, and perhaps dishonest, approach. For instance, in this article about minority recruiting for the Rochester Police Department, commenting has been disabled entirely. All you can do is “Recommend”. As of this moment 51 people have “recommended” this article. But it’s unlikely that’s true, and that’s where the dishonesty comes in. If it’s unlikely that 51 people are recommending you read this article, why make it look like that’s the case? If you don’t want to publish hateful, racist comments that’s one thing, but don’t make them look like something they’re not. Channel 13′s approach may not be ideal, but at least it’s honest, why can’t the Democrat & Chronicle do the same?

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.