Actually, I agree with you about the comments section of the paper. For the most part, I simply don't read the comments. There are times - especially when the topic is something about transportation, transportation funding, land use issues, etc - when I can't resist. I normally regret my curiosity.
As to talk radio, I pretty much don't listen to anything except NPR/WPR, where they seem to make an effort to keep things civil and screen callers to keep comments at least minimally intelligent. I asked for the letter to be published, so I felt that I might as well let the editor use it in his blog. He asked if it was OK. His actual wording was, "If OK with you, I would like to blog using your note. Should provoke quite a conversation" Maybe I just interpreted that as meaning he was using it to drive views. Maybe he just thought it was an interesting question. Robbie Webber On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Dave Schlabowske <[email protected]>wrote: > Robbie, what bothers me about this is the suggestion that the newspaper > prefers to use your piece as troll bait to increase page views so the blog > is more valuable to advertisers. That suggests to me that the story is only > newsworthy if it brings out all the haters. > > I find the comment forums for online versions of newpapers along with > call-in comments to talk radio to be a detrimental to our democracy. The > anonymity in these so-called debates, have become seed beds for anger and > hatred that have spilled over into the rest of our interpersonal society. > > Civility is becoming a thing of the past and people have come to feel that > it is acceptable to walk up to someone they don’t know and rage at them. > > On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 6:44 PM, Robbie Webber <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I wrote a letter to the editor of the Cap Times, and he asked if he could >> post it as a blog, to draw comments from readers. I'm quite sure I will be >> pilloried in the Madison.com comments section, so I thought maybe I'd also >> let a more friendly audience know as well. >> http://bit.ly/py0OCo >> >> It has always bugged me that the papers continue to label traffic >> enforcement as a "speed trap," as if it's all sneaky and hidden. Anyway, you >> can read the rest of it at the link above. >> >> >> Robbie Webber >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Bikies mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org >> >> > > > -- > Dave Schlabowske > Dir. of Communications > Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin > 414-271-9685 > www.bfw.org > >
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