Tuesday, December 09, 2014

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: We’re Silencing Debate, in Order to Save It; Angry, Vengeful, Editorial Page Editor Tony Messenger Retaliates Against Readers for Disagreeing with Him on Ferguson, by Shutting Down Comments on Editorials and Letters, So They Can Rig Reader Opinion

By David in TN

We're on the way to "no comments allowed." Will they say "I'm not a Thread Nazi?

N.S.: “Let’s give civility a try” is a code for pc silencing of all dissent from the right.
 

Editorial: No comments. An experiment in elevating the conversation
By the Editorial Board
December 8, 2014 8:45 a.m.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For the next two months, we are turning off the comment function on all editorials, columns and letters in the opinion section.

Why?

Ferguson.

READ THE 'LESSONS FROM FERGUSON'

Last Sunday, we challenged our region to have the serious discussion on race that it has been avoiding for decades. Such difficult discussions are made more challenging when, just to present a thoughtful point of view, you have to endure vile and racist comments, shouting and personal attacks.

If you’ve watched many of the talking heads on cable television try to discuss the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, you know what we’re talking about. Unfortunately, sometimes comments on newspaper stories and columns have a similar effect.

In fact, it has a name: “The nasty effect.”
That’s what University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele dubbed the negative effect certain comments can have on a reader’s understanding.In their study, published last year, researchers concluded that “Much in the same way that watching uncivil politicians argue on television causes polarization among individuals, impolite and incensed blog comments can polarize online users.” In some cases, negative blog comments actually changed readers’ perception of what they read, not just their opinions about it.Ever since newspapers started putting stories on the Internet, there has been a vigorous debate within the industry about the effect of reader comments. The Post-Dispatch has made efforts to improve the level of discussion in comment sections, but there are wins and losses.There are positive moments, such as when readers last week left touching tributes in comments about sports columnist Bryan Burwell after he lost his battle with cancer. But there are other instances where comments deteriorate into racist remarks or demeaning discussion that has nothing to do with the original story or editorial or column.Recently, the news service Reuters decided to get rid of comments on its stories. The online startup Vox doesn’t allow commenting.We intend to use our opinion pages to help the St. Louis region have a meaningful discussion about race. So we are going to turn off the comments in the editorial section for a while, and see what we learn from it. (Comment will continue on news articles). Comments might return to the opinion pages. Or we might find that without them, the discussion — through letters, social media conversations and online chats, rises to a higher level.That’s the goal.There will still be plenty of ways to share your thoughts with us, and, in fact, we’ll be more likely to see them and take them seriously through other venues. As always, you can send us letters to letters@post-dispatch.com. You can email Editorial Page Editor Tony Messenger at tmessenger@post-dispatch.com or find him on Twitter at @tonymess. Our editorial page Twitter account is @PDEditorial.We post all of our editorials and much of our other content on our Facebook page at Facebook.com/PDPlatform, and you can talk to us there.Also, starting this week, we plan a weekly live chat to discuss the various issues surrounding Ferguson. Details will be posted on our website and social media platforms.To be clear: It’s not that we don’t want to hear from those who disagree with us. Quite the contrary. Every day we publish letters from people criticizing our editorials, and we engage in discussions on Twitter and Facebook about the things we write. We believe those venues offer a safer, more civil place to talk about the racial injustice that dominates the Ferguson discussion.Let’s give civility a try.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could even George Orwell have imagined this?

David In TN

Nicholas said...

I hear ya! He thought this sort of danger came from the state.

Stan D Mute said...

This HAS come from the State hasn't it? The State enacted laws criminalizing thought as distinct from action when it created "hate crime" legislation. Murder is still criminal, but now it's more criminal if you are thinking "I hate this simian negro" than if you are thinking "I can't wait to see this fine African-American's brains splattered against the wall." Effectively the "hate crime" laws are penalty enhancement like "felony firearm" laws that obviously violate the double jeopardy prohibition in the Constitution. And just as obviously they are criminalizing our First Amendment right to free speech.

So it's unsurprising to see the media follow suit in banishing speech that challenges their marxist orthodoxy. Pointing out that negroes are low IQ savages clearly is "unsafe" to the mantra that negroes are saintly people whose every fault or failing is direct result of evil white oppressors. It's already illegal so why not banish it from their comments section? It is telling however that they must scrap the entire comment function. Apparently the comments are overwhelmingly against their orthodoxy!

Anonymous said...

"He thought this sort of danger came from the state."

You know what's funny? All the women calling for MEN to be fired for alleged abuse from their jobs.

Yes, the FEMINISTS want businesses to become FEUDAL LORDS over men, which the femme's think they can manipulate through the news media.

Funny how far the Republic has fallen in the face of the cosmopolitan's control of the narrative!

Anonymous said...

Did you see the Philly black female firefighter that died? Will the cause be not smart enough because written test standards dropped or not strong enough due to physical standards dropped? Or will they blame whitey for not doing enough to save her?
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/12/09/firefighter-dies-battling-west-oak-lane-blaze/

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A female Philadelphia firefighter died Tuesday morning while battling a house fire in the West Oak Lane section of the city.

The firefighter, identified as 11-year veteran Joyce Craig-Lewis, was the first female firefighter ever killed in the line of duty in Philadelphia.
The fire was first reported at about 2:49 a.m. in the basement of a home on Middleton Street.

According to Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer, firefighter Lewis was part of the initial group of firefighters who tried to control the fire to the basement.

At some point, the incident commander at the scene ordered a withdraw from the residence. All of the firefighters retreated from the home, but it was at that point, Sawyer said, that they realized firefighter Lewis was still inside the home.

The firefighters went back into the home and were able to locate firefighter Lewis in the basement. Lewis was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“This is a very sad day for all of us,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said during an afternoon news conference. “We suffered a tragic loss this morning.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this firefighter, who’s made the ultimate sacrifice fighting a fire, to all of our Philadelphia firefighters. Their family, our family, has suffered a loss,” said Nutter. “To the citizens of this city, please know, this firefighter was doing her job to the best of her ability, but unfortunately died fighting this fire.”

Fire Commissioner Sawyer started his remarks by saying, “There are two families that have suffered losses this morning. The firefighter family, and the person who lost her life — their family.”

“Basement fires are very challenging by nature, because of their location,” Sawyer said. “Whenever you have a basement fire, it’s challenging because you’re running down into a chimney effect.”

As part of the investigation, Sawyer said all of Lewis’ equipment is in safe-keeping and will be examined.

Anonymous said...

I got a chuckle out of this - not the shooting itself, that's not funny at all but check out the first comment and the firestorm it causes. It was satirical, of course, toward the heavy overuse of the title: "Rapper", so often employed as a way of making "urban males" (i.e. thugs, criminals, etc..) seem productive and talented (such a shame to waste that shining "talent"). There is of course a slew of PC literal humour challenged dolts who scream bloody murder at the comment, completely missing the sarcasm. At least they allowed the comment, as you have pointed out in this thread most comment sections are deleting that sort of thing immediately, the few left that do not are quickly falling in line and putting the thought police to work keeping any sort of dissenting ideas from appearing for all the world to see. Jerry PDX


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/rapper-earl-hayes-vh1-star-stephanie-moseley-found-dead-article-1.2038409