Journalist Steps Over The Line?

[Gordon Nore]

I do wonder what impact this will have on public discourse in our communities. Personally I know I've learned more about issues by reading a story in my local paper and then reading the comments made by other readers, be they supportive or critical of the matter being discussed. If this incident (or this incident along with others over time) have the result of reducing/silencing public discourse, that is not a good thing.

I suspect there are serious conversations going on in media outlets every as a result of this story. These online comments operate in a very different way than normal letters to the editor one reads in traditional dailies. Newspapers typically require first and last name, address, phone etc -- because they are responsibility for what is being published. (Under certain circumstances they may agree to withhold the writer's name, but they have it.)

Online respondents simply post, and the comment runs, unless it's deleted after the fact. In this story the waters are a bit muddied by the fact that the writer used his employer's computer and internet connection -- in a manner that I presume is contrary to acceptable use policy. What smells wrong here is that the paper accepts anonymous postings -- except for this situation.