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It’s time to end anonymous comments sections
Washington Post ^ | August 19, 2014 | Kevin Wallsten and Melinda Tarsi

Posted on 08/19/2014 7:44:13 AM PDT by Second Amendment First

Anonymous comments, even positive ones, damage trust in the news media.

Despite their ubiquity on news sites around the Internet, a movement against anonymous comments sections has slowly gathered steam over the past few years. The first call to action came in 2010 when the American Journalism Review said, “It is time for news sites to stop allowing anonymous online comments.” Since that bold declaration, a wide variety of media outlets, including ESPN, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Sporting News and USA Today have either banned anonymous posts on their sites or eliminated comments sections altogether.

In August 2013, the New York state legislature even debated an ambitious bill that would have required all Web site administrators to pull down anonymous comments from “social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.”

This “no anonymity” movement is motivated by two assumptions. First, when Internet users are allowed to post their thoughts anonymously, online discussions inevitably deteriorate into uncivil flame wars. The idea that anonymity can breed negativity is, of course, not new. Indeed, Godwin’s Law, which states that as anonymous “discussions grow longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1” was first articulated in 1990.

More recent assessments of anonymous comments sections have not been more complimentary. In 2010, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts argued that anonymous comments sections “have become havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that shocks the tattered remnants of our propriety.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beseeingyou; censorship; commments; dnctalkingpoints; ivorytower; kevinwallsten; mediabias; melindatarsi; morelaws; napl; noanonymity; pravdamedia; privacyrights; questionauthority; socialistnetworking
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To: Second Amendment First

I clicked on one of the author’s website.

Kevin Wallsten

Political Scientist

Welcome

Comments are closed.

About Me

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach.


21 posted on 08/19/2014 7:53:51 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Second Amendment First

I guess the “right to privacy” the left so reveres only applies to gay sex and killing babies.


22 posted on 08/19/2014 7:53:53 AM PDT by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911)
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To: Second Amendment First



23 posted on 08/19/2014 7:53:53 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill ...)
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To: Second Amendment First

Bite me WashCompost.


24 posted on 08/19/2014 7:53:54 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Second Amendment First

That was my reaction, exactly!


25 posted on 08/19/2014 7:55:03 AM PDT by NEMDF
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To: Red Badger
I wonder if X, Y and Z would agree?....................

That depends on your being willing to give X Y and Z some spending money, and perhaps a loan to smooth things along.

26 posted on 08/19/2014 7:55:59 AM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: dennisw

The Federalist Papers are an excellent example.


27 posted on 08/19/2014 7:56:24 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: Second Amendment First
anonymous comments sections “have become havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that shocks the tattered remnants of our propriety.”

Somebody's been lurking in the Religion forum.

28 posted on 08/19/2014 7:56:56 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Conservatism is the political disposition of grown-ups.)
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To: Second Amendment First

>> Anonymous comments, even positive ones, damage trust in the news media.

Hahahaha! Comments are comments, not news. If you want “the news media” to be trusted then don’t be so biased. What stooges.


29 posted on 08/19/2014 7:57:23 AM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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To: C210N

LOL........I knew someone would get it!................


30 posted on 08/19/2014 7:57:54 AM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Second Amendment First

I haven’t seen anonymous comment sections via internet browser access in a few years. (on most MSM web sites)
Most of them require a Disqus login.
Which is just another data mining tool that the gov’t can use against people.


31 posted on 08/19/2014 7:58:48 AM PDT by two23
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To: Second Amendment First

” In 2010, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts argued that anonymous comments sections “have become havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that shocks the tattered remnants of our propriety.””

‘Can’t have people saying what they really think. If they are anonymous it is too hard to track them down and punish them for improper thoughts/speech.’ - The liberal thought police.


32 posted on 08/19/2014 7:59:28 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Unions are an Affirmative Action program for Slackers! .)
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To: Second Amendment First

It can be safely said that Kevin Wallsten and Melinda Tarsi are mouth breathing, knuckle dragging morons using up precious air, and should have been aborted in the womb.


33 posted on 08/19/2014 8:00:31 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: ilgipper

It’s not the fools who will be adversely affected by it.

It’s the people who write reasoned, articulate and influential arguments in opposition to the regime. They will be more easily targeted by the IRS and DHS.


34 posted on 08/19/2014 8:02:53 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: Second Amendment First

This “no anonymity” movement is motivated by two assumptions. First, when Internet users are allowed to post their thoughts anonymously, THEN FREE SPEECH IS ALLOWED. THE LEFT AND THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T WANT ANY OF THAT!

The Left hates it that they live in a world where there are other points of views an opinions. they will kill hundreds of millions that dare to speak against them.

They need to have dissenters on a list for the future...for the glorious day when the rifle butts can knock on your door in the middle of the night because you have decided to disagree with the politburo.

“havens for a level of crudity, bigotry, meanness, factual inaccuracy and plain nastiness that shocks the tattered remnants of our propriety.”

Sounds like a description of the mainstream media....


35 posted on 08/19/2014 8:03:24 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Second Amendment First
Anonymus commenting shares the same risk/reward that freedom of speech entails; certainly it can be abused but it allows for a more honest flow of opinion.

Its not suprising that the msm wants to eliminate it, what w/ being a forum primarily for liberals who are demonstrably more rude and crude than conservatives.

FR is a haven for open & respectful intercourse and the simple policing that Jim and his associates do here should serve as a model for other sites.

36 posted on 08/19/2014 8:03:35 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: MortMan
No anonymous comments? Then no anonymous sources for the media!

Typical Leftist agenda. It is alright for 'them' to use anonymous sources, because they are privileged.

Recall in 2008, those same one were crying that 'they' were the only ones who had the right to vet political candidates [which they truly screwed up that in 2008].

They are also the same ones demanding that they have freedom of speech, but that the rest of the country does not have.

They think they are special.
37 posted on 08/19/2014 8:05:41 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Night Hides Not
First, the news media needs to end quotes from anonymous sources.

Yep. I can't stand it when they use "some say", which translates to "my leftist buddy in the next cubicle said".
38 posted on 08/19/2014 8:07:19 AM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: Second Amendment First

The left wants names.

it is legal to use fake names.

posting using fake names is legal.

The left wants to do what the left did when the left was wearing hoods, obtain membership lists of those in opposition in order to punish public statements.

We have tried the real names thing. Reporters of the effete media are essentially useless.


39 posted on 08/19/2014 8:07:34 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: defconw
* What a bunch of Nazi’s the media has become. ;)*

I bet 90% of this article was written in German circa 1940.

“Anonyme Kommentare Abschnitten “geworden Oasen für ein Niveau von Rohheit, Bigotterie, Gemeinheit, tatsächlich falsch und schlicht Gemeinheit, die die zerfetzten Reste unserer Anstand schockiert.”

40 posted on 08/19/2014 8:07:47 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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