Capitol Hill Blue: The *uck stops here!

[wyldwolf]

Online Political Newspaper seeks to end "hate, intolerance and anger" in the comments section of their stories

In recent weeks, we've seen a dramatic increase in the use of abusive language, expressions of hate and obscenities in comments by readers to stories appearing in Capitol Hill Blue.

The discourse has turned from meaningful debate to a free-for-all where readers hurl insults at each other, scream obscenities in capital letters and strive to see how many nasty adjectives they can use in a single post.

I've reset the spam filters several times to try and catch these comments but too much hyperbole still gets through. I spend several hours each day going through the moderation queue because readers continue to ignore our stated policies on discussion.

I waded through more than 200 such comments last night before going to bed. I got up at 5 a.m. this morning and found more than 300 awaiting action.

My column Monday on Sen. Joseph Lieberman brought the anti-Semites out in force. Phil Hoskins' column over the weekend about gay pride brought a hoard of gay bashers. If we publish a story about Barack Obama, the racists weigh in. At times the cycle seems endless and repetitive.

The Internet has the potential to become a worthwhile public forum on issues of the day but it also is a breeding ground for hate, intolerance and anger and we see far too much of that in political discussions. Reasonable discussion is impossible when a majority of those who post comments do nothing but throw word bombs at each other while hiding behind anonymous screen names.

<-------snip----------->

So the *uck stops here. I had hoped we could have an open and freewheeling discussion of topics on Capitol Hill Blue without it turning into the hate-filled tirades that dominate so many other political web sites.

I was wrong.

Capitol Hill Blue is a news site.

We are not a barroom brawl.

I apologize to readers for allowing it to become one.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2693

[Red Zelda]

1. Ah, let's just fight!

[NYCGirl]

2. "Capitol Hill Blue is a news site"? It's Drudge without the millions of page views.

:shrug:

[rinsd]

3. And Durdge tends to be more accurate...though its a sliding scale of course (nt)