Sunday, February 19, 2012

MiamiHerald.com: Where hate speech thrives


If you spent any amount time on the Internet last month, you no doubt saw a few of the surveys that rate cities based on various criteria.

America's Worst Drivers: Travel+Leisure says Miami has the worst drivers.

America's Most Miserable Cities: We're #1 according to Forbes Magazine. We even beat out Detroit!

America's Rudest Cities: Miami is number two in this category, behind New York but ahead of Washington DC.

But, if you drive on I-95 or the Palmetto with any regularity you don't need a list to tell you Miami's drivers are the worst...or the the rudest.

And miserable? If you have any doubts that South Floridians are rude and miserable, just head on over to MiamiHerald.com.

Click on the link to any story and scroll down to the readers' comment section.  There you'll find examples of abusive ad hominem, vitriol, hate speech and smears rivaling anything that can be found on a Tea Party website.

And, for some strange reason, the Herald's website seems attracts a fair number of readers who can't figure out how to disengage the caps lock key.

Yesterday, the South Florida Daily Blog compiled a short list of abusive comments left on the story about the bicyclist who was struck and killed on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

Like this:
thetruth99
4 Words "Roads Are For CARS" Ride on the sidewalk with your gay spandex shorts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's one I found this morning that didn't make SFDB's list.

It's written by someone whose username is "meinschwanzistsehrgross." (Google Translate will help you find out what that means.)
"THESE BICYCLISTS IN KEY BISCAYNE ARE COMPLETE IDIOTS. THEY RIDE IN THE ROAD LIKE THEY OWN THE ROAD AND LIKE NOBODY IS EVER GOING TO DARE RUN THEM OVER. THEY ARE COMPLETELY RUDE. THAT GUY GOT WHAT HE DESERVED."
Got what he deserved? Really?

Here's a question for those in charge at the Herald: Why do you allow this sort of garbage to flourish on your website? Clearly, having moderators in Bangalore or Mumbai is not getting the job done.

According to a note on your editorial page, readers sending letters to the editor must include their name, address and phone number in order to have their letters considered for publication.


You don't publish hate filled screeds by anonymous authors in the paper and I'm reasonably certain you wouldn't publish a letter from a reader - signed or unsigned - who advocated running over and killing someone just because they were riding a bicycle.

So why allow this kind of crap on the website?

It's time to end the system that enables this kind of thing. Hate speech and off-topic comments only cheapens your product and brand.

In 2010, Scott Rosenberg, a Salon.com co-founder, wrote in a blog post about newspaper comments:
If you opened a public cafe or a bar in the downtown of a city, failed to staff it, and left it untended for months on end, would you be surprised if it ended up as a rat-infested hellhole?
Why not adopt the comment system that the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers are using?

Click on the link to any LA Times story and you'll find a comment section that's tied to readers' Facebook accounts. (Who doesn't have a Facebook account these days?)

It won't stop all abusive comments, but at least it will force the haters to "own" their comments.

6 comments:

  1. They took me off as offensive because I wrote s--t with hyphens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There actually are many of us who don't have facebook pages these days. Some of us don't want everyone knowing everything about us.
    I do agree that those comments are disgusting and rude and many made me cringe. However, I think it's important that we know they're out there. We don't live in a sanitized area and having comments like that just show us how much work there is to do to educate stupid people.
    Having people 'own' their comments by putting a name to them doesn't do much. I'm always surprised how many people publicly post these type of comments with their real names. Many of them are even proud of it.
    Intelligent people don't post this type of vitriol just to rile things up. We need to look at how we can educate the masses so that people won't think of making these types of comments. Maybe we should even be glad that some of these people know how to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Some of us don't want everyone knowing everything about us."

      People will only know as much as you let them. If you put all your personal info on your Facebook page, then people will see it. It's not necessary to share every aspect of your life on Facebook.

      And you can also do like I do...restrict who actually sees your page. My Facebook page is only viewable by my friends.

      Delete
  3. The most racist comments i've ever seen are on MH site. Makes it seem as if we are a bunch of A-Holes down here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Personally, I don't like it, but I totally agree with The Herald's decision. For years, I have read comments that were not only hateful, but downright ignorant. This move will sift out the hatemongers, but it will also sift out a lot candid commentary by people who are in positions where they cannot speak their mind 100 percent of the time, like those of us who work there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "...but it will also sift out a lot candid commentary by people who are in positions where they cannot speak their mind 100 percent of the time, like those of us who work there."

      You're always welcome to post here! No Facebook account needed!

      Delete

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