What do you think about the new trend of allowing readers to comment on newspapers' Web sites? In a way, I can see why editors would think it was a good idea. Readers can feel more connected to the stories, and sometimes can even give tips that lead to more stories. Both of these things are true, but rare. What happens more often is that people leave vulgar, racist or even violent comments, like this recent article in the Washington Post describes.
News sites leave disclaimers saying the opinions of these "peanut galleries" do not reflect that of the organization, but do you think it affects the respectability of the Web site anyway? How does freedom of speech play into this? Should the opportunity to leave comments be continued? What do you guys think?
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I'd agree that most comments on online stories aren't the sort of community discussion editors are envisioning when they started adding the comment function. The Arizona Republic does this for most of their stories, and to cite one example specifically, when the story about the Scottsdale mom that left her baby in the car to run into Nordstroms (had the car vallet-parked, but took the dog, remember?) There were pages and pages and pages of comments on that story, mostly insults of the woman involved, or Scottsdale residents in general.
Most of the time- and this is from my own observation- the comment funtion doesn't inspire any sort of clever or uplifiting community discussion.
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