There have been a lot of strong words, on this blog and at Idaho Radio News, about online comments.
In search of the learning moment, let me step back and talk about what I try to do here. I don't claim to be an expert, but I follow a couple of basic rules.
I handle this blog much like the rest of IdahoStatesman.com. Commenters can come in, anonymous and unfiltered, and have their say. About the issues — and, if they choose, about the paper or about me.
I'll generally let the conversation take its course. I don't participate very often. I will when a commenter asks a question directly, or makes a factual claim that I know is in error.
Once in a while, I'll ask a commenter to stay on point. I do that just to try to keep the discussion on the issue at hand.
I reserve the right to pull a comment, but I do it very sparingly — for libelous or obscene comments. I recently pulled one commenter who was making crude sexual remarks about another commenter. I think we can agree that had little to do with the topic of the day: Gov. Butch Otter's defense of his education budget.
I compare this to umpiring a baseball game. Hitters and pitchers can respond to an umpire's strike zone, as long as it's consistent. If you're going to call the knee-high strike for CC Sabathia, you'd better give Josh Beckett the same pitch.
So I really don't worry much about how other bloggers set their rules. Some bloggers allow unfiltered comments; some screen comments beforehand. As long as the rules are the same, I don't have any concerns.
If you read my columns and editorials, you probably have gathered that I am a stickler for consistency. I have no patience for politicians who pay lip service to a policy, then contradict themselves in practice. I think it's my job to call out double standards — and, yes, hypocrisy — when I see it.
That goes for bloggers as well. Particularly when they are stacking the deck against my employer.
Ultimately, the only blog I can influence is the one that I write. I try to offer interesting topics to discuss, and then let the discussion begin. At that point, I try to be that umpire you don't notice as the game unfolds.
I also expect readers to hold me to this standard. I wouldn't want it any other way.
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Q & A
KR, I'll add you skip over several direct questions- some from me that I know of sure. For example, you never commented on why the Statesman takes such large advertising dollars from ACHD and seldom if ever criticize commissioners or the director.
I just figure you're busy, or you don't want to admit how wrong the Statesman editors are in their opinions and policies. Thats' understandable.
Holding you to the standard
"I have no patience for politicians who pay lip service to a policy, then contradict themselves in practice."
Do you mean like when ACHD Commissioner McKee said, "We have a higher standard of public input" on the Transit Center and then did not allow public comment in their subsequent meeting? Yet,,,, I don't recall any major editorial commentary on this when it happened. If I forgot about one, please remind me with a link for me to read. Your 3/4/09 editorial stated the importance of public input. And then nothing else. The editorial was weak and made no mention/reminder of McKee's failure to allow public input. Meanwhile, boiseguardian was right on top of this issue.
*****
So you say you have no patience for such governance- I'll venture to say your patience depends on your personal preferences of who is "paying" for the lip service.
Public Input
While we're talking about public input and ACHD, Commissioner Sarah Baker has an excellent post on her blog from last week regarding ACHD's lack of acceptance of public input: http://sarabakerforachd.com/blog.html.
I'm cheering for Baker that she might have some positive influence there by shaking things up.
Shake n Bake(r)!
ACHD
As an editor working on the news side, I don't have anything to do with any advertisements. That is standard — and appropriate — separation of powers within a paper.
And advertisements don't affect our editorial positions. Elections, and endorsements, are a classic case in point. We consider a lot of factors when endorsing candidates. One we never consider is whether Candidate A or Candidate B has bought campaign ads.
Kevin Richert
editorial page editor
CHECKS and balances, right?
And Blagojevich is innocent.
http://cima.ned.org/731/op-ed-the-rise-of-soft-censorship.html
Perception is reality. You journalist know that, right?
It is easy to perceive an agency PR director (former Newspaper reporter who knows the chain and points of influence) can pressure the powers that be at local newspaper to be favorable in the reporting on agency (or lack there of). And if not-- drop the advertising dollars newspapers are so desperately seeking right now. Add to that, it's easy to add to the perception when an agency is way overstaffed in a PR department and the other PR rep is former reporter of the local leading TV news station.
And the proof is in the pudding- perception:
$50,000 of tax dollars to publish The Road Wizard- wasteful.
The dumb dump truck on the front of this online version, must cost some tax dollars- needless.
Your endorsements of ALL the incumbents while neglecting to mention the current road problems- lame.
And pretty much a lack of critical reporting of ACHD and ITD. Statesman repeats the press releases and that about it. It would be nice if you all spent as much ink sorting through our local road mess (affects us all) as you spent on revealing Craigs sexual escapades (no one really cares).
And overstaffed agency PR department. But ULI said ACHD needs to work on improving their public image. They're trying; now you might ask them to try to smooth out our intersections.
If you or anyone can show me in-depth critical reporting of ACHD in the past 12 months, I'll eat my keyboard. And given our road problems, it hard to imagine any plausible reason why you don't have some critical reporting.
And how much do you spend on advertising?
Seems to me you're getting off pretty cheap.
I'd make a cheap pun here but NO.
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Granola whimpers upon spying my countenance
Udapimp, I'm sorry, but you've been on that for a while also.
Kevin is RIGHT about that and WRONG dragging us around in personal mud. Woe to whomever steps in with the parties.
An apology is owed whether or not you honestly do have editorial discretion. Ethical behavior is flying to Montana here.
April Fools do not live in this house.
And what is bad about 'bipolar"?
I'M bipolar. I hope this does not infer I'm the r-word also.
Please wake up and drink your philosophical coffee. After 23 years you should be highly enriched but lately you lurk in the shadows and punch at dust. I think the paper will survive longer than the website at this rate. I have already made a phonecall. I'm not going to hem and haw, just apologize and get it together like Rocky is trying to do and Popkey should have done before.
Right, wrong or not.
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There are idiots in all manner of ways, ask me and I'll demo them. It won't be too hard.
I don't even see what ACHD has to do with it.
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Granola whimpers upon spying my countenance
If there's a beef with the paper though, some work may be good.
Not all of it could be be raging lunacy.
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Granola whimpers upon spying my countenance
Good points. My $0.02
Kevin,
I'll address you directly here on your turf because I think that's fair.
Dealing with comments is absolutely the hardest part about running a blog. Coming up with material or opinions is easy - but dealing with anonymous folks behind a keyboard is much harder.
I've set forth a set of rules that are pretty simple -- no libel, no personal attacks, avoid profanity, try to use your real name and don't change your nickname. I found it to be greatly ironic that two of the people who posted on your note about me were folks who aren't allowed to post on my site due to repeated violations of those rules.
As I explained on my site -- I was absolutely not attempting to stack the deck. I understand why you see it that way and I also understand your criticism. I do not generally post TV news - unless it affects the radio stations in some way (KIVI is co-owned with six Boise radio stations, so there is some overlap there). The reason is pretty basic -- I'm employed by a TV company and I run the radio site as a hobby. My job is more important than the hobby.
I cover the newspaper industry -- and that includes your employer -- because it is of interest to me, and because no one else is doing it. Idaho Radio News had the layoff story more than six hours before it was posted to IdahoStatesman.com. There was no snark, no opinion - just reporting. I don't like layoffs and paycuts, and I don't think they're funny. I want strong, respected (and respectful) local news outlets.
I close comments on a handful of posts - the KTVB layoff one because I just can't be fair about judging the comments -- and another last week about a former Boise radio employee who plead guilty to child porn (because many folks didn't like the gentleman and the potential for libel was high). I'd rather not be in a position that makes me choose between my job and my hobby. I'll pick my job and that will make some people unhappy -- so I just shut the comments off. I declined to approve a comment by someone on your post because they had some unsavory things to say about one of your managers. Why? Because it violated the rules of the road.
I always thought it was an honor and a show of great fairness to include Idaho Radio News on the IdahoStatesman.com blog page considering my position and public stand. I was always a bit surprised -- but the link in no way affected how I ran the site. The lack of a link won't affect it either. The little site was one of Idaho's first blogs and attracts more than 15,000 unique users each month. IS.com sent less than 50 of those users on a monthly basis, so the link loss doesn't have a material effect.
As you know Kevin, I spend a great deal of time thinking and writing about the future of online news. We are all constantly learning and adapting. I think anonymous comments are often not constructive and can even be quite destructive. I also think personal attacks on a news website are odd as well, but everyone gets to make their own decisions I suppose.
I'd be happy to sit down with you over coffee and discuss the issue further.
--Don
Kevin, hold out for a scone too!
But I think you must take the offer.
A olive branch extended and all that stuff...
Where would Felix be without his Oscar?
After Don brought 2-3 of his usuals over to gawk...
Ben, couldn't you and Dizzle at least get a different tag?
What a quasi-maroon.
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Granola whimpers upon spying my countenance
Still without a voicebox.
Every so often I just get to feeling WEARY from cerebellum to medulla when I feel like what interests me gets silly for two years or so. Then I hate to watch TV even, and RADIO makes me hang my head for a while. I vote for change and they want the dollar back too.
It's not April 1st, it's 10:27 pm December 31st and I don't care if the ball drops or to stay up and watch all the copyrights change on the overnight shows.
If anything, it should only be June 4th at the most. Please quit playing with my Daylight Savings body clock. Let's see the NEWS!
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There are idiots in all manner of ways, ask me and I'll demo them. It won't be too hard.
See, Sometimes A Good...
... -----slap is all it takes ; )
It only feels decent to the slapper. None is relevant to IS.
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There are idiots in all manner of ways, ask me and I'll demo them. It won't be too hard.
My comment stands as before and I've been watching both sides.
If there's one thing I don't stand for is being the pinup boy in stupid arguments. Leave me out of it. Kiss and make up somewhere else, both of you. I may have some talking to do also.
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There are idiots in all manner of ways, ask me and I'll demo them. It won't be too hard.