One of my friends updated her Facebook that she was saddened by the Plainfield tragedy. Curious, I looked to Plainfield Patch (Go Patch!), knowing I would find a story from a local journalist's perspective.
What I didn't expect to find was a thread of .
It's not just the readers of Patch. I have seen this on The Huffington Post, New York Times and NBC Chicago's websites.
People have the ability to be so cruel.
Words have power. Technology has accelerated that power to a questionable point.
I believe in freedom of speech, but I wish that people would think a lot more before exercising this right.
I am an opinionated person and I'm not afraid to share my viewpoints in the proper forum.
A news story about 3 teenagers dying in a tragic accident is not the proper forum to express opinions about texting and driving. It is not the proper forum to express any opinion.
If you think texting and driving is a problem among teenagers - great. Start a blog. Ask if you can blog for Patch. Make a hundred Facebook status updates about it.
But please, don't spew it in a comment thread that a grieving family is sure to read.
You have no problem with 'reporting' on a tragedy on a site that is designed to attract comments to drive hit counts, but suddenly it is a problem when people post their thoughts on it. You may not like their thoughts, but that does not change their thoughts. I don't like their thoughts either, but I am not so arrogant to think that they should be censored to protect my ego. Insinuating that people need to 'think' about their comments, implies that you think they didn't think about what they posted simply because they dont agree with you. Is that how you see the rest of the world? That if only people would think, everyone would amazingly come to the same conclusions and viewpoints as you? If you don't want to hear what people are posting, then perhaps the editors should censor themselves and not post the story in the first place. Attempting to place blame on comments, is dodging the responsibility of the who posted the story in the first place. Every blog that has gone down the road of micro-managing its comment section has failed or disappeared into obscurity. The world is full of people you are going to disagree with, but implying they don't think is the height of arrogance, and makes you no better than the people you are attempting to criticize. Censoring them will not change their views, it will only deprive others of reading the views of those they live around every day, perpetuating a sheltered view of reality.
I truly believe what the posts offer is some sort of sounding board that may not come across as “PC” as people like but it is what that person feels. We all need to realize that we all can’t view or react to the same situation in the same way. Expecting the world to view things in one way is absurd. A story isn’t just a couple lines that show up in a post, there are many facets to every story and every post. They all should be heard to offer the multicultural views on a situation. Why is everyone so afraid to hear the other side of the story? At the same time, I believe that swearing, intentional and direct name calling, slander and etc isn’t warranted on a professional site. The pseudonyms are the real issue make people accountable for their comments and things will clean up.
So don't go talking about respect, unless you are willing to take ALL peoples idea of respect into consideration. But then, there wouldn't be any comments at all, because someone somewhere is going to be offended by what you feel is a perfectly valid concern. Who's right? Who's wrong? Who decides? You? Let people post whatever they want. What is offensive to you is not offensive to everyone else, and what is offensive to someone else may not be offensive to you. As long as there are no death theats(and I did not see any of those posted), there is no reason to think your comments are any more important or respectful than anyone else's. And if you were to take responsibility for yourself, you would understand that the solution to reading things you don't like, is simply not to read them. It is not to try to control what everyone else posts in an attempt to sanitize your world to be the way you like.
I do disagree with the pseudonyms being the problem though. I don't think anything needs to be 'cleaned up'. I enjoy reading all posts, as it gives me a better perspective of the types of people that I live around.
Yes, there were young teens in a car but sometimes things just happen (no matter what the age/gender, etc.) and it doesn't mean that anybody acted with any malice or negligence. That being said, I'm sure that some of the posters who wrote the off-colored remarks didn't think that the families would read them and were probably just letting off some steam of the grief that we all are feeling by trying to blame someone or something for the tragedy that occurred. I'm sure that some believe it was a senseless accident that didn't have to happen, but the truth is that sometimes bad things happen to good people too. We can make sure that they didn't die in vein by being EXTRA vigilant and careful when we travel these roads and remember that it's okay to take an extra minute to make sure that we can safely make a turn, or be ready to slow down/pull off the shoulder for those who may not make a smart choice and pull out in front of us a little too early.
You want to restrict comments to "appropriate" places, then create a general comment section at each Patch site.