MMMM # 379 -- Anonymous Comments

 

   There was a time when anonymous comments were strictly limited in journalism. A reporter might get an editor's approval only in the event that the information being told was a) important and b) could not be reproduced by anyone willing to speak off or on on the record.

      Nowadays, media that should know better make anonymous comments the very basis for a story. Take for example this story from al.com, the online home to what used to be the three largest newspapers in Alabama.

     The Wednesday story reports on the proposed use of drones for campus security at The University of Alabama-Huntsville. And it focuses on "a sample of comments made by readers", readers who go by names like whupem and 5000 names.

     It's as if TV News did those "Man on The Street" interviews* while allowing the people making the comments to have a bag over their heads.


     This is a extension of the decision by most newspapers to allow readers to comment using fake names after each and every story online....a decision many papers are finally rethinking. Three months ago, The Miami Herald threw in the towel, requiring reader to go through Facebook. While comments typically drop off dramatically after a paper makes that move, the level of civil discourse improves greatly.  

[* I have my own problems with those...the sample is so small as to have no statistical significance whatsoever, but reporters frequently make broad conclusions from their three or four MOS interviews: "people in Auburn don't agree with the decision", for example.]

[ALSO: If you missed it over the weekend, take a look at the comments of The CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley about journalism 2013.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of www.timlennox.com]