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Dialogue or screaming? There's a difference
Posted
at
3:15 pm
by Neal Pattison
In the 1960s, a California psychotherapist pioneered what was called Primal Therapy. Dr. Arthur Janov, author of "The Primal Scream," observed that humans could resolve their inner pain by giving it dramatic, uncontrolled release.
And that was decades before the Internet.
Newspapers publish information – some of which seems to pain readers. And readers use the “comments” section on our Web sites to release that pain.
For instance, recent reports about the operations of a Snohomish County humane charity (Story 1, Story 2) inspired the following comment. (It is reprinted here with names removed -- to comply with our own policies.)
I certainly hope [the Herald’s reporter] has a legal degree, because he's going to be charged with slander and defamation of character. The entire article is libelous and I would be extremely surprised if the Everett Herald didn't get sued over such slanderous allegations
… [S]ince when did [the Herald’s reporter] become the puppet of [this news source] Are you gay? Is he doing you? How stupid are you? You don't begin to get the facts! You call this journalism? More like fiction made up by a has-been writer who was pressured by his editors to come up with something sensational in order to increase a dwindling circulation of a rag newspaper who I wouldn't even use to line the bottom of my rabbit's cage. Your newspaper isn't good enough to contain the feces of my pet rodents!
You seriously need to get a life. I wouldn't hire you to write the obituary for my pet rat!
Spewing hatred and unproven allegations will only get you one place and that's in front of an attorney with the ACLU. You have violated the morals and ethics of every good journalist out there. You have soiled our profession. You have embarrassed every investigative reporter to the point that we don't want to associate with the lowlife that you are. You are less than pond-scum. Your hatred is an invective found only in dungeons used for torture. Waterboarding would be too good for you. You are sub-human, ugly, stupid, ignorant and couldn't get a life, a woman, or a man to be your friend if you're life depended on it. I can't even pity someone so low …
Personally, a beheading would be too decent a punishment for you!
A columnist for another Northwest paper recently pondered whether newspapers should try to monitor or control the public comments published on their Web sites.
Maybe, the columnist concluded, it is therapeutic for a community to see itself in its own invective.
"Indeed, the comments tell us who we truly are," she wrote. "So ask yourself: Do you like what you see? Are you elevating the conversation, or just chewing the fat?"
At The Herald, we have a few simple rules for posting comments. Don’t talk dirty. Don’t personally attack others. Don’t threaten others. And don’t pretend you’re really somebody else.
People who cross these lines usually get a note from us: Your comment has been removed, but you are welcome to re-post your opinion without the offending aspects.
We do this because we’re a newspaper, not a therapy program. We're trying to foster responsible civic dialogue. There are plenty of other sites on the Internet for primal screams.
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