How amusing. The Albany Times Union encourages people to comment anonymously on its stories (no names, no accountability). Then, it’s shocked – shocked! – that people aren’t upfront or even honest when using this device.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=865883

Was someone posting comments favorable to the city while working at city hall? How stunning.

Well, no, not really.

The newspaper’s “Who, me?” attitude is amusing. Feedback used to mean a person signed his name, authorship was verified, libel and meanness were stripped out before publication, and people generally thought, a little, before they spoke. I hope that’s still the case for letters to the editor in print.

Not to single out the Albany Times Union, but under the new-world way in which none of these standards is true, and newspapers get the instant comments and interactivity they seem to crave, why are we surprised by the nonsense surrounding anonymity?

This entry was posted by Andy Schotz on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.