Question for those who are journalists....

I've lurked here for awhile and decided to register a few weeks ago. There is a lot I like about this website: the jobs board (although I'm happy with my situation) is a terrific resource, and there are many thoughtful threads on all subjects -- such as the baseball/pro/college football threads when I'm covering something and want to be kept informed.

The fact that big-time talent like Dave Kindred, Jason Whitlock and Elliotte Friedman have posted here under their real names indicates how influential this website can be, and I remember Dan LeBatard registering to defend some of his work.

I even laugh at "the woman you find hot that no one else finds hot"-type threads. Hey, we should all be able to laugh at ourselves and at the world sometimes. I'm no prude and I don't believe that what's good for me is necessarily good for anyone else. If I'm not interested in a thread, I won't read it.

However, as a sports journalist on a sports/news journalists wesbite, I'm embarrassed at some of the classless personal comments that get posted. I don't care about misspelled words or bad grammar, hell, it's a chat site and we're not grading anyone. But I look at the recent comments on that "hot celebrity" thread and the "Somali cleric" thread, and I'm embarrassed.

On that Somali cleric thread, there are people on both sides of the argument making legitimate -- and passionate -- arguments and there is complete stupidity. (I want to make it clear, I don't find it problematic that some people are distrustful of Islam or that some will defend it under any circumstances. That's a microcosm of the world right now. What I'm concerned about is the lowest-common-denominator discourse.) I'm not asking the various moderators to act, and as a relative newcomer, I don't want to sound holier-than-thou, because it's really not my style. Everybody has to be responsible for themselves.

Journalism is going through a difficult time right now. Public trust in us has eroded. A lot of good people are fighting for survival in places we never thought could be seriously affected; just look at The Los Angeles Times and The Dallas Morning News. I don't know who on this site is a journalist and who isn't, but I know there is a mix. We have to show that we are responsible, that we can be trusted to make intelligent commentary, even of our opinion isn't shared by the majority.

I just worry that a member of the general public could stumble across the venom on some of these threads and say, "These are the people I'm supposed to trust with the news?"

I apologize for the sanctimonious tone. It's really not me. But I believe in our industry, and I believe there is a lot of good on this website. I'm just bothered by the bad, because it can overshadow the good.

 

Vic:

If this site were the worst of the problems in the industry, things would be pretty damn good.

I don't want to deprive Wenalway of a good post, but this industry has done absolutely nothing to improve itself in the last five years. There's no plan to address, fix or even to acknowledge the myriad, far-reaching problems.

Frankly, I enjoy being entertained by some of the idiocy here.

 

thanks for imposing your morals and believing the rest of us should give two shits. i bet you voted for bush ... twice.

jackass.

 

Ding, ding, ding. Dye's right. There are way worse things for the industry than the idiocy we show from time-to-time on here.

 

From time to time?

 

Would one assume that similar insults, invectives and slurs wouldn't occur on italianchefs.com? Or animalhusbandry.com? Or guynecologists.com?

I'm somewhat certain that the Internet is proof positive that, when large groups of people are invited to talk anonymously, occasional antagonism results.

Somewhere, I'm sure, someone on a Seventh Day Adventest board is telling someone else to go fuck a mule's rancid asshole.

 

I'm trying to be nice after my total-bitch-mode breakdown on the celebrity thread earlier.

 

Euphemistically, that means "daily".

As long as I have visited, this place has been a repository for black humor and idiocy, along with insightful debate and whimsy.

Most of all, the posters (for the most part) show a command of the language and the ability to think about things. So I take the good with the bad and I keep coming back.

If the general public were to see it, and be offended, they can pound sand.

How do they know who the hell is on here? It's not like I had to show ID. And neither would they if they found the site. Anyway, I think there are a lot worse things that the average person thinks about journalists than whether or not I mention ass to mouth "from time to time."

The average person wants to know why I ever write anything bad about the home team. The average person thinks it would be OK if teams only called in when they win. The average person doesn't know shit about shit.

Fuck 'em.

 

What is this "celebrity thread" of which you speak?

 

The which celebrity do you find hot that nobody else does thread. Major breakdown on my part. Gutter had to tell me to shut up.

 

I love you, Zeke.

 

You, too.

But I WILL NOT go ass to mouth on you.

Again...