The hateful crap female sports writers put up with

Nothing. We can do nothing. I feel for the people who have to put up with this disgusting behavior, but unless people have to put a name behind it, it will continue unabated. The internet is in large measure a cesspool. The comments directed at these women are beyond disgusting, but every one of us on this board knows from experience that calling someone out on their nonsense does absolutely no good. It's usually either cut and run or get even more nasty.

 

Unfortunately, you're right. Trolls gonna troll.

 

You know what, Twitter is a cesspool and newspapers should be ashamed of themselves for backing it and continuing to back it. Twitter got popular because a couple celebrities started using it and trying to get a million followers, remember? They'd all go on Larry King Live and he'd talk twitter incessantly. Newspaper publishers decided it was something their reporters needed to embrace and I've yet to hear how it has made one penny for anybody but Twitter. You can say I'm clueless. You can lecture me on the value of Twitter (It's the best way to get your brand name out there; you get valuable links to your copy; I know the talk, people, I'm just not buying it). I stand by what I said. Twitter is a cesspool and newspapers should be ashamed of themselves for being its biggest supporter. Whenever somebody tells me they don't use twitter I say, "good for you! You know why you don't use twitter? You have a brain!" ... And I do use twitter. I'd be fired if I didn't and I have over 15,000 followers by playing the Twitter game.

 

OTOH, Twitter is a great opportunity for journalists to build their brand and increase their options for opportunities should they leave the newspaper.

 

#Sharknado was pretty terrific.

 

Did this make the list?

 

Did they do exit interviews with the guys who read the mean tweets? I'd be interested to hear what they thought of that project and their role in it.

 

This reminds me of the post WW2 psych test where participants followed orders and thought they were shocking other test subjects. A good film about it is out (on Netflix now, I think) called The Experimenter. Highly recommended. One of the criticisms of that work was the impact it had on those who were surprised by their actions while following orders during the tests. In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised to see lawsuits.

 

Twitter the business is in trouble. They're not selling enough ads because user growth has slowed to nearly nil. I suggest that operating a space where a majority of the human race is subject to random vicious abuse may hinder such growth. It's in Twitter's interest to curb this kind of shit, but because that would be labor intensive and hence a considerable short-term cost, they won't.

 

It's going in the sequel.

 

Newspapers have used the legal justification that if they policed the comments, they are responsible for the content. If they don't the poster is responsible.

Not sure I buy it but it's conveniently a lot cheaper and easier and keeps the hateful traffic you would miss if you turned off comments or required them to be approved before posting.

 

really, that qualifies as mean? She has every right to use what she's got, but don't doll it up and say she made a name because of her insights.