Tuesday, April 17, 2007 | The policy of writing comments after blogs and letters to the editor in voiceofsandiego.org needs to change to require disclosure of the author. The credibility of this news organization is in part reflected by the comments of its readers, and unfortunately, many write commentaries in tone and content that they would never utter if their name followed in the byline. Some say this gives freedom for people to say things for which they would be punished or otherwise suffer, but does voiceofsandiego.org want to be the repository, on the other hand, for repeated ad hominem attacks, hit and run journalism and petty online scuffles between readers who don’t know or face each other?
I personally find it cowardly, and in the context of journalism, quite yellow indeed. If voiceofsandiego.org wants a chat room, so be it and set one up, but to tie such low commentary to otherwise legitimate journalism is wrong. Please set up the comments section with the same integrity as you do the letters section and require the name, address and contact information to accompany anything your readers consider worth writing.