Monday, June 19, 2006

Open Thread - Interesting comments over at The Union

(created this post in response to an email)

A compendium; feel free to compend away, now and in future.

Please include date, URL, flavorful (but not overlong) excerpt, and your gently stated reasons for finding the comment(s) noteworthy.

URL should look something like this:
(you can use Copy-Paste with it to insert your URL)

<a href="http://apps.theunion.com/tu_polls/story-comments.php?sid=106170181"> comments </a>

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the comment in question: in reference to The Unions hypocritcal guidlines and criteria for posting online comments. I guess their circulation is down and they need a shot in the arm.


"It was just a little news story for two days; isn't that interesting. He (President Clinton) launched 22 cruise missiles against Baghdad in retaliation for the alleged assassination attempt against George Bush (Sr.) which failed. We killed 6 innocent people launching 22, I think 3 million dollars a piece missiles on Baghdad, killing 6 innocent people. Um, I think that's a little bit overdoing it if you ask me. You know what we should've done? "We, should have embarrassed the Iraqians, you know what I mean. Here's how we could do it. We should've assassinated Bush, and said that's how you do it towel-head, don't f with us... And see if Bush had been the one who had died there would be no loss of innocent life..."

Bill Hicks
Rant in E-Minor"

Anna Haynes said...

> "I guess their circulation is down and they need a shot in the arm"

Or they were more than usually overworked so let a bunch slip through, that normally they would have deep-sixed. We don't know.

What would be interesting in a case like this would be if comments critical of the paper had still been deep sixed while inflammatory-in-other-ways comments like this one were allowed through. But we don't have that data either.

(next time you notice it happening, you might try a little experiment... :-)

Although the situation does bring to mind something SF columnist Jon Carroll said, years back, that resonated and stuck - something like "Stewing over someone else's actions is like letting them live rent free inside your head. They do not deserve to be there".

Anonymous said...

Anna, I realize that you wish to bring some relativity to the Union situation, but it's a fine line between relativity and enabling. While I haven't taken the time to document all the comments that were not posted, you and I both know what the "relative" truth is.

Anonymous said...

Also, have you noticed how the most contentious garbage is posted on Fiday, which leaves them up for a weekend without comment. Sort of like when bad news is released by the government on a Friday night. How clever, not.

Anna Haynes said...

Bruce, IMO you - and I - are lavishing upon them far more time and attention than is warranted.

Which brings to mind another quote, that I keep meaning to stick over on the sidebar, coming to us via Paul Graham:

"What's the most important thing you could be doing right now, and why aren't you doing it?"

(which never fails to induce a twinge of guilt, over here.)


ok, I gotta go make some phone calls...

Anna Haynes said...

Addressed by Russ Steele here.

She is still here in town though.