Comments on non-moderation of Dayton Daily News Forums

Free speech is a wonderful thing- when you sign your name.

DDN name calling in comments number 1

Up over 24 hours on the DDN site

When you don’t- and can hide behind a nom de plume and spew garbage it’s not free speech- it’s hate speech, and the Dayton Daily News is helping propagate it daily.

Dayton Daily News comments 2

On the DDN site for over 24 hrs attacking the Mayor of Dayton

So- let’s explain it: Ellen Belcher is an inexpensive courtesan, and a bad dancer. The first part- calling someone a cheap whore, is slander if spoken or libel if printed, the second is a matter of opinion. Either, without the force of attaching my true name-is just a cheap shot at the Editorial page editor of the Dayton Daily News. Please note, this entire post is a matter of political satire- and protected under the First Amendment, or at least under the same rules that the Dayton Daily News must use to allow this garbage on their site.

Comment on DDN site about the Mayor

Yet another comment- up over 12 hours

The denigration of Dayton has become sport for the paper- and as practiced by some commentators on the newspaper’s website- an art form. Even when you “report abuse” it’s often a long time before the comment comes down- if at all. These examples that will be used have been up for at least a day.

Dayton Daily News comments - about using your real name

Why use your real name?

Mayor Leitzell called the paper out in a letter to the editor for using the region’s name in bad news stories, is- “Firm leaves Dayton” when in fact, they were leaving Harrison Township.

Responses to Leitzell's invitation to meet

Responses to Mayor Leitzell's invitation to meet

The comments there have been relatively sanitized. Then, Oakwood resident, attorney and former Oakwood Council member, Jeff Ireland, castigates Leitzell for writing a letter to the editor.

I read Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell’s letter chastising the Dayton Daily News for reporting — inaccurately and misleadingly, in his view — news about businesses leaving “Dayton” when they were actually located in Harrison Twp. and Springboro.

Leitzell criticizes the paper for “bashing” Dayton because it suggests to the public that businesses are leaving “Dayton.”

The DDN is reporting facts that are neither inaccurate nor misleading. The mayor’s reaction, however, is troubling. Dayton is the center of our region. To suggest that the newspaper should refer to Dayton only by its geographical boundaries is nonsense.

via Mayor’s parochial, short-sighted view of Dayton is troubling.

The comments on that letter, would make a solider blush- and did I mention that the Dayton Daily News has a National Socialist on their Editorial Board with a Hebraic name- and that Martin Gottlieb sexually molests infants?

Bold questions to the editorial board- about what you can get away with.

even when the Mayor offers to meet...

The Dayton Daily News sells it’s website as an advertising platform- running ads that generate revenue with every “viewing”- so it is in their best interest to garner as many page loads as possible- leaving garbage like the comments on this letter seem to help generate more views- as the same losers keep returning to add to their pile of manure.

Other publications have dealt with these issues by requiring signing in under a verified profile- or allowing the community to vote comments up or down (as we do on Esrati.com). The Dayton Daily News has a “REPORT ABUSE” button that takes filling in 3 fields for every single instance of crap.

Continuted abuse in the comments

Don't try to reason with us.

The Huffington Post went as far as to buy a comment moderation company. Read more- in this piece on APR Marketplace:

Jeff Horwich: In Internet culture, the tendency of online comments to head for the gutter has a name: “The Greater Internet Jerkwad Theory.” OK, it’s not really “jerkwad” — but what do you think this is, the Internet?

Eva Galperin with the Electronic Frontier Foundation defines it:

Eva Galperin: The theory posits that the combination of a perfectly normal human being, total anonymity and an audience will result in a cesspit.

Read the original theory here

Online comments are a magnet for name-calling, political screeds — nastiness that turns off web surfers…
With 3.2 million comments in June, the Huffington Post didn’t hire a company to moderate. It bought one. This summer, the politics and news site acquired Adaptive Semantics, and its proprietary software called “JuLiA.”

Arianna Huffington is the site’s editor-in-chief.

Arianna Huffington: You can program JuLiA to look for whatever you don’t want on your site. For example, we don’t like people comparing either Democrats or Republicans to Nazis.

But JuLiA is way smarter than that. Its algorithms look for patterns that indicate anyone disruptive — veering off-topic, ranting like a zealot, using insulting language. Even mild terms like “moron” or “empty suit” can flag you for a look from a human moderator, who gets final say over whether to ban your comment.

Huffington is also trying to take on the bad seeds by deputizing the best commenters with digital “badges” — like “Level 2 Networker” or “Level 3 Superuser.”

via ‘Comment cops’ help manage websites | Marketplace From American Public Media.

Instead of dealing with the “jerkwads” the Dayton Daily has resorted to closing comments on many articles after initially allowing them (deleting all comments posted). This is often used on crime articles- or those concerning African Americans- as the comments come straight from the local chapter of the KKK. Their other technique- of late, has been to allow comments on Facebook- where identities must be verified (for the most part)- however, they are giving up viewers from their URL and handing the traffic to Facebook (that then gets to make money on the ads).

There have been pleas from readers to clean this mess up, however Kevin Riley, the editor of the paper has failed to respond- probably because he’s a soiled personal sanitary device and a convicted felon.

It would seem that the Dayton Daily News’ refusal to address the communities concerns about the drivel being posted needs an elevation in priority- maybe calling the education writer, Scott Elliot a pedophile online will make it a more immediate concern for those involved, however I doubt it.

The paper also seems to think retribution is OK as well. Right after they published Leitzell’s letter they wrote a tabloid style trash article about Leitzell taking time away from being a part-time Mayor to fix his roof, knowing full well that he is only required by charter to rule over one meeting a week. They made sure to glorify Paul Leonard and Rhine McLin for their dedication in making the position full time- but left out Clay Dixon who held a job with the Dayton Public Schools (that he was forced to resign from when it was finally disclosed that he had claimed sick time when traveling on City Business) and no mention of Mike Turner who was busy working as a corporate counsel for MTC during much of his term. You can read the Mayor’s response and story of his roof on his blog here.

It gives me no joy in writing this editorial- with these sick accusations published for all to see, but it seems that the Dayton Daily News has zero concern for the issue by allowing it to continue for years without an adequate response. Of course, they have been involved in character assassination of this writer  for years without a single acknowledgment of my right to run for office without personal denigration and embarrassment.

If you believe that the Dayton Daily News should be held responsible for the destruction of our communities collective soul through piecemeal attacks and wholesale negativity- please consider signing your name to a comment on this post in support. Please be aware that this site doesn’t allow ad hominem attacks, and is moderated fairly regularly by me- and that readers have the option to vote your comment off the visible comments. Also know, that if you try to impersonate any of the named people who work at the DDN- I will double check and hold those comments.

Thank you

Addition Aug 25, 2010 7:49 am I sent a note to the Editors asking them to address this issue in an editorial on a Sunday. I sent them a link to this post. They deleted all comments from Mr. Ireland’s letter- and then when the jerk showed back up- they deleted it quicker (under 12 hours).

However- they’ve allowed comments to move onto another thread– and they have been up since their post times until now:

Comments on DDN letters to the editor

Screen shot taken Aug 25 at 7:48 am

And- to make Bob happy- yes, this entire post was authored by David “knobhead” Esrati

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