Could This Be a Trend?

by Roger Pynn

I was happily shocked today to read at E.W. Scripps’ Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches Web site TCPalm.com that the publisher has stopped accepting anonymous reader comments about news articles “because of an onslaught of vile, rude, inappropriate comments.”

“… These pointless, mean-spirited comments originate with just a handful of people. We appreciate the e-mails, phone calls and conversations from many, many readers who are asking us to more closely monitor our anonymous comment sections. We are listening to this majority and we are addressing their concerns.

As always, we welcome public discussion on any issue on our Web site and in our newspapers through letters to the editor. Those letters, with your name and hometown, appear on TCPalm and in our newspapers. To write a letter, follow the link on our letters page.

Newspaper message boards have become the sewer of the Internet. Kudos to Scripps for saying “enough is enough.” We can only hope others will follow.