I’ve gotten a few questions by email today, wanting to know why commenting has been disabled on stories about the Rick Pitino saga in Louisville. Internet commenting has been a subject of great debate in the news industry for quite some time, and a subject of much discussion in the Herald-Leader newsroom.
We allow commenting on most stories, but take heightened care with commenting on a few categories of stories that in the past have shown that they tend to get out of hand in ways that violate or get awfully close to violating our commenting policy. Among other things, that policy states that users may not post a comment that is “libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party’s right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate.”
We do not have the staff to monitor comments on every story on the site on a minute-by-minute basis, though we do respond to reports of abuse. And in the past, commenting on some types of stories has moved into inappropriate areas quickly. Frankly, from experience, one of the categories that we look at more carefully involves allegations of a sexual nature or stories involving sex. In the Pitino case, given the nature of the allegations contained in the police report, it was our expectation that the commenting would get out of hand quickly – and we would not have the capacity to monitor or remove inappropriate comments quickly enough. So commenting was disabled.
I know this isn’t popular with everyone who uses the site, but we thought it prudent to make the decision on the front end.
It’s worth noting that other news outlets also did not allow commenting on these stories, though some did. I have looked at a few media sites that are allowing commenting on the Pitino stories, and that has, to me, validated our decision to disable commenting. On many of those sites, the commenting has devolved into crude sexual commentary, vulgarity, and tasteless personal attacks on both of the parties involved in the story.
In the unusual cases when we disable story commenting, we try to give readers other avenues to express their opinions. On this story, there are many such avenues. First, there is a poll on www.kentucky.com connected with the stories that allows readers to vote on whether Pitino should keep his job. As always, forums and message boards are available on the Web site for readers to discuss the story. And John Clay, who monitors comments on his blog, is allowing comments on Sidelines (as well as commentary appearing on Twitter about the Pitino) matter.
Again, thanks to all those who shared their thoughts on commenting in this case. If you have any questions or comments on commenting, feel free to contact me at pbaniak@herald-leader.com.
Peter Baniak
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