I read lots of online newspapers and at the bottom of almost every article, readers are asked post comments. Just about every story has comments posted by right wing nuts. No matter how innocuous the story, there are nasty, hate filled comments that makes me wonder: who are these people? Why are they all right wingers? Are they paid to make these comments? Is this is a secret Koch Brothers scheme to infiltrate every public space wingnut messages?
First!
I pretty much never read them anymore because they are just filled with stupid. I’d swear it’s a bunch of 15 year-old troll children just posting and running all over the internet.
There are left wing nuts, too, along with generic woo nuts. In about the same proportion as you’d find here. (My list of nuts on the SDMB runs about 4-2-1 on the conserative-woo-liberal line, which is about the same ratio you’d see in the commentary section.)
Newspaper comment sections have the reputation of being polluted public space. Sort of the internet equivalent of city parks where criminals, vandals, etc., drive everyone else out.
Do liberals have no one else to blame but the Koch brothers? With everything they are responsible for, it’s hard to believe they have time to run their company.
I guess I’m somewhat glad to hear this – I sadly suspected it was only my local newspaper site (AZ Central) that was infected in this manner. Every story is somehow Obama’s fault, whether it’s the economy, the weather or the kitten that got stuck in a tree down on 8th Avenue.
I swear the only place you’ll find stupider commentary is on YouTube.
Let me revise my statement in saying that there are all sorts of nuts out there, in the same proportion as here, except that there are simply more of them and in much more concentrated nut quantity than here.
As a longtime journalist, I’d like to say how discouraged I am that my paper allows anonymous commenting online. Virtually every article is tarnished with off-topic political arguments from people on both sides of the aisle, racist remarks, anti-urban, anti-government, anti-everything screed. The ignorance is not limited to any one group, and in many cases, the conversations are dominated by a handful of people who regurgitate their same sad and angry world view several times a day.
It’s frustrating, because it stifles real conversation, real engagement… the thing that most of us work so hard to create. I am routinely accused of being a biased liberal or a biased conservative or an apologist for politicians or on a personal campaign against politicians. I see comments that complain that we’re ignoring stories that have received front page coverage for days in a row.
The commenting sections supposedly generate web traffic, and somehow that’s supposed to generate revenue… that’s what they tell us anyway. I think it’s hurting us online in a big way, and I think we’re missing a huge opportunity to do better.
</rant>
Given that most of the questions in the OP seem to be rhetorical rather than being susceptible to factual answers, let’s move this over to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
In my experience, the political bias of the comments is the opposite of the (perceived) political nature of the story. In other words, a generally-positive story about Obama will have rabid right-wing comments after it. A generally-positive story about Palin will have rabid left-wing comments after it.
People are more likely to type a comment when they’re pissed off.
Yes, this. Also, it depends on the source. That should be obvious. Fox News is likely to have more nutty right-wing readers and therefore more nutty right-wing comments.
My complaint is how every single article always ends up being political somehow! I read an article about designer clothing and why it’s so expensive, and the comments section was filled with people blaming the “liberals” and “conservatives.” The article made no political statement at all!