Why no open comments?
A few weeks ago, around the time a newspaper’s reporters were going home for the weekend, someone posted a comment on the paper’s political blog that accused a local elected official of forcing himself upon a female employee.
The charges against the “sick and demented” elected official were left on the newspaper’s site, for all the world to see, for a couple of days before being deleted.
I don’t know the elected official in question — he could be a good guy, he could be a creep — but he deserves better than to have someone make those types of allegations against him without having the courage to stand behind their words.
In general, newspaper reporters — particularly Jo Mannies at the Post-Dispatch — do a good job of keeping an eye on every post and removing the most offensive and scurrilous of comments. I, meanwhile, have neither the time nor the patience to babysit a comment section.
So there aren’t, and won’t be, “open comments” on this site. Ever.
If you want to comment on something I’ve written, e-mail me. My address is john {at} johncombestblog {dot} com.