Being in the newspaper industry for more than 30 years, I have seen changes that not only affect the actual composition of the paper, but also the decisions that are made on an everyday basis.

I was around during the hot-lead type days when it literally took all day to get out a simple 10-page paper. There was no digital imaging, there was no making corrections at the last minute, and there were no such things as Web sites, Internet and “on-line.”
Therefore, the decisions we had to make regarding the news were entirely different from the decisions we have to make today. That is why decisions we make today are not lightly made. There are more factors and more people involved.

The newspaper industry has become multi-faceted in that we not only have just the printed product. We have on-line news, video news and slideshows. Access to the “news” is 1,000 times greater than what it was even 10 years ago.

Because of this greater access, our job to bring you the news in a timely fashion is so much more important. That is a job that we don’t take lightly.

Also because of the greater access, we understand that our readers can now comment on stories in a way that protects their identity. The upside to that is that we now get more comments than we did letters to the editor. The downside is that the comments are unfiltered and can be downright insulting, vile and slanderous.

We understand better than anyone the right of free speech. But at the same time, when a comment on-line is mean-spirited, vile and potentially slanderous, we, as the owner of the printed and on-line product, have a right and the obligation to protect those involved.

Because of just a handful of insulting and dangerous comments left on several stories on our Web site, we made the decision to eliminate comments entirely. Our Web site is set up in a way that we do not have control over what comments go on-line until they are actually there. Then we can go on-line and take appropriate action if necessary.
But we do not have the manpower needed to constantly monitor all the comments as they come in. Therefore, we frequently do not catch the damaging comments until it is too late.

We realize that there are many more who leave good comments, especially on the obituaries. But like the phrase says, “one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.”

We are hoping to restore the comments section for the on-line stories in the near future. But until we come up with a good plan, we will not allow comments on any stories that appear on our Web site.

We don’t want the Carthage Press to become a battle ground in the comments section, which it has become on several occasions. We want our Web site to be informational, not confrontational.

We hope that you understand our decision and why it was made.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY – “When the chickens quit quarreling over their food, they often find that there is enough for all of them. I wonder if it might not be the same with the human race.” – Don Marquis.
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“You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing, you back up but you don’t give up.” – Chuck Yeager.