Opinion pages trying to create online communities

Peter Wasson, the opinion page editor for the Wausau (Wisc.) Daily Herald, is worried about "trollers," people who post inflammatory and hateful messages on his newspaper's Web site just to provoke others.

They have no intention of raising the level of discussion on an issue, Wasson said.

As he described the problem Friday morning at the National Conference of Editorial Writers, many of the roughly 30 other journalists in the room nodded in agreement because they had asked themselves the same question.

Journalists hate to block free expression — it's akin to a mortal sin in the publishing world — but Michael Landauer, opinion page editor for The Dallas Morning News, pointed out that not every letter to the editor makes it into the hard copy of the paper. The job of the opinion page editor is to promote intelligent discussion about issues in the community — racist or other hateful comments do not get into the paper.

"Everyone in this room is a trained, certified, expert community discussion leader," Landauer said. "The notion that we should not police our blogs is just dumbfounding to me."

Discussion during Friday morning's session, which was specifically devoted to the opinion page and social media, also explored allowing people to remain anonymous when posting comments.

"As a writer, I don't care if people say things about me," said Doug Gibson, the opinion page editor at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. "But I get a lot of calls from readers asking, 'Why don't you make them sign their names?' "

Landauer said that some think tanks, government agencies and other groups prohibit employees from commenting online. But there are times when experts feel compelled to post a comment. "A lot of them need that anonymity," he said.

Landauer proposed allowing people to register onto a Web site before being allowed to comment and allowing them up to five aliases. "That way, we kind of know who you are" and if comments get out of line, the newspaper editors can address it, he said.

Miriam Pepper, vice president of The Kansas City Star's opinion page, said her paper has a handful of reader advisers who are encouraged to blog. The reader advisers' comments are well-informed and raise the level of discussion, she said.

Pepper described a regular online commenter who always identified himself and his Kansas City neighborhood with each comment, and the paper rewarded his straightforwardness by making him a reader adviser.

"I'm hoping the more people who sign names to their comments, they gain more credibility," Pepper said.

e-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

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