The Washington Post Message Board ["Blog"]

"[P]retty filthy stuff"

 

In January of this year, the Washington Post shut down one of its own blogs.

In response to a story by the Washington Post's Ombudsman Deborah Howell that since-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties," people posted their thoughts on the Washington Post's own blog.

The paper's staff couldn't "keep the board clean, there was some pretty filthy stuff" said Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com in explaining his decision to shut the board down. 

"We're not giving up on the concept of having a healthy public dialogue with our readers, but this experience shows that we need to think more carefully about how we do it," Brady wrote on his Web site. "There are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech."

 

Source:  Associated Press