Perusing Lucianne

A New York Times article mentions - surprise! - Lucianne. David Carr calls Lucianne one "of the Web's most robust destinations". That's a good call. The subject of Carr's article is the WaPo's decision to eliminate the "Comments" section of its blog, washintonpost.com. He points out that The LAT had to do that with its "Wikitorial" page after being bombarded by slurs, profanity and porn, Mickey Kaus won't allow comments until some geek comes up with a "jerk-zapper", BoingBoing.net took down its Comments feature last year, and the Metafilter forum charges $5 to first-time posters to try to weed out the "drive-by" shooters. Said Xeni Jardin, a founder of the BoingBoing,

"But until we are able to come up with a better comments system - most of what is out there is too crude - it is not worth the trouble. I don't blame The Post for not hosting that kind of stuff, "especially when someone can go and make a blog on their own called 'IHateTheWashingtonPost.com' in five minutes and post whatever they want to."

I have to agree. I cannot understand the dogged insistence by what is most often the left-wingers that they have some right to dirty someone's website with slurs, profanity and pornography. For an example, see this post. Carr's most important statement:

Now, mainstream media outlets find themselves under attack for not providing bandwidth and visibility to people who wish them dead.

What responsibility does WaPo or Mark in Mexico or any other player have to provide a forum for trailer trash? None whatsoever, IMHO.

TAGS: Lucianne.com, New York Times, washingtonpost.com, LAT, Wikitorial, BoeingBoeing.net, Mickey Kaus, Kausfiles, Metafilter, trailer trash