Two things that distinguish online from print news are links and reader comments. Online news articles include embedded links, making it easy for readers to call up sources and related stories. This is the best thing about online news IMO.
The worst thing about online news is reader comments. Print newspapers and magazines filter comments, generally publishing only those that are germane to the topic and have something useful to say. This is not the case with online news, where hate-filled misogynist and racist rants flood in and drown reasoned conversation.
Online news-savvy readers know better than to scroll down to the comments. And I do, too … except for when I forget.
A local newspaper posted an article to Facebook earlier this week. It was about illegal immigrants being beaten and tased by Border patrol officers and Customs agents. I knew the comments would be ignorant, racist, and vile. I read them anyway. I might as well have dived into a vat of liquid shit.
BTW, what is it with writing ILLEGAL!!! in all caps with multiple exclamation points? Don’t these people routinely speed, run red lights, and cheat on their taxes like the rest of us? You know damn well they do, but hypocrisy is not an operative concept with them. Nor is irony, nor basic human decency.
To compound my stupidity, I added a comment of my own. Here it is, along with another reader’s response:
Yes, these proud Americans. The few. The white. The semi-literate. When they say they want the borders closed, what they mean is that they want illegal border crossers shot dead. When they talk about deporting the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country, they’re dreaming of boxcars and concentration camps.
Imagine if Mexico and the Central American countries most illegal immigrants come from were former slave nations, like Haiti, and we weren’t just talking about latinos, but black latinos. The boxcar crowd wouldn’t just be making a lot of noise, they’d be getting their way.