![\"keep-calm-and-never-read-the-comments\"](\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7585\/17010553642_d3aef463bc_m.jpg\")
Two things that distinguish online from print news are\u00a0links 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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0hate-filled misogynist and racist rants flood in and\u00a0drown reasoned conversation.<\/p>\n
Online news-savvy readers know better than to scroll down to the comments. And I do, too … except for when I forget.<\/p>\n
A local newspaper posted an article to Facebook earlier this week.\u00a0It was about illegal immigrants being beaten and tased by Border patrol officers and Customs agents.\u00a0I knew the comments would be ignorant, racist, and vile. I read them anyway. I might as well have dived into\u00a0a vat of liquid shit.<\/p>\n
BTW, what is it with writing ILLEGAL!!! in all caps with multiple\u00a0exclamation points? Don’t these\u00a0people 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\u00a0basic human decency.<\/p>\n
To compound my stupidity, I added\u00a0a comment of my own. Here it is, along with another reader’s response:<\/p>\n
![\"racist\"](\"https:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8736\/16824384900_c3d9fb8be0_z.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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\u00a0boxcars and concentration camps.<\/p>\n
Imagine if Mexico and the Central American countries most illegal immigrants come from were former slave nations,\u00a0like Haiti, and\u00a0we 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two things that distinguish online from print news are\u00a0links 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,16,6],"tags":[1838,66,69],"class_list":["post-16417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-wars","category-media","category-a-series-of-tubes","tag-boxcar-caucus","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-racism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16417"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16424,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16417\/revisions\/16424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}