Sky Hi News | Censoring You One Comment At A Time

Are you perplexed by why the Sky Hi News and its sister sites turned off their comment systems, effectively censoring the public discourse occurring under their online articles?

For an answer, look no further then the Summit Daily News, where they sum up their total lack of understanding of the online space:

"...online comments have been a vexing feature of our website for years. On the one hand, they do provide a wonderful forum for discussion of news and opinion. On the other, they can provide a platform for an awful lot of unsavory and insulting language[Perish the thought!], both from regular readers and from “trolls” from all over who bounce from site to site commenting on topics of interest to them (and these folks tend to be the nastiest of the nasties). Because our commenting software did not require a “real name” convention, most folks appeared under anonymous screen names — a situation that often facilitated what many might consider to be the polar opposite of civil discourse[What, exactly, is the definition of civil discourse?].


Managing [controlling] online comments is a hot topic among newspaper editors and in journalism trade publications. We believe they can be a great feature of our websites, but we deplore the lack of civility [control] the anonymity [ability to say anything] allows. We also recognize that, over the years, we've established a double standard for our letters to the editor — which require a verifiable name and address — compared to our online comments."

Translation: People are too stupid to think for themselves and choose what information is relevant to the topic or not.


In one fell swoop the editorial staff at the Summit Daily, and I'm assuming, all of their online properties have proven they have no idea what the online space represents. The lamestream media has once again proven that it can't catch up to the times.

If you'd like to make comments on this blog, anonymous or not, I'll assume you're skin is thick enough to handle an occasional 'shit' or 'damn.' And if you spam or troll the comments section, your post will immediately disappear. If you use your real name, people will see your message as more valid than if you post like an anonymous coward.

Now, was that so tough?

UPDATE: In an amazing twist of irony comes this article from the Sky Hi Daily News on May 2nd:

Digital censorship grows as media moves online