Austin Bay Blog

Yes, the Washington Post (at least the on-line edition) got a dose of the web-world’s KKK –KosKidz Komments. Apparently meters-worth (keep scrolling!!) of nastygrams, personal attacks, and “komments” from angry little Lefties ended up on the WaPo’s website.

The on-line edition’s executive editor Jim Brady took the silly trash down. Of course he was accused of “censorship.” Good job, Mr. Brady.

Brady came on Hugh Hewitt’s show and discussed the problem and his decision. (The link is to Radioblogger.com.)

Here’s an interesting exchange:

HH: Jim Brady, who do you think these people are? Because I run into them in this business, but we have a six second delay, goodness knows why. Who do you think they are? Why are they so fundamentally unhappy?

JB: Well, I mean in this case, there was very much a concerted effort to…when Deborah wrote her column on Sunday, a lot of the bloggers on the left side of the spectrum really…they got together and they said let’s go to the Post blog and tell them how unhappy we are with this column.

HH: Was there an epicenter of that effort?

JB: It looked like it was in a bunch of different blogs. I mean, it certainly was getting a lot of attention on Atrios and Daily Kos, and some other places. So I mean there did seem to be…you know, it wasn’t a campaign in the sense of a really organized campaign, but it was kind of a grass roots campaign to…

HH: Well, you’ve just named the two central islands in the fever swamps. So I’m not surprised. When you write on…in your online edition today, I think it goes to basic human decency. Are you saying protecting Deborah Howell? Or are you saying…I hope you’re saying both, you’re protecting your readers from it as well?

JB: Yeah, and we’ve been clear about that, that we’re not going to tolerate anybody being called these names, whether they’re employees of the Washington Post or other commentors. And this was more directed at Deborah than it was at other commentors. But that was certainly part of the equation, and it’s just…you know, as I said in the discussion, if you can’t make your point without calling people some of the names they were being called, then you don’t have a point in my opinion.

Of course, this personal attack game is a form of “borking” –albeit small-time borking featuring petty viciousness and high-school smack. Wait–make that junnior high school smack talk. However, these attacks also contain more than a little brownshirt thuggery. In the case of the Washington Post report they were attacks designed to smother “politically uncomfortable” information. We know these attacks are also designed to silence critics. (In the interview Brady does an excellent job of discussing the subject that ignited the KosKidz attacks, Jack Abramoff and the funds he “directed” to Democrats. Abramoff gave money to Republicans personally, and directed clients to give Democrats money. Its a distinction with very little practical difference.)

Hewitt and Brady also discuss newspapers’ websites:

HH: Is the future of newspapers, Jim Brady? They’ve got to get heavy into the internet presence?

JB: I think they absolutely have to get heavy into the internet. I’m not one of those who believes that newspapers are going to be dead in ten years. I think they’re going to have a long…they’re going to have a healthy life, and there’s going to be people who will always be interested in reading a newspaper, but I think more of the share will go to the web, and these kind of interactive features, and willingness to engage the audience and hear them out is really important to it, which is why we’ve pushed it.

Read the entire interview.

UPDATE: Oxblog suggests the Washington Post should have selectively deleted offensive comments. I agree. Deborah Howell’s original post was fair game for criticism.