NEWSFLASH: PEOPLE ARE RUDE ONLINE [Author: Lum the Mad]
I know this will come as a great shock to many of you, but in his latest column print journalist and media analyst Howie Kurtz of the Washington Post thinks web ranters are bad.
Why so personal? Are these guys just acting like playground bullies? What is it about the Web that fuels such slashing attacks?
Snideness sells, says Goldberg, the editor of National Review Online: “You don’t want to just say the guy is wrong; you want to say the guy is stupid. Let’s be honest: There’s some marketing in it, too. Speaking in blunter terms draws more eyeballs. You get more positive feedback when you smack someone around the head and neck with a wet flounder.”
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Another reason why some Web columnists spew at will: little or no editing.
“Print tends to be more staid and cautious,” Goldberg says. “There’s a built-in braking mechanism when you write for print. Maybe all this is just code for saying print has higher standards.”
It was so much better back in the day before the rabble had access to ink and paper. I have a longer response to this which actually is somewhat more MMO related, but that will have to wait till after work when I can devote more than thirty seconds to posting a story.