Sun-Sentinel Website Filled With Racist Hate
BY BUDDY NEVINS
When I was at the Sun-Sentinel, a meeting was held about the vicious, racist comments appearing on the paper’s Internet page.
A number of the reporters and editors, just some of whom were black or Hispanic, were highly upset that the newspaper was giving a forum to bigots in its comments section. One of the suits at the paper was also upset, stating the bigots were damaging the Sun-Sentinel “brand,” i.e., reputation.
Before any steps were taken about the Internet comments, I took a buyout and left to enjoy my pension.
But it is obvious to me that the paper didn’t learn a thing in the past seven or so years.
The story concerning the trouble on Fort Lauderdale beach over the weekend, which was finally posted almost a day after the incident, is filled comments which are nothing more than racist tripe.
The above comment is only one example of the venomous garbage posted on the Sun-Sentinel’s website concerning the breakdown of law-and-order on both sides of the Intracoastal.
And its not the worst comment.
This garbage is exactly why a number of national magazines and newspapers have closed their comment sections. The Sun-Sentinel might want to consider monitoring the comments or discontinuing them.
I’m sure they don’t want their site a vehicle for hate.
XXXXX
Yes, fights were breaking out on the western side of the Las Olas Bridge and I’ve seen a photo of a smashed car window from a band of youths fighting in that area.
City Manager Lee Feldman and Mayor Jack Seiler are disgracefully downplaying of the incident.
When dozens get arrested and thousands of residents can’t leave their homes something is wrong and needs to be fixed….before the next holiday. July 4th?
May 28th, 2014 at 5:41 pm
Buddy,
Like you, I find the comments distasteful and nauseating. However, (without condoning the sentiments)choosing to edit the contents of someone’s post seems a dangerous course. Who would decide what is, and is not appropriate? And using what standards?
One of the primary benefits of our freedoms of press and speech is that they allow for disagreement i.e. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”- S.G. Tallentyre
It would seem a better course to err on the side of the freedom, and trust in an individual’s ability to shrug off stupidity and vulgarity.
May 28th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Why not “shame” the people who actually caused the trouble instead of the people who are commenting about it on some website ?
May 28th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Simple solution: make them sign their real name. Easy to be brave if you don’t own what you write.
May 28th, 2014 at 9:20 pm
I saw that comment and others and was really surprised and appalled at the level of hate they reached. But I believe that John Henry and I Own Broward are correct on the issue.
It is too bad that the newspaper and even this blog are afraid to discuss the central issue. There is a certain element in the Black community that is poison to us all. The “Thug Culture” exists and the sooner people admit it the better off we will all be. Once you acknowledge there is a problem you can begin to fix it.
May 28th, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Frankly Buddy, your website is no different. You allow racist and derogatory comments to be posted under fake names or pseudonyms on Browardbeat. You need to practice what you preach before you throw stones at others.
FROM BUDDY:
I allow folks to post using fake names or pseudonyms. I also allow comments that some could interpret as being derogatory.
But I do not allow knowingly any racist comments and will remove any pointed out to me. I never, ever, ever allowed anything like appeared on the Sun-Sentinel website today.
The Sun-Sentinel claims to hold itself to a higher standard than bloggers and websites like Browardbeat.com. It is a major company in this community with a diverse work force. It sells advertising to people of varying background. I can imagine how some of its employees and advertisers feel about the garbage being printed on Sunsentinel.com.
May 28th, 2014 at 10:21 pm
Completely agree with #1. Moreover:
http://prospect.org/article/remedy-more-speech
We are dealing here with bad ideas, not physical blows or the absence of ideas. For that problem John Stuart Mill had the right answer long ago in his famous essay “On Liberty.” He said that we must allow for the expression of bad ideas — whether opinions or alleged statements of fact — because they may contain some grain of truth that corrects the conventional wisdom or, lacking that, provide a challenge to accepted beliefs, without which those beliefs in the long run become mere prejudices. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis advised, in his famous Whitney v. California opinion in 1927, “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
May 29th, 2014 at 6:37 am
I completely agree with Chuck. Real names. Make them log in with a social network account like Facebook or Twitter. And, if after the comments are made, any comments, not just racist ones, and it looks like that account is fake, then remove the comments.
Thank you, Buddy, for holding yourself to a higher standard than a “real” newspaper site.
May 29th, 2014 at 8:42 am
I have called out the Sun-Sentinel on numerous occasions for the trolls and advertising spam that fills their comment sections. Their website does not even follow its own Terms of Service for comments, and does not remove them even when they are flagged as offensive or spam. They have poor electronic filters and obviously are not interested in editing the comment sections to raise their publication to an acceptable standard. I wouldn’t even want my children reading such garbage. I will gladly repost this article on Twitter and tag the Sun Sentinel in the post.
May 29th, 2014 at 11:15 am
The Sun-Sentinel comments section is pretty bad. But if you want to see really, REALLY bad racist stuff (with the inevitable bad spelling and grammar), go to FoxNation.com. The “regular” FoxNews.com website suspended commenting for months and seems to have created and expanded the companion FoxNation.com to sort of take the heat off their “main” site and give the bigots a place to vent.
But the absolute WORST, in my opinion, is Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” which is not only lots of that type of racist stuff but wacko off-their-meds conspiracy nut jobs.
May 29th, 2014 at 11:53 am
The SS has vastly improved its handling of spam posts. However, it still needs to work on offensive, abusive comments towards civic activists in Dania Beach. A person who currently calls herself “Corruption Killa” and “Dania Native” verbally attacks anyone and everyone in Dania Beach who does not agree with her or the leadership of the city. What ever happened to free speech?
I hope the comment portions of both newspapers and blogs are not shut down. Sometimes the opportunity to comment publicly is best done in print media.
May 29th, 2014 at 10:06 pm
Really Buddy, if you want to be taken seriously on this topic, you need to practice what you preach. Make people post through facebook or Twitter on your blog. Then they have to identify themselves. Let’s see what they post when they can be held accountable, whether it be the Sun Sentinel or Browardbeat.
May 30th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
It is the same on all blog comments. The people who post on this blog hide behind fake screen names.
May 30th, 2014 at 10:19 pm
I wouldn’t wipe my dog’s ass with the Sun Sentinel. Stopped buying it three years ago when the idiots gave it away for free on the internet.
May 31st, 2014 at 9:02 am
Great idea…kill the messenger. Sometimes people can’t post their real identity because someone on government would come after them (i.e. Lamberti and all the arrests)
Maybe if the media reported the “news” truthfully and didn’t shape it to fit a liberal censorship agenda, the BS comments would stop. A band of “youths”? ….get real…. I think soem of the inappropriate comments are made out of frustration because the media is trying to hide the real problem.
I agree with #1, 2 and 4.