By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger.net
The New York Times is one of our role models for certain journalistic issues, especially how we deal with comments to Blogfinger.
Our “rules” section above was written originally by an editor from the Philadelphia Inquirer, so we have largely stuck with the original text and approach.
The Times has a letters to the editor section and they have a letters editor and a small staff to deal with those letters, and they publish about 15 letters each day out of a thousand received. So the vast majority of their letters are rejected, and it is not uncommon for letters that are accepted to require editing.
The New York Times letter editor says, “We reserve the right to edit for space, clarity, civility, and accuracy.” If they accept your letter they will call you to verify your identity and to “ask a few questions.”
They don’t like imposters, and neither do we. They also try to assess the writer’s “credibility and motivation.” So they would never accept pseudonyms.
So for those BF readers who get angry when we edit their submissions, we are not alone in that policy.
On Blogfinger we post about 95% of comments received, and about half are edited somewhat, mostly for punctuation, spelling, relevance, focus, length, readability, accuracy and attitude. We try to edit rather than reject.
The most common reason for a rejection at Blogfinger is when a comment does not address the topic at hand. Writers do not get to post a dissertation. A comment has to be brief. Another reason for rejection is when a writer is engaged in a personal attack against us or someone else.
Some of our readers think that we are typical of blogs in the blogosphere where any and all comments are accepted, even those with the most unacceptable content. But that is not who we are.
We do allow anonymous comments as a way to encourage sincere opinions. But giving one’s real name and credentials adds to the comment’s credibility.
So we encourage comments, but there are rules of the road.
More information: Here is a link to a prior BF blog post on this topic:
BRANDI CARLILE “The Story”
Please put me on your mailing list. I live in Ocean Grove and would appreciate your blogs. I am asking to be included because of your professional handling of “letters to the editor.” I am not interested in people using you as a sounding board, so thank you for your timely reassurance of that. Judy Matthies Judymatthies@gmail.com