Newspapers Face Ugly Side Of Web Future: As newspapers rapidly embrace the Internet as a means of recovering readers they have lost in their print editions, they have mostly adopted the "open forum" values of the Web, which allows users to anonymously post comments on articles and news events. This has made newspaper comment boards a magnet for a small but vocal percentage of readers who openly engage in venomous personal attacks or racist sentiments.
But critics say that newspapers have been too slow to respond to the challenge of curbing hate-filled speech, either lacking the monitoring capacity, not wanting to discourage page visits to their websites or looking for means of encouraging more participation by readers.
This reverses the historic role of newspapers, which considered themselves guardians of civility and, for example, refused to print anonymous letters to the editor on the grounds that it would invite irresponsible speech that could not be addressed by other readers.
