Stop stalling, end website comments

A year ago, Day Publisher Gary Farrugia told me there was a newsroom committee on The Day’s policies regarding website commenting. Questions to be examined included continuing anonymous commenting, changing the system to require true identities or eliminating commenting.

Today, the status quo remains. It is time for The Day to take responsibility for the damage anonymous online commenting is doing to our society and our democracy. Here’s the hypocrisy: to be included in anything on a Day news page, you must be fully identified. This is standard journalistic practice, requiring sources to be fully identified. Only in extreme cases are anonymous sources allowed, and that information must be verified through other, independent means.

This practice ends at the bottom of the article, where, in the comments, “Rascals,” “LEO,” “Spanky” et al, live. Commenters have free rein to spread lies. They freely attack and denigrate those who are fully identified in the articles. The Day’s commenting policies are weak and laxly enforced. The Day has no way of knowing how many commenters are the creation of Russian troll farms working to do harm to the nation.

Interestingly, comments are not allowed on letters to the editor, which also require full identity to be published. It is time for The Day’s hypocrisy to end. Shut off website commenting. Elissa Bass Stonington

Editor’s note: Elissa Bass is a former Day reporter and editor.