Columnist Cronley: Anonymous Internet Comments

By Jay Cronley, Tulsa World columnist ~ Detailed reports of devastating events wind up in the printed newspaper and also with the publication's online version. Reader response to what's printed comes in the form of letters that are run in the editorial area of the newspaper. Responses and opinions are to be signed; authenticity of the responder is checked.

Online, reaction to matters comical and heartbreaking can be anonymous. Anonymous material can be worthwhile. We vote anonymously. If a cure for an illness were submitted anonymously, it would be no less valuable. Some people actually think better, or at least funnier, and have more to offer anonymously.

'Anonymity is used like a hate crime'

The other side of the issue occurs when anonymity is used like a hate crime. The rules of common decency stipulate that if you get personal, you must use your name; you have to attack in person, as it were, not from behind somebody's back. If you say that somebody is a drunk, signing off on your message with a silly nickname like Internet junkies use simply won't do; if you respond to an online article with a personal comment such as somebody is a bad spouse or a lousy parent, list your name and home phone number. See how that works.

Ripped from the headlines: Last week, a local writer was arrested on a public intoxication complaint at a school. It was his third offense for allegedly being drunk in a relatively brief period of time -- not that three arrests in a lifetime wouldn't be too many. A public intoxication arrest in the morning at a school does not make for very pleasant reading. Most thoughts about the incident probably had to do with, first, the safety of those in the writer's path; then the law pertaining to repeated offenses; then the issue of alcoholism itself, its causes and treatments. But some of the comments at the end of the article online were brutal. One was a hurtful comment about an ex-wife, a claim that had no basis in truth, as it was made without attribution, facts, names.

I don't like to read unfounded and accusatory charges about strangers. Imagine the person whose private life was being assailed.

It is fairly obvious why nobody takes responsibility for unfounded nasty comments; signed, they could be libelous.

Return to sender: A few weeks ago, there was a horrible local small-airplane crash. Two adults and three children were killed on the spot. The aircraft more or less disintegrated. Below that photograph and story online were some inappropriate comments based in rumor about one of the people who was killed. Somebody commenting anonymously was more interested in the conditions of one of the deceased adult's divorce decree. Dead people and people in need of medical help are easy targets.

Some of the unclaimed heartless and soulless attacks don't belong in public; they should be flushed to the dead online message office.

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