By snoadmin
Uncategorized
Ask the 49er
By snoadmin
Ben Zitney graduated last week so he won’t be working on Ask the 49er anymore. As for the form submission, it is the same information our reporters are told to ask when interviewing students. Those fields are not absolutely required – you should be able to leave them blank and it will still work. If you are still concerned about anonymity, we do have a mailing address at 1250 Bellflower Blvd, SSPA004B. We also have a fax number: (562) 985-7994.
As for comments, I’ve deleted two: one was on a story I wrote about the end of the Beach Cruiser shuttle service, and was encouraging students to “ride a beach cruiser bicycle to school for less” (obviously spam). The other was a comment that, for whatever reason, was showing up three times. The original was left up, with the two duplicates erased. If any other comments are gone permanently, please let me know. I can see the moderation history so if someone is actively erasing them, I can see who it is.
Thank you,
Robert Grimmick
Online Editor
onlined49er@gmail.com
(562) 985-8000
Still not understanding you, Mr. Zitney. I’m curious why you would even ask for such personal identifiers in your prompt. It’s not a requisite for “comments” so why should it be one for “Ask the 49er”? It defeats the purpose of asking anonymous questions if the person doing the asking has to provide this information. You’re only restricting yourself.
People, seriously, lay off the 49er. You people make it sound like some some Nazi-run media conglomerate operating out of the SSPA, leading the blind masses of CSULB to their doom.
It’s a student newspaper. At a CSU. C’mon.
I’m not a huge fan of it either, and it’s not beyond heavy (very heavy) criticism, but seriously. Go down there and tell them what you want to see if you have these problems. It belongs to you.
To the ‘Your name’ that I assume is Mr. Zitney; Re-read your comment to ‘law yer’ and try to understand where the lack of trust may be originating from. Your remarks, as an editor I assume, are consistently nasty in tone and utterly on the defensive, which gives an impression either you or your publication constantly needs to defend itself. I wouldn’t want to e-mail you with complaints myself. I truly believe that if I e-mailed any criticism to the address you provided, you would only send me a nasty reply; and possibly do something as immature as identify my on your website. You need to grow up.
law yer,
Neither I nor anyone on our staff have any clue who you are, so I don’t really see how this doesn’t offer true anonymity. If any readers feel their freedom is impugned by the name, major, etc. prompts, they simply don’t have to fill them in. None of the fields are required.
And as for the freshman part, I included that because your submission arrived in our inbox with “fresh” written for the “year” prompt, so I took that as your saying that you were a freshman, but I will remove that part.
For Benjamin Zitney: e-mailing your staff with a complaint becomes problematic in an ‘anonymous’ realm because it defeats the mission of the comment box, unless the complainant creates a fictitious address for said contact to complain. I’m the one who posed the censorship question and have no clue how you surmised I was a “freshman” although I did post anonymously, if you follow my drift. I would enjoy posing other questions but, because of sensitivity about identification, don’t appreciate the solicitation for my personal information in your submission box, notably “name, major, year, etc.” It impugns my freedom to comment/question anonymously. Try an alternative submission requirement that truly offers anonymity and I’ll bet you’ll need an extra staffer or more to handle all of the questions.
To Your name–May 13 03:04, censorship is censorship. True that libel is a concern, but the D-49er or any other publication is not responsible for libelous statements published in anonymity via the comments section in the wild-wild world of the Internet. Even through that benign argument, the comment section doesn’t include a disclaimer about filtering potentially libelous commentary; it only denotes that spam, profanity and/or web links might cause the IP address to be permanently banned (read below in the “I am not posting spam” section.
Aside from your miscue, such censorship, whether intentional or by filter, defeats the entire purpose of having such a sharing platform. This is a new age in media and to restrict the arena might cause the publication readership distrust, hence potentially bringing about the demise of all of the corporation’s business. With all due respect to Dr. Brown, when the media makes a practice of choosing which to allow and which to exclude based solely on arbitrary and anal interpretations of the First Amendment, one chooses the side of defending practices of totalitarian regimes, i.e. burning or banning literature that doesn’t fit the ‘societal mold’ of reasonable and acceptable language and thought. That’s not what will get you jobs in the future and that’s not will keep your readers returning to your pages. Study more current Supreme Court decisions on responsibilities of the Fourth Estate as it relates to cyber integration and citizen journalism.
The litmus test for the Daily Forty-Niner should be their dedication in allowing a ‘hands off’ philosophy on anonymous public commentary. Their responsibility should be ownership for what they actually produce as an entity. They should only play the gatekeeper with their own product, not for the public reactions to their content. Besides, it’s a great way for reporters to get potential story ideas if they merely watch the fur fly in an open and public space.
I want to again encourage any reader to, if you feel like your comment was censored, e-mail our staff at onlined49er@gmail.com. When we talk to College Publisher about this issue its helps when we can show specific examples.
Thank you.
Junior censors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL, what a load. I’ve posted comments without profanities or web links and they don’t show up. This is such a puny example of the 1st Amendment it’s so laughable it could bring a good journalist to tears–not from the giggles but from the tragic display (or should I say lack of display). Too bad, you guys could have a spot for readers to post fresh commentary about your coverage to help you improve. Blaming it on your service is shameful. It’s your ultimate responsibility to allow the free exchange of ideas about your content, not some remote filtering agency. Own up!!!!
I don’t believe the weak excuse about censorship. I’ve posted logical comments without vulgarities and none of them show up. I see “X” number of comments listed under articles, but when I go to the articles there’s nothing. This is especially true of article comments that are critical of 49er coverage and administrators, including the board of trustees and the chancellor. The 49er is definitely screening the comments and blocking many. I’ll be surprised if this one slips through.
The Forty-Niner should have some kind very limited editor-decided censorship when it comes to Web comments. Particularly if something is libelous, the Forty-Niner has no obligation to let that go through. The paper should practice responsible publication ethics everywhere. And deleting or editing libelous parts of a comment is not a violation of the First Amendment, despite what many who are uneducated on that amendment may think – aka those who don’t take Dr. Brown’s class!
If they want to libel someone they can do it through their own idiotic means and reap the rewards of irresponsibility. Everyone has a right to free speech but not a “right” to publish in the newspaper, print or online. If they want to put stupid libelous Web comments or publish something and the Forty-Niner rejects it, tell them to exercise their rights and either 1: start their own website or 2: start your own newspaper. Then see if anyone wants to read it. Good luck.
i see hot chicks slip off their flip flops all the time in the library and grass areas of campus. even in the classroom. nothing like seeing nice pedicured toes in the spring time.