I hear a never ending chorus from people who say "You are violating my 1st amendment rights!!!" to anybody and everybody who tries to control/edit what you say. They are almost always wrong.
The 1st amendment, as is generally the case with the others, describe a relationship between people and the government, not you and an online blog run by some guy named Dave...
Now that we have show it is not a legal issue in most cases, lets examine if it is a moral/ethical one. Without a doubt it can be. We have to look at venue.
If I am running a corporate blog from Exxon and doing public affairs for them, my job is presenting the image of all things Exxon in the best light. It would be an ethical issue if I didn't serve my clients/employers needs. I am disseminating news and information. Some of it may be very legitimate and of extreme public interest but I am not bound to give all stakeholders a say. Editing comments on the IBM facebook page is just fine just as it would be on my own personal facebook page.
What about a news organization? Something that presents itself as bound by the general ethics of journalism? I think the line changes but doesn't disappear.
If comments are within a few degrees of the message, they probably should stay. When the comments go way off message, they are no longer part of the story. Obviously spam would fall into the category but people use any soap box they can find for personal agendas. If it is off message, it can be deleted.
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ReplyDeleteI admire your confidence. I wish I had the same. If I edited all the Grey Sparrow Facebook posters who didn't stay on message, NO one would post on Grey Sparrow's Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Grey Sparrow Facebook has any trolls--there are about 222 members. I decline a lot of requests. On rare occasions though, I'm mortified by something I write and take it down. It takes more work to explain a situation clearly in writing, than to raise an eyebrow.