Lynching photo posted in newspaper reader comments area

The Telegraph Herald in Iowa closed reader comments this weekend after a reader posted a photo of a lynched black man in the comments section of an article about the stabbing death of a white man, allegedly at the hands of a black man.

"This person inserted computer code in the text of their post, and that code pulled the image from another Web site," said Randy Rodgers, electronic media director for the Telegraph Herald. Through this method, it appeared that the image was posted on www.THonline.com, even though the photo was from another site, Rodgers said.

The color photo was posted to the site 73 times between 10:30 and 10:37 a.m., and although the majority of the images were caught by a system filter, Rodgers said at least 10 made it through.

A shift commander at the Dubuque Police Department informed the Telegraph Herald about the photo, and minutes later the user was banned and the posts were removed.

An hour
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later all comments were taken off the site. Rodgers said Telegraph Herald officials plan to restart the site's commenting service after new safeguards are added. The additional layer of security will minimize the risk of "objectionable content" from readers who, until Sunday, could post anonymously through screen names.

Dubuque Police are investigating the matter. The Telegraph Herald was served a subpoena Monday to provide data about the person who posted the content.

New restrictions will follow a pattern of increasing regulations on the Telegraph Herald site since the paper launched the comment section in February 2006 and began encountering reader postings with name-calling and insults.

Rodgers said filters and "Suggest Removal" tips often work.

"But some users do find ways around them, so it's a constant cat-and-mouse game," said Rodgers, who also said some postings accusing others of inappropriate or criminal behavior have been potentially libelous.

Sep 04, 2007 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(1)
Tags: crowdsourcing

Discussion

1 comments about 'Lynching photo posted in newspaper reader comments area'

For a mainstream newspaper, no comment should be made public until approved by the moderators and editors.

No robot can replace a live moderator or editor.

Readers should not be allowed to abuse and misuse news channels online and offline.

Posted by Michael Chima at September 12, 2007 8:47 AM

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