Blog P.I.

Jim Brady and the Washington Post’s online arm have been out in front of its rivals and most newspapers across the country when it comes to engaging the blogs, teaming up with David Sifry’s Technorati 11 months ago to deliver blogospheric commentaries on their own stories on their own site. Now, even after the blog-fueled Deborah Howell and Ben Domenech debacles — both of which brought hundreds, if not thousands of unwanted e-mails from enraged progressives — Brady & Co. are pushing forward with a plan to bring even more comments to the virtual pages of WashingtonPost.com. E&P reports:

Washingtonpost.com, taking a bold step, has enabled user comments on many of its stories for over a month now — and the move has been deemed a success by the site’s editors. But soon the feature will be put to the test as it is extended to every article on the site, including those in the Politics, World and Nation sections. The comments feature initially debuted in the Sports section, with registered users allowed to post their own commentary directly below individual stories and respond to one another, as on blogs. Soon, the paper opened up the Metro and Style sections to comments as well, in addition to several weekly sections.

At the risk of violating Wolcott’s Law, I wrote at the time of the Howell controversy that the Post could cut down on flippant, angry comments by instituting comment registration. Many blogs do it, and it’s less cumbersome than requiring moderation of all comments. The Post has made a wise decision here. And they’ve implemented further safeguards:

A profanity filter automatically removes the more obvious abuses of the commenting function, but editors are still needed to keep users from posting personal attacks against the journalists and other commenters. Brady says that a feature where readers can flag abusive comments posted by others acts like a tip sheet for the staffers monitoring the site.

The filter may be a lost cause, unless they’re prepared to add hundreds of alternate spellings (and mastered 1337speak to boot). But the next sentence underscores why this experiment will surely prove valuable:

So far, comments have been both “high-level” and on-topic, says Brady, and in many cases the newspaper’s journalists have, in fact, learned more about issues based on reader comments.

That admission should bring a tear to the eye of anyone who has pounded the keyboard in frustration over the MSM’s frequently high-handed approach to bloggers.

While the New York Times hides its could-be-influential Opinionator blog behind a firewall and the Los Angeles Times has retreated in wake of its Wikitorial and Michael Hitzlik fiascos, the Post continues to solidify its place, as Jay Rosen proposed, that it is the best newspaper in the country.

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