Journalists threatening blog-commentators?

Lots of newspapers are online; probably most of them by now. A lot give users/readers the possibility to comment on an article. This, as most of us who read these comments notice, often go far beyond good behaviour as users sometimes start throwing verbal arguments at each other.

However, should the journalists interfere and start threatening comments?
An article in Danish newspaper Politiken - well, the online version - crossed the line today.

The article is about a soup-café and how 2 volunteers have been given free soup every day for one month as a little experiment/ sales promotion. The experiment is going well - the volunteers have lost weight and feel healthier. There is no medical backup, but all in all it's a nice and fun little article, and I have no doubt about it's good intentions.

But a user questions the article's integrity, asking if it's a commercial or the newspaper was secretly paid to write such a nice article about the soup-café.

Here's where it gets bad; a journalist from the newpaper, Politiken, enters the discussion, and makes a less than subtle remark, that the user is slandering the newspaper, and that this is punishable! WHAT?

So, basically, instead of acknowledging the comment and adressing it properly, maybe simply saying that no payment was involved and that the newspaper just felt it was a good story, they hype the thing, jump into alarm-mode, and accuse a reader of slandering!?

The comments now excalate; several users point out to the journalist that his behaviour is no good etiquette, in return, the journalist just escalate the discussion.

Dangerous ground! Lots of journalists receive payment for writing stories; I don't think this one did, it's really just a cute little story; but can a user not ask? Or just question this without getting threatened? For me, this example demonstrates poor Web 2.0 journalistic behaviour; and the journalist most likely will make more people question his fears and less people want to comment if their comment is critical.

Web 2.0 journalism should be about honesty, integrity and transparency; if someone questions this, it's the journalist's responsability to simply address this in a proper, non-threatening way and not push it's users away.




http://ibyen.dk/restauranter/article838087.ece