Charlie Breitrose Watertown residents cast their ballots at Watertown Town Hall in 2020.
Watertown has a big election coming up on Nov. 2, 2021, with several contested races as well as the proposed Charter changes. The discussion about the candidates and the issues has already become contentions, so in order to provide some accountability when it comes to commenting a new policy will apply to comments on election stories, or those about candidates on other stories.
Candidates have put themselves out there and express their opinions and platforms. While it is fair game to question and oppose those things, to make it a level playing field, commenters should also stand behind their opinions by signing their comments.
Beginning Sept. 9, 2021, comments on election stories, or about candidates, must be made with a full, real name.
An unsigned comment may get an opinion across, but people take it more seriously and give more credibility to it if they know who is making the comment.
Exceptions will be made for the “I agree,” or “I disagree” type of comments. Those can be made without a full name, but again, more credibility is given to a comment made by a real person, not a screen name.
I have given this matter thought, and while I do see a place for anonymous comments, I have seen comments on Watertown News and elsewhere have gotten more heated and vitriolic in recent years.
I have been approached by many over the years requesting that I require all commenters to sign their full name. While I don’t think that is necessary all the time, I think it makes sense during an election. I also recall the last contentious election, in 2016 with the Community Preservation Act, and the atmosphere in the comment section. The commenting rules restricting the number of unsigned comments began after that election.
Some will be upset that they cannot express their opinion under a first name or anonymously. If you have information about a candidate or issue that you think is really important, but do not feel comfortable putting it out there with your name, you can email it to me at watertownmanews@gmail.com and I will look into it.
Charlie Breitrose
Editor, Watertown News
Thank you, Charlie!
This is an excellent policy. People should engage in active debate about politics as themselves.
Great move Charlie. If you are going to comment on the election, then let your neighbors know who is making the statement. If you can’t, maybe the statement shouldn’t be made.
Happy to see this policy, Charlie. Thank you for helping keep public political discussion responsible and civil.
Totally agree with new policy and happy to sign my name
Thumbs up!
Happy to see this new policy, and sign my name.
We all have different opinions. I believe in always being respectful.
A good book to read is “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher & William Ury.
Excellent! The entire internet should apply the same policies and our civic discourse would be much more civil and productive.
Can you tell us how you confirm that the names are real? What prevents someone from making up a name or pretending to be someone else?
However you manage this situation these policies are a step in the right direction. Thank you!
I have found several ways to check on names. As far as faking names, I’ll try to do my best but no system is perfect.
Hear, hear! Great decision. Good for civic discourse. Thank you!
Yes.
A real name and address also puts a target on someone. We have all seen it. Say something that the laft disagrees with and lose your job, lose your home.
Remember. What goes around comes around….and nothing lasts forever.
That pesky “laft”!
No address
Please cite an example of someone losing their job or home over comments posted on this board. I can’t believe that there have been any.
I have mixed feelings about this policy. I can see the logic to a point, but as Watertown has increasingly become a much more far liberal town, conservative people and their views seem to get pounced upon more aggressively. If full names are listed, I fear that some people could get targeted. There are and always have been differing points of view on key topics, but there is a growing problem of tech companies and mainstream media deleting or not covering both sides of issues. A great example of that is what happened to Larry Elder, who is a black Republican candidate for Governor in CA. A white woman dressed in a gorilla costume through eggs at him yesterday and that was not covered on any mainstream media last night. They are not going to look for or prosecute this woman for hate crimes. If the candidate was a Democrat, all hell would have broken out. We need to guarantee protections and freedom of speech for everyone. If a point of view is written and is a thoughtful, legitimate idea, I feel it should be able to be listed without a full name. Charlie, you always review comments before publishing them and I feel you do a good job of screening and feel that should be enough.
Freedom shouldn’t allow you to hide behind a social media wall.
I understand your point of view, and I know people on the other side of the spectrum who feel the same way (or vice versa).
I will say that the people who have asked for people to sign their names come from all across the political spectrum. All have lived in town for many years, and many are lifelong residents.
Has it ever actually occurred that someone has suffered any material consequence based on disagreeing with the left in the comments of Watertown News? Is there any indication from anyone in the town that they would impose such a consequence? I understand that people are worried about being “cancelled,” but from where I sit the ratio of fear of this occurring to its actual occurrence is way out of whack.