Online Comments: Freedom of Speech or the Bane of the Internet?
To the Point
KCRW
4.4 • 583 Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2013
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Internet sites are grappling with an issue akin to the freedom of speech. It's all about online comments that are offensive, off-point or that distort researched science.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point. |
| 0:08.5 | Online comments. A bastion of free speech or the bane of the internet. |
| 0:16.3 | Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International. |
| 0:20.2 | A daily look at the issues Americans care about most. |
| 0:22.7 | Popular Science wants online comments to encourage learned debate, |
| 0:26.5 | but finds so many are so wrong they damage the credibility of important research. |
| 0:31.0 | The Huffington Post gets 9 million comments a month, |
| 0:34.1 | 75% are so vile, mean, or obscene they never get posted. We'll hear why some websites |
| 0:39.5 | won't allow anonymity anymore, while others are banning online comments completely. Does free |
| 0:45.4 | speech have to be limited to expertise or good manners? Are a hundred stupid, cruel, or disruptive |
| 0:51.3 | comments worth one that makes for good reading. |
| 0:58.0 | Today's talking point, celebrity interviews, and the Great Unknown. |
| 0:59.1 | First, the news. |
| 1:04.9 | Listen to KCRW's 24-hour all-news channel. |
| 1:09.6 | Stream BBC World Service, NPR and KCRW programs. |
| 1:14.4 | Continuous coverage and accessible via our smartphone app or online at KCRW.com. Support for To the Point comes from the members of KCRW and from the Public Radio |
| 1:25.0 | International Program Fund. Hello again. I'm Mormon-Aulney, back with To the Point. |
| 1:29.1 | Internet websites are grappling with an issue as old as the freedom of speech. |
| 1:32.9 | It's all about online comments. |
| 1:34.7 | When they're offensive, off the point, or so ignorant, they distort the value of carefully researched science. |
| 1:42.0 | Should they be allowed anyway? |
| 1:43.5 | Or should they be censored? |
... |
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