By Carlos Miller
It’s been almost two weeks since I sent an email to St. Louis Post-Dispatch social media editor Kurt Greenbaum asking if he would allow me to interview him by phone.
He has yet to respond, proving that he has as much business being the paper’s social media director as I have in protecting police from Constitutionally minded photographers.
In case you missed the original drama, Greenbaum became a victim of what one website described as the “internet hate machine” after he got a man fired for writing a profane word on his blog.
The offensive word was “pussy.” It was a response to Greenbaum’s post asking what was the “craziest thing you’ve ever eaten.” It was obviously meant to be a joke.
From the commenter’s IP address, Greenbaum discovered that he was working for a local school. He called school administrators, who ended up tracking down what computer the man was using and confronted him.
The man ended up resigning on the spot, obviously doing so to avoid getting fired.
Greenbaum then bragged about it on the newspaper’s blog, probably expecting all his readers to congratulate him on keeping law and order.
But it ended up backfiring on him.
More than 99 percent of the commenters were outraged against Greenbaum for using his power as a newspaper editor to get a man fired, especially when the man was under the impression that he was commenting anonymously.
Greenbaum’s decision not only went against social media standards, but it went against journalistic ethics.
So after the fiery responses from his readers – not to mention a few posts by yours truly - Greenbaum ended up not writing anything under his byline for more than a month, which is another social media blunder (he’s committed at least three from this list).
After weeks of not hearing anything from him, some of us speculated as to whether he had lost his job. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch refused to confirm or deny our speculations and the rest of the mainstream media ignored the issue altogether.
And then, five weeks after the original incident, he reappeared on his blog as if nothing had happened. Even going to the point of writing about the loss of jobs in Missouri, failing to mention that one particular job loss he was responsible for.
And just recently, he was asked to speak before a Society of Professional Journalists luncheon as an “expert” on, get this, how newspapers should manage offensive comments.
This is how the SPJ press release reads:
If there ever were doubts about whether the public has opinions about the news, the arrival of online reader comments has dispelled them. They do, and they aren’t afraid to post them online, usually anonymously. Sometimes those views are insightful, but sometimes they’re insensitive and occasionally they’re downright offensive.
How should media outlets manage this new forum and where should they draw the line on what’s allowed?
A group of experts will discuss the brave new world that is “story comments” at a luncheon and forum, sponsored by the St. Louis Chapter of SPJ, at noon Thursday, Jan. 14, at Lucas Park Grille on Washington Avenue. Lunch is $10, which includes drink and tip.
Our panelists:
Kurt Greenbaum, assistant city editor and online editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since 2002. Kurt’s been involved in online journalism since 1996 and has been a reporter and editor at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and dbusiness.com, an online business news start-up.Jim Shrader, publisher of The (Alton) Telegraph. Jim, a native of Madison, began his newspaper career in 1979 at the Granite City Journal. In 1980, he joined the Belleville News-Democrat as an advertising account executive. In 1989, he became advertising director for The Telegraph. In 1992, Jim became publisher of the The Times-Reporter in Philadelphia, Ohio. In July 1998, he became publisher at The Telegraph, which recently was involved in a court battle over revealing the identity of online comments.
Dr. Musonda Kapatamoyo, who teaches writing and design for the Web, multimedia use in mass media, advanced multimedia, new technology and media, and information technology and society at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. His research interests include use and impacts of information and communication technologies; creation, use and impact of Web 2.0 for ubiquitous learning; and political economy of media.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
14 responses so far ↓
1 Yono Senada // Jan 18, 2010 at 5:55 AM
what a pussy …
2 mepsipax // Jan 18, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Wow, really. I hoped this guy would be gone. What an asshat. And the conference…. douches. Moderate away Carlos.
mepsipax´s last blog ..I am going to Hell
3 Simon Jester // Jan 18, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Funny. They are only allowing moderated comments. Mine will never get through, I bet.
4 I don't have a darn name // Jan 18, 2010 at 11:16 AM
For ten bucks, I could see Kurt play social media expert in front of an audience? I’d be all over that if it weren’t for the additional cost of airfare.
He is a great guest though. Mistakes are how we learn. Presumably the bigger the mistake the more we learn? He might have something insightful to say. And if not, it will be really, really funny.
5 Hazy // Jan 18, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Keep hounding them CM!
6 Ryan Noble // Jan 18, 2010 at 2:23 PM
Where possible, I try to post comments to his stuff with references to pussy (“domesticated feline,” etc.) He’ll never approve them, but it only takes a second to post and it’s fun to remind him what the public thinks of him.
7 Michaelk42 // Jan 18, 2010 at 6:44 PM
He really does seem to believe that if he only waits long enough, and it ignores it long enough, it will all go away.
How anyone can be that clueless about the internet would be astounding, but this is an old-school newspaper guy we’re talking about.
Michaelk42´s last blog ..Again with the cluelessness
8 Adam Selene // Jan 18, 2010 at 9:25 PM
Funny. They once allowed comments on this article, just that they were moderated.
Now, the comments are closed all together.
9 Maria // Jan 19, 2010 at 12:34 PM
Domesticated felines unite. The public should just start emailing him appropriate food themed lolcats.
Edible kitties aside, this guy abused his position of power and destroyed someones life – at least in the short term. And why? Because he doesn’t know how to roll his eyes at infantile frat boy jokes and can’t be bothered to find the delete button on the blogs admin interface?? How … infantile.
10 Hazy // Jan 19, 2010 at 2:35 PM
Someone in the St. Louis area should go there and call him out when he’s speaking at the journalist forum.
11 pod // Jan 19, 2010 at 2:40 PM
Personally, if someone had done this to me, I would have confronted him in the flesh and dealt with it appropriately. No, I wouldn’t have lit him up, since unfortunately, we’re not allowed to settle things like gentlemen anymore. However, I would have made it a point to let this guy know his actions online can and do have real-world repercussions.
Often, social media is poorly handled by the mainstream media. Look no further than our own Miami Herald. Their comments sections are a joke, moderated almost in a “when I feel like it” fashion. For example, for every “deport these animals” comment deleted, there’s ten that remain. And don’t get me started on Miami.com, which is a pitiful attempt to make an entertainment/nightlife site.
Now, the way I tend to do things in my neck of the woods, is that I let everything go, within the bounds of the law. Like, you’re more than welcome to post in a thread in my forum, and use all the racial slurs you want. I won’t delete them. We let the community sort you out.
It’s worked so far. We maintain a high standard of intelligence in our posts, and it shows. I haven’t had to ban anyone or delete a post (other than for technical reasons) since we started.
I think Kurt could learn a lesson or two in that respect. Don’t be petty, arbitrary, or vicious in moderating. Either do it “full time”, or trust your readers to sort it out for you.
pod´s last blog ..WMC 2009
12 genewitch // Jan 19, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Carlos:
“Internet hate machine” is used incorrectly, both on the linked website and your article.
it’s a reference to a certain forum on a certain website where everyone is “Anonymous.” I think there was some television show that called them the internet hate machine and they think it’s hilarious.
Anyhow the reason i bring this up, is i physically cringed when i read it on your article and on the linked one. It’s hard to explain, it just seems ironic that the internet as a whole gets the phrase attributed to it as a whole when it was originally a poor journalistic turn of phrase regarding one relatively minor group.
You might notice i’m not naming names or linking, here.. that’s because rules one and two are “we don’t talk about the…” well, you see why.
13 Carlos Miller // Jan 19, 2010 at 3:52 PM
Genewitch,
I just put the phrase in quotes and attributed it to the other site for a little more clarification.
14 Carlos Miller // Jan 19, 2010 at 4:09 PM
Pod,
That’s how I generally handle comments. And it has worked for more than two years.
Leave a Comment