I spend a portion of my day reading online newspapers and news sites. It’s part of the “media monitoring” component of my job. Or at least that’s my justification.

I try to avoid the comments sections that frequently accompany news stories. Rather than being a forum for reasoned debate they are generally places for people to spew vitriol and display their ignorance. That is probably why news outlets increasingly are shutting down their comments pages.

The internet is relatively anonymous, and I suspect people are taking advantage of that to behave in ways they probably would not if they were to be held accountable. Or maybe not. After all…