Hugh Pickens writes "Doug Feaver has an interesting story in the jurisdiction Post 'in defense of the anonymous, unmoderated, often appallingly inaccurate, recurrently profane, habitually off point and occasionally racist reader circular that washingtonpost.com allows to be published at the end of provisions and blogs.' Feaver says that during his seven-year tenure as editor and manager editor of washingtonpost.com he kept un-moderated review off the site, but now, four years after retiring, he says he has come to think that online dope sheet are a terrific addition to the conversation, and that journalists need to take them seriously. 'The subjects that have derive the most vitriol during my tenure in this role are race and immigration,' writes Feaver. 'But I am heartened by the fact that such dope sheet do not go unchallenged by readers. In fact, comment strings are often self-correcting and provide informative exchanges.' Feaver says that comment are also a pretty good influence peddlers survey. 'The first day it became clear that a federal bailout of Wall Street was a real prospect, the proclamation on the main story were almost 100 percent negative. It was a great predictor of how folks feel, well out in front of the polls. We journalists need to pay attentiveness to what our readers say, even if we don't like it. There are things to learn.'"

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Mark