Jeff Beckham

Texas Monthly Senior Executive Editor Paul Burka let readers know today of a change in policy for his blog, BurkaBlog, following the comments brought on by Burka’s reason (”ungentlemanly personal conduct”) for Rep. Mike O’Day’s appearing on the magazine’s Dishonorable Mention list among Texas legislators.

“What I have learned,” Burka says, “is that, under the cover of anonymity, people will say anything. They will defame, they will invade privacy, they will make gratuitous comments about people in public life, and they will grind their favorite axes without regard for truth.”

And he’s right - not just online, but in most any forum, the cover of anonymity brings out the worst in folks.

The magazine’s initial solution is to delete the comments that pertain to O’Day, continue to monitor comments for “defamation, invasion of privacy, and personal smears” and to require that commenters be a registered user of TexasMonthly.com.

There are some problems with the first move, in that cached copies of web pages are captured within minutes of publication, so the offending comments could make their way into archived copies online. The risk is there, but small. The second reaction is good and one that many publications have had to resort to in their battle against defamatory comments. Finally, I wrote to Burka for some clarification on the last point, regarding whether registering to comment on the blog and registering to use the website were now one and the same.