LOS ANGELES (AP) — NPR’s comments section is going off the air.
National Public Radio announced Wednesday that comments on NPR.org will be disabled beginning Aug. 23. The feature has been part of the site since 2008.
Scott Montgomery, NPR’s managing editor for digital news, says the news organization made the decision because NPR’s audience is more engaged on social media. He says about 19,400 commenters were active in July compared with the more than 5 million on Twitter.
The news organization says it does not have any legal obligation to provide a comments section because NPR indirectly receives federal funding.
Other news organizations that have ended online commenting in the past include Reuters, Popular Science and The Week.
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Uh …
Because we all know that twitter is the best platform for the “engaged audience” to have interesting insightful conversations. Just ask Mr. Brexit!
And now we’ll never know how the frequent NPR commenters feel. Popular Science is also disabling comments section, but maybe that’s just because the Creationists were cluttering up the feed.
I was assuming it’s because of trolling and other abuses.
Speaking of Popular Science. All one need to do to see the dumbing down of America is to browse an issue from the 1880 and compare it with an issue today. In fact, you can! All the issues are archived on Google Books. Here’s one from June of 1872, and one from January of 2009. The 1800s issues are written by highly educated people for a educated adult population–20+ page articles are common. Today a three paragraph article is the norm. Even if some of there science from the 1800s is wrong by today’s standards, a lot of it is weighty reading. Today, it’s all fluff and written for a 3rd grade level of knowledge and reading ability. The difference is so extreme it’ll like leaping from a 3rd grade reader into a college textbook.
Edit: I just realized that the lead article in the June of 1872 is On the Artificial Production of Stupidity in Schools. From the opening paragraph, “You are entitled to great credit, sir. You must have taken infinite pains with yourself. No man could naturally be so stupid.” Damn, that works so well today. I think I’ll steal that line.