On reader comments

There's an old expression: Even a blind hog will root up an acorn now and then.

This column in the Dallas Morning News by conservative radio host Mark Davis is the first thing he's written that I partially agree with.

Since I started maintaining blogs, I've scanned the opinion sections of online newspapers for comments by readers that either (a) make a point I agree with, or (b) can be ridiculed on the basis of ignorance and illiteracy. What I noticed at Houston Chronicle, and especially at Austin American Statesman, was a regular daily domination of the comment boards by handfuls of people who apparently never go outside and spend too much time sitting at their computer keyboards. In each case, what began as an open forum for reader feedback devolved into a chatroom with established cliques swapping "attaboys" or insults. I found that out of 100 comments, as many as 80-90 were posted by fewer than ten "regulars."

Soon, I could spot a poster's screen name and accurately predict the gist of his comment on any given subject, particularly since nearly all the "regulars" were hardcore conservatives. I'm not sure there's a correlation between radical right-wing opinions and having too much free time to fill, but it's something to consider.

At any rate, the result is a lot of clutter, much of it loaded with spelling and punctuation errors or enough typos to render it unreadable. I'm finding it easier to just skip the whole thing.

Added 3:00 pm:

A case in point:

DEMOCRAPS are for a fact ruining America.....Illegals are NOT owed VOTing rights for the democrap scum..

Anonymous reader comment, copied verbatim from Dallas Morning News article on the progress of the voter ID bill in the House.