Political Opinion On Rockville Central: What’s Your Advice?
Sep 9, 2010 17:15 - 17 Comments
Gentle Readers:
Occasionally, through the last three years of our existence, we’ve asked you to help us think through an important administrative issue. Conversations like these are how our current comment policy — we require full names — came into being. Now, we’re asking for your best thinking on another vexing question.
Photo by Flickr user Margaret Anne Clarke
If you follow Rockville Central at all these days, it is hard to avoid noticing the many Contributor Opinion articles focusing on a state Senate primary race. While this will all be over soon, and who represents Rockville is indeed an important question, it is clear that so much political argumentation is crowding out other, equally important issues.
For instance, the recent piece about Redgate Golf Course by Anne Goodman and Jim Farrelly has been just about buried in an avalanche of articles proclaiming loyalty to one candidate or opposition to another.
We’re Working On It
We want you, our readers, to know that this is an issue that we recognize and are trying to grapple with. Rockville Central has become an online political battleground. This is, on the one hand, flattering. It also draws traffic to the website, which is pleasing. Yet on the other hand, it is exactly what we don’t want.
Politics is a funny thing. Election campaigns are important, true. But all too often, a political focus trumps other items. This happens, in part, because the people for whom politics is important find it very important. They are motivated to discuss and argue over their positions and candidates — and before you know it, we’ve become a “political” blog.
But Rockville Central isn’t meant to be a political blog — we’re a civic blog. From the beginning, we have been dedicated to being a safe space for people to raise important issues, and to have some fun. Election campaigns are just one small slice of civic life. We need to make sure we are not losing sight of that.
What To Do?
We’ve gotten feedback from a number of quarters that basically boils down to this: “Politics is important and all, but that’s not why I visit Rockville Central.”
It would be easy to, say, limit political articles from readers. That is something we are examining. But our norm, for three years now, has been to have a very strong bias toward publishing just about all Contributor Opinion pieces from readers. We felt that, in this case, it would not be fair to change the rules on people mid-stream. Moving forward, though, we’ve got to get a handle on this issue so that everyone can enjoy Rockville Central, not just political junkies.
Another thing to keep in mind is that every political article is open for comment. If we limit political Contributor Opinions during campaign time, there is still the outlet of posting a comment. No one would be having their opinion fettered. Posting a comment actually creates more give and take. When every opinion becomes its own article, this leads to a shouting match rather than an exchange.
Here are a few ideas that are possibilities:
- Designate a “political week” for each race and hold all opinion pieces until that time.
- Establish a daily or weekly limit on political opinion articles. (Two per week? One per day per candidate? Some other formula? We would rather not place any limits, so this is not our favorite option.)
- Post a single “discuss the campaigns here” article and invite people to comment all they wish.
- Post one “why are you supporting Candidate X?” article for each person in the race, and allow the comments to unfold from there.
- Create a separate “political opinion” category, and format the home page so these appear somewhere all by themselves, instead of mixed into all the other opinion pieces.
Those are just a few ideas.
Please Help
What are your thoughts? What haven’t we thought of?
We really feel we need to get this right, as we expect the next City election, coming up in just one year, may well be equally hard-fought. We want to make sure we are a civic space that is useful to all, even those who have only a passing interest in electoral politics yet are deeply concerned with other issues.
Your input — and your best thinking — is what we need right now. You’ve never let us down.
Thank you.
The political pieces really just need to go away entirely. Or just do a single weekly post (heck, even a single DAILY post would be better than this) with ALL of the political opinions in random order or something like that.
Don’t get me wrong; I do love me some local politics, but the volume of published opinions lately has just been overwhelming.
I’d rather not read political opionion pieces here at all, and haven’t read any of the ones recently posted.
My opinion is that you create yet another tab, Politics. You have news, POTD, Opinion, - so another, politics, or political opinions, could allow everyone to have their (uncensored) opinion yet allow the true news of the day to shine - Water Main Break in Town Center, for example. Everyone gets to be heard; those who want to read, can read; and those who want just news, can get just news (and roam the other tabs as wished).
While I have not agreed with all of the comments and postings, I am grateful that Rockville Central has provided a forum for a free, lively and civil exchange about issues key to all of us. I am glad this discussion is happening. Nobody is forcing me to read what I don’t want to read about. The blog is transparent, accessible, and encourages exchanges of views. It is moderated and civil. It beats rumor and word of mouth. in more than 35 years living in Montgomery County and more than 30 in Rockville I have been concerned by how little sustained press coverage has been given to what really happens in Maryland’s largest jurisdiction, and a County with more population that Washington, DC. Until Rockville Central came along there was very little in the way of daily and timely coverage. let alone the daily and timely opportunities for healthy give and take so generously given a platform on these pages.
Government and politics closest to home gets the least amount of coverage, yet what they do affects our lives most immediately and directly. Civil society and the press have key roles in a democracy as watchdogs of the activities of those in government, those seeking to be in government, and those attempting to influence government or directly benefit from it.. Like many others, I became involved in politics as a result of civic engagement. Thank goodness we have Rockville Central, a place where we can have a civil discourse about what is important in our lives.
I am grateful to Cindy and Brad for setting ground rules for this important exchange of ideas and opinions, and for the time and work they have put in that makes it possible. Blogging is still kind of new. If Brad and Cindy are willing, I would like to see some trial and error and patience in working out how much is enough, and when. Part of the price we pay for enjoying our freedoms is taking responsibility, including the responsibility to inform ourselves, be respectful of others, and to censor ourselves to not be hurtful or hateful or untruthful in our speech. I have spent more than a decade working in places where people have not had these rights andI have seen the consequences. And I have seen what happens when civil society does or cannot examine politics — it is not a pretty picture. It would seem a shame to stop this exchange. What is the alternative?
I like the way it is done now. As I’ve said before, a short bio, like the WaPo does on it’s editorial page would be helpful. To know who is writing an opinion goes a long way to understand their stance.
I like the idea of a 3rd tab. I like having the ability to express support for one candidate for another, and I sometimes find it useful to learn who is supporting whom.
Sima expressed this very well. The fact that the Washington Post and the Washington Times barely acknowledge civic activities in Montgomery County and Rockville, and the resources of the Gazette are spread very thin, means that Rockville Central is a crucial resource.
I believe that one reason people have felt overwhelmed by the campaign coverage is that each story occupies a lot of space in the “real estate” of the blog, so consolidating that type of coverage would be helpful.
During campaign season, I feel inundated by political messages - mailings, newspapers, phone appeals, yard signs, home visits by candidates. Since the political message has so very many outlets at its disposal, I’d very much appreciate a place that continues to focus on the everyday issues that continue to be of importance, even in the political season - local issues that get lost in the passion and glare of political messages.
IF I had to choose *only* from among the offered choices, I’d go with creating a separate tab for political messages.
HOWEVER, perhaps I could persuade you to think that declining all political messages is not censorship. It is merely redirecting the political messages to their other outlets.
By allowing political messages access to your readers at no cost and without restriction, your outlet will become increasingly attractive to those who generate political messages.
Expect a lot more political submissions.
I agree with Carol Hall. There is only so much of the screaming supporters I can take at a time and another tab would be much appreciated. Then of course, it would be up to you to decide what is ” political ” . Good luck.
I’d also like to see the political opinions on a separate tab. However, I do think that it’s nice to have notices about town hall meetings, reminders to vote, etc on the front page.
When real political differences are small, the shouting gets louder. On the current contests in District 17 and the County Council I find very little practical difference in actual policies and expected results that exist between candidates. I certainly have preferces and when asked, I will try to rationally explain my preferences and hope in this manner to influence others on a one - to - one basis. I am seriuosly concerned about the divisive effect on the community when the temperature of political discourse becomes heated. There are real problems that we face in Rockville that are best dealt with in a thoughtful and considerate manner. The current emotions are not being helpful. Supporters and candidates alike are in need of some restraint. Political victory does not justify absive tactics. I am afraid that even consigning political opinion to a separate tag. would alone solve the problem.
I follow Rockville Central through RSS, and I would like to see the political contributions as a separate RSS feed.
So far, one large theme I am hearing is that political discussions are important (and to some this importance is more theory than fact), but that almost uniformly people would like to be able to avoid them when they are not Interested. Is that about right so far?
Rockville Central is serving our community well. Having a separate tab for political comments is excellent. Individuals interested in reading political news can simply go to the appropriate section.
It is difficult to find time to keep up with all the news. I don’t read all the articles. But what I do read I find very beneficial. I like knowing how my community feels about local issues. Hearing both sides of any issue is only fair.
The RC Blog is a good place where controversial comments can be shared. I believe that Rockville civic associations are failing in providing this venue since usually a few officers try to speak for the entire community when in fact many individuals in the community don’t agree with their positions.
It is unfortunately that so many people don’t have time to follow all the serious issues that affect our community. That is why we elect leaders. RC has been the best source of information and sharing our opinion is most valuable because we all have contributions to make even if we disagree. I only wish I had more time to follow all news.
Thank you Cindy and Brad for continuing the Blog. I know reading these comments and writing my one comment takes me time.
Keep up the reporting and let the community speak out with civility. God bless our country’s freedom to speak. I love you all for writing on this blog. Thank you!!
I would agree with the theme most posters seem to agree with-that separating out a category for political debate to allow readers who want to avoid it, to do so. And at the same time, provide a sorely needed place for those who are interested and passionate about the choices we all make that AFFECT the issues that we all care about, to talk about that. I don’t feel as emotional about the recent exchanges as some do, most likely because of the personal relationships that many obviously have at stake, that I do not have. But I feel that political debate at the local level in our current media environment, as others have commented, is sorely lacking, and it’s one of the things I’ve come to enjoy and expect in being a reader of Rockville Central over the last 3 months.
On the other hand, the explosion of individual pieces about the Senate race does seem excessive, and I like the idea brought up about having a post (in the political section) for readers to post their comment opinion pieces for either candidate.
However, notable people in the community (perhaps other elected officials or issue activists speaking to that concern) might be better suited to providing columns on their concerns-but then most involved and active people are the types who might read the blog, anyway, and maybe the idea of “notable people” might apply to most of those who did submit opinion posts?
At any rate, I actually thought RC did a great job this fall of covering the news and issues in the community, to include the news about the elections. Elections are news in a community. For this reason I find some of the comments about “regular issues” versus “political messages” perplexing. The blog’s purpose is not to become a tool of a particular political campaign, and RC has made it clear that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to allow issues and news to be presented, discussed, and exchanges of thought to happen in the community. That is invaluable. And curbing it on the blog would make me far less likely to visit the site.
So, the most important contribution I would have is to say please don’t limit your readers’ expression. On the other hand, if you can reorganize it to allow your readers to use the site as they prefer, then I think that will optimise the experience for all your readers without discouraging how anyone likes to participate.
I’ve appreciated the opportunity to read the open forum regarding the upcoming elections available on Rockville Central and the exact mechanics of how you do it is of lesser importance to me. If you deem a separate tab appropriate - so be it. Thanks for making this exchange available.
I had actually stopped having time to read thru RC when the huge explosion of political articles came up, and I’m a pretty fast reader! I also will sometimes find articles by looking at the comments down the right side when I finish one article - that’s how I happened across the latest Redgate article - but the comments on the political articles have indeed all but buried other stories.
I like the separate tab idea, but I usually come in thru the home page anyway so all the articles are right out there for me regardless; I can see where a separate RSS feed would be helpful for those who read RC that way; then people can “opt in” to the political discussion.
Might RC consider limiting “pro-candidate” articles to perhaps 1 or 2 per candidate, barring any new information or approaches? It seems the multiple pro-Kagan articles were redundant in many respects, so lots to read but not much in the way of new information. I’m more than happy to read articles representing the different points of view, and I also appreciate the video coverage so I could see and hear both candidates for myself.
Thanks for opening this up to reader input.