Comments on: Los Angeles Times Publishes First Wikitorial Page

By: Patterico’s Pontifications » Hiltzik’s Blog Suspension Should Not End the L.A. Times’s Interactivity with Readers

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 01:22:20 +0000

[...] Last year, when Michael Kinsley began an experiment with interactive editorials, or “wikitorials,” I supported the effort. When the first one was defaced by pornography, many declared the experiment a failure — but I believed that it had been a success, just because the paper had the guts to undertake it. [...]

By: Cecil

Cecil — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 19:43:43 +0000

Just checked, at 3:40 EDT on Sunday the Wikitorial had already been pulled because of abuse by commentators.

By: actus

actus — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 05:24:26 +0000

“This is their lame attempt to incorporate some non-liberal views into the liberal LA Times somehow.”

Its a rather perfect counter to their critics. “don’t like what we wrote? rewrite it!”

By: Patterico

Patterico — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 22:22:29 +0000

If there are good pro-war points, go put ‘em in there! And Jeff — I saw the bit about Terri Schiavo’s parents. It was ridiculous, but it didn’t last long.

I’m a little agnostic on Wikis generally, but I am a big fan of Big Media interacting with its readers. I’m surprised that more don’t agree. Don’t focus on the content; I didn’t even read it. That’s beside the point. Again, it’s all about the experiment.

By: shredstar

shredstar — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:03:31 +0000

This is their lame attempt to incorporate some non-liberal views into the liberal LA Times somehow. As luck would have it, the conservative side of the debate is cornered into this scatter-brained mishmash of drive-by comments. The paper will continue to publish letters written by liberal readers.

I’m glad we have a special election coming soon. That means more outrageous attacks on the Governor should be coming soon. It is enjoyable watching how LA Times consistently and repetitively insinuates that education spending is being drastically cut (overall and per-student), while it has increased every year.

By: FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 18:05:16 +0000

LA Times: Wikitorial

Michael Kinsley is trying.
Patterico think s it is OK.
But, not good enough for Flap. Who would waste their time?
A good start for the Los Angeles Times: balanced/reporting coverage, trackbacks, and did I mention balanced/reporting coverage.

…

By: Flap

Flap — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:53:35 +0000

It is a waste of time.

End of story.

By: Jeff Harrell

Jeff Harrell — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:44:15 +0000

See what I mean? I would be heartbroken if the great minds of the conservative blogosphere wasted their time on this.

(Okay, that’ll be my last negative comment today. For a while, anyway. Maybe.)

By: Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:07:27 +0000

The Wiki has changed dramatically overnight — at least the anti-war one has. Yesterday it was a 6th-grade anti-war rant, now it’s a fairly well-written anti-war rant.

The pro-war side is barely an outline, and not a good one at that. Surely we can do better?

By: Jeff Harrell

Jeff Harrell — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:53:11 +0000

I hate to be negative, Pat, but I really don’t agree with you here. I think this is a massive waste of time and energy. The purpose of collaborative sites is to produce consensus. Nobody’s ever going to see a consensus on something like this. The “editorial” is just going to get vandalized and vandalized until nobody gives a damn about repairing it any more. At one point in the past few hours, it said that Terri Schiavo had been raped by her parents!

The strength of America lies in the diversity of opinions of her people. We don’t need group writing exercises to help us express them. That sort of nonsense is just a distraction.