No place for crude online comments

I believe that the Daily Herald needs to rethink and review the service it provides, to allow comment on local news stories online.

While normally it would be regarded as a safe place to debate issues, express opinions, and question all the news of the times, it recently has become an area of sad and sickening sensation.

As a mature adult, journalist, and someone who enjoys their time online, even I have gotten caught up in reading the comments following stories that really had no place being open for comment.

The death of a person, particularly a child, is not only a traumatic event to those family and friends who knew the individual, but all humanity truly suffers when "free press" allows anonymous posters to comment, prejudge, sickly joke, and defame others through Internet comments.

My heart goes out to those families who have lost loved ones recently and then learned of the online debate over their character, actions, or any other circumstance surrounding their death.

If someone wants to leave condolences the Herald has supplied an outlet for that in the "Obituaries Guest Book," it need not be front page news for comment.

I urge the Daily Herald to use better judgment in allowing commentary on every story that runs.

Even attempts to monitor this activity are falling short and become subjective, so why even provide it at all?

Please note that as readers and subscribers in journalism, judgment is what differentiates one newspaper from another.

Robin Lewis

Glen Ellyn