I was surprised to read in an email from a Cornell student that the Cornell Daily Sun removed a series of comments on their entry about Ash Thotambilu’s suicide:

“The article that the Daily Sun had posted also included a series of comments about Ash’s death made by other students… because of my own and other complaints that those comments were posted, they were subsequently taken down for their speculative, offensive, and unnecessary content.”

Thanks to the technology of modern search engines, we can recover a cached version of the page, original comments included:

Submitted by Marty (not verified) on Thu, 06/29/2006 – 4:24pm.

So what? I hurt my knee playing soccer last week…did anyone give a damn? People are committing suicide each day in the U.S. do we hear about it? People are dieing from hunger and war throughout the world, do we do anything about it? La di da di da…..

Submitted by CU Alum (not verified) on Fri, 06/30/2006 – 6:05pm.

Herein lies the danger of having a completely open forum… You get morons posting heartless, idiotic messages.

Most people who will read this may not have known Ash, but as a member of the CU family, I know we are all saddened by the loss of a fellow Cornellian, for whatever reason.

I feel sorry for the previous poster, who I am guessing is not a Cornell student. If they are, then they prove how unfortunate it is that we cannot measure maturity when making admissions decisions.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 06/30/2006 – 7:31pm.

Your family and friends are not grieving the pain of your knee. There are friends, family, and loved ones who are grieving for the loss of Ash. Although I did not know Ash, I knew who he was. And I am sure there are a lot of people who miss him. Of course there are tragedies that are happening every second around the world, but that does not take away from the pain and sadness caused by the loss of this person. A little sensitivity goes a long way. Maybe you should try it some time.

P.S. If you are going to post something on the internet, it helps if you proof read what you write. It reduces the idiocy that projects from your statement.

Submitted by MS (not verified) on Mon, 07/03/2006 – 6:34pm.

Ash was an amazing guy and his suicide is a tragedy that will be felt for the rest of my life. Cornell’s campus seems quieter and less alive now that he is gone, but I hope he is happy where he is now.

If you check out the entry now, you’ll find that only a series of ellipses and that last comment remain. Ethically, I have a few problems with altering news content at the request of my audience.

First, the Cornell Daily Sun has no legal liability for the comments posted on their site.

Second, the Cornell Daily Sun has no chance of accidentally being confused with its commenters. Anyone reading the article will understand that the opinions of commenters are not affiliated with the Sun.

Third, allowing comments on controversial topics and then deleting them is a contradiction. Either you’re willing to listen to what the general public has to say, or not. You ruin credibility with your readers when you selectively censor. Eventually, the Cornell Daily Sun will cultivate a mindset of comment-indifference in its readers, destroying any chance of a community.

9 Responses to “Cornell Daily Sun Deletes Comments”

1. a. guess says:

   7/19/2006 at 4:49 pm

   … But you’ve deleted one of my comments.
2. Elliott Back says:

   7/19/2006 at 4:58 pm

   … But it was off topic!
3. mn says:

   7/19/2006 at 11:49 pm

   But by that measure, the two comments in your post on the ‘master plan’ post were off topic, and yet they remain.

   I kind of have mixed feelings about whether or not news organizations should allow free-for-all comments. They are certainly free to choose, but such features inevitably devolve into flame wars a lot of the time and may not further any constructive purpose. Blogs are a different matter… when I used to have a personal blog I allowed everything, but now, if you notice, commenting on MetaEzra articles is allowed on a per-author/article basis.

   Oh well, I actually felt that Andy’s comment on the IA post was on-topic…
4. a. guess says:

   7/20/2006 at 10:33 am

   I thought it was on topic, but that’s for you to choose. Likewise, it’s for The Sun to choose whether it pursues a completely open comments policy. I wouldn’t confuse that with freedom of speech vs. censorship, though.
5. Beeeej says:

   7/21/2006 at 12:07 pm

   I have a great deal of trouble equating the removal of an unaffiliated idiot’s thoughtless drivel with “altering news content.”
6. ilr'93 says:

   7/25/2006 at 1:19 pm

   that fact that it’s hard to draw a line on what to censor doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be one. i dislike comment deletion generally, but i can see why his comment was closer to graffiti than anything else.
7. Jonathon Oquendo says:

   11/6/2007 at 8:35 am

   Sandoval…

   Singer George Michael lends the piano on which John Lennon wrote Imagine to an anti-war exhibition. …
8. Johnathan Mckay says:

   11/6/2007 at 8:45 am

   Pinkston…

   Alec Baldwin asks for his voice to be removed from an "unfair" documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger. …
9. Betting Tipster says:

   2/26/2009 at 5:27 am

   huh, too bad for comments.