WAPO says nastiness (not dissent) is reason it shut down comments [View All]

[ProSense]

Paper Shutters Blog After Ombudsman Post

Thu Jan 19, 7:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Washington Post shut down one of its blogs Thursday after the newspaper's ombudsman raised the ire of readers by writing that lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to the Democrats as well as to Republicans.

At the center of a congressional bribery investigation, Abramoff gave money to Republicans while he had his clients donate to both parties, though mostly to Republicans.

In her Sunday column, ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote that Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties," prompting a wave of nasty reader postings on post.blog.

There were so many personal attacks that the newspaper's staff could not "keep the board clean, there was some pretty filthy stuff," and so the Post shut down comments on the blog, or Web log, said Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060120/ap_on_re_us/post_abramoff