About this episode
TODAY'S HEADLINES
State death toll at 1,405 with nearly 33,000 people testing positive including 727 in Northwest Georgia.
Politics: Q&A with Floyd County Clerk of Superior Court candidates Joe Costolnick and Barbara Penson.
This week: Rome Commission to review three multifamily proposals, revised budget. More government offices, parks in Floyd, Bartow reopening this week.
Ware Mechanical Weather Center: Slight chill lasts one more day and then a quick rise back to the mid 80s.
Obituaries: Mr. Thomas Berrien “Doodle” Mathis Jr., Mrs. Dorothy Nell Ramsey.
Rant of the Day: Facebook and flirting with disaster.
It has been a daily experience since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The doubters, the conspiracy theorists, the sky-is-cloudy-even-if-it-is-nothing-but-blue-skies people have been quite vocal about anything posted concerning the virus. That's fine; they're entitled to their opinions as much as anyone else.
But then the posts got vicious. Or more important, they got dangerous. Thankfully, no one endorsed a bleach milkshake or other such nonsense but the self-righteous attitudes got a little heady. There were jabs at people wearing masks. They didn't like social distancing guidelines. God forbid they had to dine on curbside meals rather than in "our" spot at restaurants. What's a little virus spreading among friends, right?
These were on top of the others already commenting on a regular basis about a major crime case or government actions or whatever.
For many, those posts have been a guilty pleasure. We're surprised by some members of the community who told us about skipping the news story itself to instead skim through to see who says the stupidiest thing. We'll admit to a little of this ourselves; we continue to be amazed how some can drop "the tennis courts" into any ongoing community issue -- that is, solve downtown parking woes by making Broad Street -- you guessed it -- tennis courts.
But back to the pandemic.
In recent days, it hit us that we're contribuing to the problem, enabling these folks by way of basically posting the updates we develop or releases we receive to inform a collective Facebook audience of more than 50,000. That includes our most popular Facebook pages serving Rome and Cartersville but also growing numbers in Polk, Gordon and Chattooga counties.
We'll leave the hate speech to talk radio and cable neworks. We're making changes to our social media -- and more may be needed.
