They Doubled Down, We Must Act Now!
PETITION UPDATE — LEX 18 RESPONDS, BUT THE CORE ISSUE REMAINS
Since this petition was launched, DeLaina Givens of LEX 18 has publicly responded and provided additional information about the station’s handling of its Facebook comment sections. We appreciate the response and believe the public should know exactly where the matter now stands.
According to Ms. Givens, LEX 18 no longer has a local in-house digital team, and many social-media functions are now handled through a regional hub. She stated that the station retains some local control but has fewer people managing these responsibilities than it did previously.
Ms. Givens also stated that she personally spends considerable time reviewing, hiding, and deleting inappropriate comments. LEX 18 has asked viewers who encounter harmful comment threads or repeat offenders to email news@wlex.tv with direct links so station personnel can review them.
Most importantly, LEX 18 has now made its position on our request clear:
“Turning off comments on every post is not a step we’re planning to take.”
Ms. Givens further explained that the staffing and operational changes are not temporary and reflect how LEX 18’s newsroom and digital operations will be structured moving forward.
WHY THE PETITION CONTINUES
This new information does not eliminate the concern behind this petition. It clarifies it.
LEX 18 acknowledges that it has fewer local personnel managing social-media responsibilities. It acknowledges that its digital operation has been restructured. It acknowledges that harmful comments require moderation. And it is asking members of the public to identify problematic comments and send them to the newsroom for review.
The question is therefore no longer simply whether LEX 18 recognizes the problem.
The question is whether the system LEX 18 has chosen is adequate to manage it.
Community members should certainly report offensive content when they encounter it. But members of the public should not have to function as an unpaid moderation team for a commercial news organization’s Facebook presence.
We also recognize an important distinction: LEX 18 cannot reasonably prevent every offensive comment from being posted. The concern is what happens afterward—whether clearly racist, bigoted, threatening, or otherwise prohibited material is identified and addressed consistently and within a reasonable period of time.
OUR REQUEST REMAINS
We continue to call on LEX 18 and The E.W. Scripps Company to either provide sufficient resources for meaningful and consistent moderation or reconsider whether comments should remain enabled on posts that cannot be adequately monitored.
If LEX 18 intends to keep its Facebook comments open under its current staffing structure, we are asking the station and its corporate leadership to publicly establish:
Clear moderation standards. Consistent enforcement. A reasonable response process for reported content. Appropriate action against repeat offenders. And sufficient resources to maintain those standards without placing the primary burden on viewers.
This petition is not an attack on Ms. Givens or any individual employee. In fact, her statement that she personally spends considerable time reviewing and deleting comments illustrates why this should be treated as an organizational and resource issue, not the responsibility of one newsroom employee.
We appreciate LEX 18 engaging publicly with the concern.
But engagement is not the end of accountability.
If the resources aren’t available to responsibly moderate the space, the public has every right to question why the space remains open.
THE PETITION CONTINUES.
MODERATE IT — OR TURN IT OFF.
Lexington deserves a community discussion space where disagreement is welcome, but racism and bigotry are not allowed to flourish unchecked.