Greetings. Illustrating once again the effects I often discuss, CBS has chosen to block Web comments about Senator Barack Obama -- and only him, they're reportedly not blocking comments regarding other candidates -- due to the volume of racial and other ugly remarks in an apparently unmoderated forum.

You'll recall a month ago back in Thoughts on Blogging Wars and Blogger's Code of Conduct I talked about the asymmetric power to disrupt in unmoderated posting environments, and the associated risks.

The CBS situation is yet another example, in this case resulting in a particular candidate being disadvantaged. CBS should either shut the entire comment section down, or appropriately moderate comments about all of the candidates in advance of allowing any to be published on the site.

Show some responsibility, CBS.

--Lauren--