Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple responds to criticism about Twittering a child's funeral

• This has been eating at me for days. I guess our society has deteriorated to the point that anyone (especially a news gathering organization) would venture to insult the dead that way. Absolutely disgusting

• "They tried something experimental, it failed catastrophically, they won't do it again." Yes, we should be so convinced of that when the response is the same condescending nonsense and non-responsibility we get from editors whenever something like this happens.

• "They tried something experimental, it failed catastrophically, they won't do it again." Yes, we should be so convinced of that when the response is the same condescending nonsense and non-responsibility we get from editors whenever something like this happens.

• Good lord, people, calm down. They tried something experimental, it failed catastrophically, they won't do it again. And he's right that it wasn't the idea that was terrible, it was the execution. If the Twitterer had posted things like "very moving prayer from the rabbi, quoting from X portion of the Torah," it would have been perfectly fine. The reporter was probably trying to take notes and Twitter simultaneously, leading to the cold, voyeuristic terseness.

• I posted this under Temple's column, but am willing to bet the jackass will delete it: Temple, you are an idiot. As someone who worked for you for years, I always knew this. But, this rises to a new level of insensitivity and stupidity-- even for you. The very insult of him sitting there keying out those twitters is so obvious. Imagine if you were the parent -- say it was Hannah when she was 3 -- and some jerk was sitting out there "twittering." What does that have to do with First Amendment or right to know? Don't you see the invasion? It is absurd for you to even try to defend that. Again, you are an idiot. Always were, always will be.

• Dear God. I feel like a scumbucket whenever I post ANYTHING on the Internet. 6.5 billion of us yammering monkeys, with millions more coming online each day? But oh boy, what a fucking DOUCHEBAG this guy is. That's my "two wrongs don't make a right" comment of the day. Fuck this world. Someone above said, "Journalism is dead for me, forever." But really, when you think about it, this whole WORLD is dead. Question: How intelligent, moral, alive or real would you have to be as a human being for your head to spontaneously combust when we usher in yet 4 more years of INEFFABLE HELL.

• At the risk of praising sj.com, I find it telling that on the first page of their thread, someone predicted this very response: "I just told him to Twitter. I didn't think he'd come back with this!" All that is missing is the "Duh!" at the end of the quote. These days, you can set your watch by the denials and the spin of the underperforming editors. Somehow, even though there are far more graduates and job-seekers than open positions, newsrooms still manage to find employment for the dumbest of the dumb. The posts are filled by people who can't read, write, edit or think. It's sad.

• Wow I thought manufacturing jobs were gone for good and now it has spread to journalism? Is their nothing that can't be outsourced or done by a Mexican for less?

• You're right, Franchot. The dailies' desperate grasping at anything that might increase their readership or their "hits" just shows their age, their ignorance and their ever-increasing irrelevance. Yes, they should be ashamed. That said, it's no joke to lose your job, and most of us probably would do whatever the boss said to salvage our miserable, shrinking career. Journalism is dead for me. Forever.

• All you trying to salvage something (most likely your miserable shrinking careers) at newspapers should be ashamed, if you had a hand in this stunt. Decision-maker should be terminated, and if that's you, Mr. Temple, so be it.

• Totally disgusting, exploitive use of the death of a 3-year-old to pump up the RMN's pathetic website. John Temple never met a story he didn't try to exploit for personal gain. Absolutely shameful. "Dirt put on coffin" ???? We need to be told that in real fucking time? Like I said, shameful.

• "And by the way, I�m the father of three children." Well, if Temple wants to play the Parent Card, I'd say that actually makes it worse instead of better.

• It's amazing they put out a paper with that kind of thinking. How a** backward can you be. Temple needs to get a clue.

• Yes, let's talk about "the idea itself." Basically the Rocky decided to provide a virtual funeral experience via Twitter. "Dirt placed on coffin." "Rabbi says final prayer." Etc., etc. Yeah, that really imparted what the actual experience must have been like. While they were at it, why not give the menus at the wakes? The obvious inanity of such an "idea" makes the fact it was executed even more mind-boggling. Further, insisting that all of us who were deeply touched by the deaths of these people would somehow benefit by reading live texting from one of their funerals -- and what likely was the most poignant service, at that -- shows an appalling lack of understanding about the benefits of new media and an even worse lack of journalistic common sense. What it does show is a willingness to pander. The facade is that it allowed the public at large to "share" the experience. Bullsh*t. A stream of tweets does not accomplish that. Then again, coming from a publisher whose newspaper specializes in open casket photos, it's not surprising that the Rocky would be so clueless in this regard. And by the way, I'm the father of two children. And as a journalist I've also covered more tragedy than I could have imagined during my career. So don't trot out that irrelevant crap as a defense, John.

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