Kaz sent a link to a column by Rabbi Aaron Bergman on Detnews.com that made the loose link between Russert and Carlin, noting that they both “spoke truth to power.”

Neither backed down from challenging people in authority - in their own very different ways. Russert, as host of Meet the Press, was unfailingly polite and professional while asking tough questions and insisting on real answers. Carlin took pride in being rude and irreverent, both in his comedy and in his obversations on government, religion and any other institution.

What does all that have to do with MonroeTalks?

Kaz didn’t give his opinion, but I can see the direction he was heading with the question.

As the person primarily responsible for moderating MonroeTalks.com, I take a lot of grief from both sides when there is a controversial post that some think should be deleted.

Of course, I don’t make those decisions in a vacuum. They’re often discussed by several people before a decision is made. And of course, one of the underlying principles that we hold dear at The Evening News is freedom of speech. 

When it’s a close call, we’re usually going to err on the side of leaving it. That angers some people, who think we should be more aggressive in the name of decency. Like George Carlin’s comedy, some of the comments on MonroeTalks are pretty raunchy.

When does a person’s right to free speech get trumped by the public’s right to read a community discussion forum without being offended?

That’s not a question with an easy answer. We have “Terms of Service” for MonroeTalks - as well as for the comments that follow stories on monroenews.com - that prohibit profanity, obscenity and personal attacks, among other things. That helps, and we delete any clear violations. The problem is the huge gray area.

Rabbi Bergman ended his column with a plea that perhaps holds part of the answer.

“Politicians and religious leaders around the country are probably breathing a little easier, because Russert and Carlin will not be there anymore,” he wrote.

“It is up to all of us, in our own way, to continue to demand honesty and integrity from all in public life.”

MonroeTalks is a place where everyone can say what they want - in their own way. They can challenge people in authority, speaking their own version of “truth to power.” They also can tell jokes, swap recipes for potato salad, or banter about baseball.

And they can do it all like Russert, with class and respect, or like Carlin, with sharp and vulgar humor. 

I’ve been negligent about blogging lately.

I’m following the growth of Twitter, wondering when and whether we should consider using it to help report the news in Monroe County.

Does all of this have any connection?

Only the tiniest thread.

I was reading the “E Media tidbits” blog on the Poynter Institute Web site this morning. It’s one of the ways I keep up with what’s going on in journalism new media circles.

There was a post by Michael Arrington, of TechCrunch.com, about how Twitter is occasionally turning off the reply function, because of traffic problems. Mr. Arrington noted that he just switches over to FriendFeed.com when that happens.

So I followed the link to see what that was about. This is how he started the conversation he used as an example:

“I keep thinking I should blog something, and then I look out at the ocean and go play with my dog instead.”

Note how short the message is. Typical of Twitter conversations.

Back to my story. That got me thinking about the dog my wife and I are considering. After 20 years of owning a dog, we’ve gone the last 10 or so without one. We’re thinking of getting back into the game.

The vision of walking the dog on the beach gets me thinking nostalgically about past walks with former pooches.

Which leads me to the fence I’ll need to build.

One more time-consuming project that will keep me from blogging.

At The Evening News, we have seen huge increases in traffic to our Web sites, and a small reduction in the number of subscribers to the print edition.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a few people are dropping readership of the newspaper because they get their local news online, but not many.

The available evidence seems to suggest, rather, that most people have developed new habits for using media of all kinds. They read the newspaper for certain kinds of information and entertainment, go to the Internet for other information and entertainment, and turn on the television or radio or any of the  many other sources for other select reasons.

A new study of Ohio readers suggests that’s exactly what’s happening.

The research, conducted by Belden Associates for the Ohio Newspaper Association, found that use of newspapers by readers remains strong, and that use of newspaper Web sites is growing. Now more than 80 percent of all people surveyed used one or the other to get their local news in the last week - far more than any other sources, such as television or radio.

Perhaps more important, more people said they were turning to both the newspaper Web site and the local newspaper than a year ago, while the majority said they were spending less time watching television, listening to the radio or reading magazines.

None of this means that newspapers are the news source of the future. That’s probably not the case.

But it suggests that for the time being people still are using both the print and on-line versions of the newspaper.

In late 2002 and early 2003, in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, I was torn over what I should say - either in my own column or on the newspaper’s editorial pages.

I should quickly add that I was not employed by The Monroe Evening News at the time. I was at the Zanesville, Ohio, Times Recorder.

My newspaper had endorsed George Bush for president and supported the invasion of Afghanistan. But I was convinced that attacking Iraq - without a plan for what we would do with the country once we conquered it - was a mistake.

As the inevitability of the attack grew near, I several times sat down to write about why I thought it was the wrong thing to do, both for moral reasons and as national policy.

I didn’t want America to lose the moral high ground by becoming the aggressor - the country that started a war. I grew up thinking of America as the white knight, the country that came in when needed to save the day. Invading Iraq just didn’t feel right.

Further, and more important, I didn’t think it would work. I thought it would just give radical Muslims another reason to hate us, and more ammunition to recruit. And there was the huge question of what would we do with Iraq once we drove Sadaam out?

But I didn’t write that column. I stayed silent. And I have regretted it over and over during the last five years. It’s not that my column would have changed the president’s mind. It probably wouldn’t have changed the mind of a dozen readers of my newspaper. But it would have mattered to me. I would have done what I could.

Now, I feel the deja vu. The president is rattling swords about Iran, just like five-plus years ago with Iraq. He’s trying to convince the world that this is a black and white issue - either Iran gives up its nuclear program or …. or what? Another invasion of a country we can’t hope to change? Another example of the United States as the biggest bully on the block?

I hope not. This time, anyway, I won’t stay silent.

In my view, U.S. policy on Iran makes no sense. The president says he won’t negotiate until Iran halts its nuclear enrichment program. He’s drawing a line in the sand and giving Iran only two choices - even though he knows that Iran is not going to allow itself to be bullied.

He’s marching down a path that can only lead to war. And that’s absolutely the wrong path.

Such is the case with a story in Wednesday’s Monroe Evening News and on Monroenews.com about a Monroe High School teacher who is under investigation for inappropriate behavior with a student.

The story is receiving dozens of comments from readers on Monroenews.com, some of whom are critical of The Evening News for publishing the story when the teacher has not been charged with a crime.

They correctly point out that our policy is generally to wait until charges have been filed against someone before reporting their name.

We’ve known about the investigation for months. We know about lots of police investigations that never reach the point of a story in the newspaper. If the police decide there is nothing to an accusation, there’s no reason for a story.

Even when a suspect is arrested, we generally don’t name them until they’ve been to court and been arraigned, or until a prosecutor has signed a warrant.

Two things made this case different.

One, the suspect is in a position of public trust. This isn’t a private person - it’s a teacher, someone we’ve entrusted with childrens’ lives. There is a higher public interest in the case.

And, two, the case reached a point where concrete action was taken. The school district put the teacher on paid administrative leave. She was no longer teaching her classes. The case became public, in a sense, because of the district’s action.

From a practical standpoint, that meant that rumors began to fly even faster at the high school. If the local newspaper continued to ignore it, the rumors would just get wilder and wilder.

Ray Kisonas, the reporter who wrote the story, had to sort through a variety of allegations. The phone was ringing in the newsroom as plenty of people offered their suggestions.

The story that appeared in the paper was short, straightforward, giving accurate information. The teacher wasn’t led out of the school in handcuffs by armed police officers. The allegations had nothing to do with the earlier controversy involving volleyball players.

Other commenters on Monroenews.com wondered why the volleyball controversy was brought up at all. If they weren’t connected, why mention it?

In my view, The Evening News showed considerable restraint in not publishing a story about the accusations last winter, when parents of JV players accused the head coach of abusive behavior and favoritism.  We checked with school officials, who said the complaints were typical of parents who are upset with a coach. It’s not uncommon in youth sports, so we ignored it.

Ironically, the topic was covered on MonroeTalks.com, our social networking site. That’s different. The whole point of MonroeTalks.com is to give Monroe County residents a place to bring up any issue they want to talk about, and coaching of high school sports is a likely topic for conversation.

So, because of the MonroeTalks.com discussion, as well as the high school rumor mill, most people in the high school community were aware of the volleyball controversy. One of the first rumors to get started was that there was a connection between the two situations.

If Ray had left the volleyball controversy out of this week’s story, he would have done readers a disservice. It was important to include the information that they apparently are not connected.

I agree with those “posters” on Monroenews.com that if the teacher turns out to be innocent of the accusations, the story in the paper will have unfairly tarred her reputation. I think that’s very unfortunate.

But we wouldn’t have done her a favor by hiding the facts from the public, letting the rumor mill sweep through town unabated.

When the school district decided the situation was serious enough to take the teacher out of the classroom, we had to do our job and provide as many accurate details as we could.

I’m now officially wrong, on both sides of the fence.

My rationale was that both John McCain and Barack Obama had flaws that couldn’t be overcome. For McCain, it was his support of the war in Iraq. For Obama, race and inexperience.

I still feel the same. I can’t imagine America electing as president a man who thinks the war in Iraq was the right thing to do, and who plans on continuing it.

And I can’t imagine America electing a black man with little national experience as president.

But it appears that one will happen.

It’s not that I don’t admire both men. I’ve enjoyed watching John McCain’s political career since he first hit the national stage. He’s independent-minded, and he’s willing to be thoughtful and to listen to others before shaping his views. And for the most part he seems to be honest and straightforward - something I value, as do most Americans.

I don’t know as much about Barack Obama because he has very little track record. I like what he says, however, about national unity and the need to change how we do business in Washington. He’s a very personable speaker who is easy to like. And I think he’s closer to the right approach in Iraq.

Even though I was wrong in my prediction, I still think I was on the right track. In my view, this campaign is going to be about those same issues.

Which issue will American voters - particularly those middle class, often blue collar suburban white folks in the center of the political spectrum who generally swing elections - be able to stomach more: the status quo in Iraq, or electing a black man who looks and talks very differently than them.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think race should play a role. I wish we were past the point where people even noticed. 

But I’m realistic enough to know that many Americans still are struggling with race issues. They don’t see Mr. Obama as a promising young lawyer from Chicago who quickly rose through the state legislature to win election to the U.S. Senate and who has made a splash on the national scene with his fresh ideas and dramatic public speaking ability. They see him as a black man with a radical minister and hazy ties in his youth to Muslims.

I was wrong with my predictions a year ago, so you know about my track record. But my prediction now is that the war and race will be the real issues in November.

I enter this kind of discussion with reluctance. I don’t want to stifle debate, especially on a topic so close to my heart. I’ve spent more than 30 years defending the First Amendment and believe passionately in free speech.

But some questions have been asked that deserve answers, or at least as close as I can come.

I appreciate the story on Twitter that French Fry posted. It highlighted the similar issues that all discussion forums and social networking sites deal with. How much to moderate is a challenge.

Too little and you lose your forum to people on the fringes. Mainstream folks don’t feel comfortable and leave. Too much and you lose virtually everyone, because who wants Big Brother looking over their shoulder.

We try to moderate as lightly as possible. Weeks go by without any posts being deleted or any users being admonished. I don’t keep records, but my sense is that we average about one incident a month that requires intervention. And sometimes that’s just a minor change, like removing a phone number or e-mail address from a post.

I’ve been asked to talk at national and regional conferences about how we manage MonroeTalks.com because it’s somewhat unique in the country. We’ve been able to create an online community that is more active and more responsible than most.

I really don’t know why we’ve been successful - luck is certainly one possibility. But I tell these audiences that I believe there are two reasons:

One, we moderate very lightly, and at the same time encourage folks on MonroeTalks.com to self-moderate (by that I mean both moderate your own posts before you push the button, and users correcting each other when they see inappropriate material).

And two, we benefit from the small-town atmosphere of Monroe County and the general sense of civility that comes with small town folks. In short, there are a lot of nice people in MonroeTalks and they tend to treat each other decently.

After I gave a talk in Washington, D.C. this spring, the man who moderates the Houston Chronicle’s talk forums came up to me and said, in effect, “Congratulations on MonroeTalks, but it wouldn’t work in Houston. People just aren’t that nice.”

Several people have made reference to their belief that local politicians control how we moderate MonroeTalks. They also seem to think that local politicians control how we edit the Monroe Evening News.

Mention that at City Hall, or the county courthouse, or the offices of our state legislators, and you would get some laughs. Certainly, many local movers and shakers try to influence our reporters and editors. Some call regularly with complaints or concerns. We always listen carefully and politely. Sometimes we do what they ask. But only if we think it’s the right thing to do for our readers and our community.

Actually, there is a kind of double standard when it comes to moderating MonroeTalks. That’s because, whether for better or for worse, our legal system has a double standard when it comes to libel. One set of rules apply for public officials, another for private folks. So when a topic gets critical of a public official, it’s unlikely we’ll step in. They’re fair game. But when a topic is critical of a private individual or business, we have to be careful. If someone can prove they’ve been defamed - and it’s not true - they can sue for libel.

That’s why we didn’t do anything to stop the long threads on MonroeTalks that involved back-and-forth discussion between City Council member Brian Beneteau and supporters of former Zorba’s/Jefano’s owner Jeff Fraunhauffer. Both would be considered by the courts to be public figures - Mr. Beneteau because of his election to the city council and Mr. Fraunhauffer because of his arrest and conviction.

When we delete a potentially libelous post, we’re not just protecting ourselves - we’re protecting the person who made the statement. The Internet Communications Decency Act, passed by Congress in 1996 and updated several times since, protects the provider of a discussion forum from being sued, as long as they don’t moderate too heavily. In other words, if we generally keep hands off, except when someone complains, we can’t be sued. The person who makes the statement can be, however.

That’s one of the reasons we moderate very lightly. We don’t want to “take control” of the forums. If we did, we would be liable for the content.

We’ve both been in the newspaper business more than three decades. That’s a lot of Memorial Days.

Yet because we’ve written dozens of editorials on the topic of why Memorial Day is important, that doesn’t make the holiday any less relevant. Each year it’s just as important as the year before.

And since we’re currently at war, the holiday takes on even more significance.

This year, the task was made easier by Carleton resident John Durbin, who sent us a timely and well-written guest column reminding people to put aside their picnic baskets and turn off their television sets long enough to celebrate the holiday. It will appear in Sunday’s Evening News.

Oh, and Monday there will be an editorial from The Evening News, celebrating the patriotic men and women who have sacrificed protecting our liberties and reminding all of us that we have a responsibility, too.

This weekend, I have lots of yard work to do. And a few games to watch on TV. And I’d like to see the Indiana Jones movie. And we’ll probably fit in some grilling.

But we’ll make sure we set aside some time to think about my father, who served in Europe in WWII, and my wife’s father, who served in the Pacific, and our nephew in Iraq, and several other friends with children in harms way serving their nation.

I’ve been on vacations with my family at the beach before. But this time three of the five women were pregnant.

My two sons’ wives are due next fall, as is my daughter. Our number of grandchildren will double, from three to six, between August and December. There is a sort of symmetry involved. Our oldest is having her third. The next oldest is having his second, and the youngest is going to be a daddy for the first time.

There were four generations gathered together, because my mother joined us, too.

So what made this vacation so different?

Unless you’ve experienced it in person, you have no idea how many details there are involved in pre-, during and post-birth that need to be discussed.

And some of the details are, well, fairly personal.

But when three pregnant women are related, and gathered with their mother/mother-in-law and grandmother/grandmother-in-law, there are few inhibitions holding back the details, which get discussed over and over again.

I’m not complaining. I learned a thing or two. 

And you know that saying about how pregnant women have a sort of glow about them.  It’s true.

All three of them were beautiful, radiating with the joy of new life. 

And for all the complaining about nauseau and cramps and restrictive diets, it was wonderful being part of their lives for a few days.

Bigger stories get 3,000 to 4,000 page views, and occasionally a story will top 5,000 page views. The entire site only gets about 40,000 page views a day, and the most we’ve ever had on a day was 55,000.

So imagine my surprise when I glanced at the Web stats yesterday and saw our traffic for the day soaring above anything I’d seen before.

At 5 p.m., the site already had  50,000 page views and was projecting to top 80,000 for the day.

“What could be causing that,” I said to myself. I didn’t know of any big stories.

So I checked the individual story stats, and there it was. The story about a truck called King Kong by its owner - a very unusual truck, to be sure - had already topped 20,000 page views and the number was growing by the minute.

By this morning, it’s over 35,000 page views - more than the entire site gets on some days. And the monroenews.com Web site topped 82,000 page views for May 6 and was headed for similar numbers today.

So, what happened? It didn’t take long for me to figure it out. It’s called Fark.com.

If you’re not familiar with it, Fark.com is a Web site devoted to unusual stories. It’s kind of an on-line version of “news of the weird.”

Someone sent the King Kong truck story to Fark.com, where it was displayed prominently among their “Not News” stories of the day. As of mid-morning today, 28,500 page views on monroenews.com were referred from Fark.com.

In addition, another 11,000 page views were created when people clicked on the photo of the truck, to see the larger version.

It’s fun to have a local story get noticed on a national Web site, even if it’s only Fark.com. But that’s generally not where our traffic comes from.

Most visitors to monroenews.com and MonroeTalks.com come from the local area. We know that from their IP providers, which our system keeps track of.

Links to national Web sites create some one-time excitement. The last time we had a story go national - before yesterday our most page views ever - was the traffic stop of three University of Michigan football players last May when drugs were found in the car. That story received 14,000 page views, most coming from national sports Web sites.