DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710250001

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:  108 lines

REPORT TO READERS EDITORIALS NOW HAVE BYTE AND BITE

News, weather, sports, entertainment - for three years you've been able to get all that and more on Pilot-Online. But one area was conspicuously absent: editorials and commentary.

No more. Last week, The Pilot's editorial pages made their Internet debut. PilotOnline Opinion is the name of the web site.

On Monday, when I first gave it a close look, the electronic opinion page had Sunday and Monday editorials on Virginia taxes, Colonial Downs and technical education, as well as editorials and columns from earlier in the week.

Also featured were Sunday/Monday columns by Commentary editor Dave Addis, editorial writer Margaret Edds and columnist Ann Sjoerdsma - not to mention my own Report to Readers.

For the past year, readers have asked when editorials would be available via PilotOnline, so now you have 'em. On weekdays, you'll find the day's editorials and columns posted by 10 a.m. Weekend deadlines are still a bit fuzzy.

The section also offers an easy format for putting in your 2 cents' worth via e-mail letters or TalkNet, or sending your gripes and grins to the public editor.

There's a difference in speaking out via e-mail or TalkNet. When you click on ``Letters,'' you're sending a letter to the editor for publication on paper (remember paper?) in The Virginian-Pilot. Messages sent to TalkNet are posted online. You can also read them at that site.

Editorial page editor Keith Monroe is all revved up about getting on the information superhighway. He reminds us that the editorial pages were the original place in the newspaper where readers could talk back, via letters and columns. He sees the online opinion page as a natural extension of its print equivalent - a community forum.

``One of the reasons we're excited about getting on line,'' he said, ``is not just so people can read the editorials but so that other people can talk back at greater length and post their own views.''

With space constraints on the printed page, there's a limit to how many letters to the editor can be printed. In the world of cybercommentary, it's virtually (a good cyberword) unlimited. And no one's counting words, either. On Friday, there was already a hot TalkNet debate about editorial endorsements and tax cuts - comments like:

``Shouldn't any form of media whether TV, print or radio have the responsibility to be completely objective? When any organized media decides in favor of one side, the question of its credibility. . . comes into question.

``Newspapers have always supported one candidate or another, and that is rightfully done in the editorial sections, where opinions are labeled as such. This practice will continue, and should do, so long as it is done in the editorial sections of the paper. . . .''

``I'm disappointed in the editorial as it makes the paper's liberal slant painfully obvious. To say that a car tax cut is not policy and to discount it as a `gimmick used to get votes' is wrong. Did it ever occur to you that it might IMPROVE things in Virginia. . . ?''

And so on and so on. . .

Online opinion pages are not yet the industry norm. Chris Kouba, PilotOnline content manager, says that fewer than half the online papers have editorial pages and fewer still a capacity for online conversation.

He sees TalkNet as a potential source of some lively and informative discussions. Down the line, there could also be a chat group that would allow a live give-and-take with editorial writers or with the public editor.

What you won't see online are: (a) nationally syndicated columnists (b) editorial cartoons and (c) printed letters to the editor. The mission of the online opinion page is primarily local and regional; besides, I'm not sure that our contract with syndicated writers allows us to use their work online. As for letters to the editor, there should be enough TalkNet feedback to fill the bill.

So brave the Internet and tune in to PilotOnline Opinion at: http://www.pilotonline.com/opinion

Or just go to PilotOnline and click on ``Opinion.''

ODDS & ENDS. Calls this week touched on a little of everything. Among them:

Spooky stuff. An anonymous woman who identified herself as a police officer was upset that the Oct. 16 Suffolk Sun had published, as its Pet of the Week from the Suffolk Animal Shelter, a 6-week-old black kitten. At first, I couldn't figure out why an ``adorable and frisky'' kitten would upset anyone.

But the woman said it really shocked her to see this so close to Halloween. Her concern: ``Sickos'' would adopt the black kitten and use it in satanic rites.

Things go better with coke. An observant reader thought our juxtaposition of headlines in Monday's A-section was pretty funny.

One headline said, ``Coke unlikely to change course under its new CEO.'' The other, on the same page: ``Man and 1,800 pounds of coke found floating in ocean off Fla.''

Of course, the first headline referred to Coca-Cola, the other to the drug.

An irreverent Dilbert. Wednesday's ``Dilbert'' pushed the envelope a bit, as they say in biz lingo. Its dialogue began, ``You say this football was autographed by Jesus. . . ''

Only one reader complained, saying it was ``utterly blasphemous.'' I was surprised there weren't more complaints, but I imagine there might have been if ``Dilbert'' ran on the comic page rather than inside the Business News section.

In California, the San Diego Union-Tribune yanked the strip entirely. Readers' representative Gina Lubrano tells me they got 200 angry calls.

It was the second time this month that the syndicate, United Media, had sent a warning to newspaper editors about one of its comic strips. The other concerned the ``Luann'' story line for Oct. 13-18.

``Some papers have said they are worried that Aaron would turn out to be gay,'' said the syndicate's note to editors. ``Cartoonist Greg Evans has assured us that `he's not going down that path.' ''

Obviously, cartoonists are following their own paths these days. And their distributors are getting nervous.

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