Courtesy of our media-obsessed friends over at Fishbowl DC, today we find that the Post has been struggling with commenters on their official blog, so much so that yesterday they resorted to shutting down comments altogether.

In a message posted yesterday afternoon, Jim Brady, Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, wrote:

Great journalism companies need feedback from readers to stay sharp. But there are things that we said we would not allow, including personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech. Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we’ve decided not to allow comments for the time being. It’s a shame that it’s come to this. Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it’s a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about.

Oh Jim, we know the road on which you travel all too well. We struggled for quite a while with rogue commenters, the types that resort to posting multiple times under various aliases and offer nothing short of online verbal diarrhea for comments. We even tried to impose a little order in the anarchic world of comments, only to see our regular commenters bristle at the idea. So we decided instead to embrace the lawless world of online discussion, hoping that those interested in real conversation would drown out the — well, we may as well say it — Jonathan Rees’ of the world. And so far it has worked.

We give the Posties credit, though — they’re willing to talk about their decision. Brady will chat online today at noon about the decision, and we won’t be surprised if he’s flooded with the sorts of questions that aren’t so much questions as they are statements to the effect of, “You’re just acting out against criticism and my First Amendment rights! Fascists!”

You’d think that with the resources the Post has, they could dedicate some time to devising a scheme to filter out hateful or profane comments. A hint — they’re called interns.

Sidenote: Pot, meet kettle. Even though Fishbowl DC criticized the Post’s move, they themselves do not offer the chance to comment on their posts.