Note: Please be aware that this post contains some disturbing quotes to make its point.

Last week I wrote about how some newspapers are working out how to grow their brand online. Today, I've an article about how one newspaper is rapidly moving in the opposite direction.

The Washington Post is one of the oldest newspapers in the U.S. and one of the most important because it's read by D.C.'s powerbrokers. It's famous for numerous stories from the Spanish-American war to Watergate.

So why is it negligently allowing its reputation to be destroyed online? The problem is their blogs and the problem is so serious it could be a case study for how not to protect your brand.

The Post's blogs have already been in trouble for posting spurious chain-emails as facts, but it seems as if they're sinking even lower at the moment.

How the Post is Allowing Trolls To Run Free

This article has around 3000 comments. Their technical staff should certainly break those into different pages so I don't need to load each and every one, but the lack of any moderation is shocking. I'd estimate that 9 out of every 10 comments should not have been published. Here are some examples of those the Post should not have published. They are far from the worst examples ... many others were simply too crude or abusive to repost here.

1) Blatant Trolling (Racism in this case)

2) Posting Only Self-Promotional Links

3) Copying and Pasting Large Chunks of Text

4) So Far Beyond Inappropriate Its Hard to Know Where to Start

I counted this image posted at least a dozen times.

Finally Someone Calls the Post Out

The sad fact is that nearly all the Post's blogs are defaced in this way. How can a prestigious organization get it so very wrong?