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Rights...and responsibilities

Our website allows registered anonymous users to post comments on stories and on our forums. Both sites are governed by the masses; that is, there is a Report Abuse button. Even anonymous unregistered users can report abusive posts.
This is good to a point. I like that there's a kind of democracy amongst those in the discussion.
What I don't like is that anonymity seems to empower the most abusive, racist and ugly thoughts in the human mind.
I've talked to our (very small) reporting staff about participating in the discussions about their stories as a way of gaining some control. But let's face it...we're asking them to report for multiple newscasts, rewrite their stories for the web and do so many things that keeping up with discussions that go awry while the reporters are doing their jobs just isn't enough.
I don't have an answer but only suggest that everyone in the news department remain engaged in all aspects of reporting, including the thoughts of The Great Unwashed.