I couldn’t disagree more. Many people don’t have accounts with these other websites like Reddit, or don’t want to make them, or don’t want to deal with the biases of those various echo chambers. Having a community of news readers has a lot of utility. And from the news sites that I read (both local and national), I see very few outright spammy comments. I see a lot of legitimate push back and diverse opinions that provide different shades of perspectives on issues.
What I do see as an increasing and disturbing trend is newspapers selectively turning off comment sections on stories that are controversial. The Seattle Times does this, and in 2020 the readers were robbed of the opportunity to discuss controversial situations freely (like CHAZ or a violent BLM riot). This was presumably done to avoid the trouble of moderation of PR, but a less charitable and very believable take is that this amounts to controlled manufacturing of public opinion by disallowing a dissenting viewpoint.
In the absence of comment sections, all that’s left is one journalist’s biased take and characterization. With news houses across the country experiencing left-leaning employee activism and newsroom revolts, the opinions of readers is extremely important to not just platform, but feature prominently as a balancing force. And yes, anonymous comments in particular must be permitted, so the voice of those who aren’t in power is heard.
What I do see as an increasing and disturbing trend is newspapers selectively turning off comment sections on stories that are controversial. The Seattle Times does this, and in 2020 the readers were robbed of the opportunity to discuss controversial situations freely (like CHAZ or a violent BLM riot). This was presumably done to avoid the trouble of moderation of PR, but a less charitable and very believable take is that this amounts to controlled manufacturing of public opinion by disallowing a dissenting viewpoint.
In the absence of comment sections, all that’s left is one journalist’s biased take and characterization. With news houses across the country experiencing left-leaning employee activism and newsroom revolts, the opinions of readers is extremely important to not just platform, but feature prominently as a balancing force. And yes, anonymous comments in particular must be permitted, so the voice of those who aren’t in power is heard.