Ha, I bet the main design goal of this system is to figure out how to make sure comments they don't like aren't right under the article. It's been typical that a highly upvoted and articulate top comment blows massive holes in the political agenda of a given article or oped. This is why so many of these publications have yanked comment sections altogether.
Sometimes this is the case, and sometimes the top comment is going on about Obamacare or chemtrails or Keynsianism or global warming. Regardless of the topic of the article.