Fewer news sites allow comments

US News & Politics
1

I have noticed that more and more mainstream news sites have abandoned commenting, and many others like Wapoo, or the NYT have paywalls.

It is easy to claim that this is to prevent abusive trolling, yet, consider the effect- only the voices of those whose politics compel them to pay for whatever indoctrination these sites provide. This creates a circle jerk of posters who all have the same beliefs.

I believe there is an even darker aspect of this- in the absence of commentary, the bias of the site editors will appear more ‘neutral’, as there is no one pointing out bias. Consider the effect of information that is cherry picked - all ‘factual’ yet presented in a way that ignores information to the contrary to push a narrative, with no rebuttal possible.

Your thoughts?

2

It’s part and parcel of leftist snowflake culture. I find it to be along the same lines as participation trophies. The author gets to put their content out there without any sort of criticism. It’s very similar to turning the comments off on YouTube videos. The content creator wants a megaphone not an exchange.

3

It’s been going that way for a long time. The sites that do still allow comments are heavily moderated. Even then a lot of new sites that have comments enabled only have them for certain articles. Many articles, particularly op-eds, do not have a comment section.

4

Theoretically new sites that do allow comments will replace them, they’ll have a more engaged audience who visit more frequently. Doesn’t matter much, the unfettered internet is too dangerous to the people in charge and governments, they won’t stop until they turn it into TV and only the large players who can afford large capital investment and teams of lawyers and lobbyists can create content eventually. It’s inevitable.

5

And if you are wondering how they’ll do it, look no further than the new EU internet rules that make sites liable for any copyrighted material posted on their domain.

6

Pay walls could be related to diminished circulation by printed subscriptions and news stand sales. The internet and social media has decreased the need for printed papers. The revenue from printed papers has decreased to the point that the publishers resort to pay walls to recover lost income.

7

Who do you think controls the media?

8

I’ve Noticed This Also

Snopes Dropped Their Comments Long Ago
People Like Me
Would Point Out Their Bias
And Leading Way Of Writing Their Articles

Too Much Trouble To Keep Deleting Us

9

It’s because all of us talking about the issues and debating them is the most dangerous thing there is to both sides of the aisle.

1 Like
10

There is no conspiracy, It is notoriously difficult to moderate comments on a new site that is receiving literally millions of views and thousands of comments.

Because the sites are responsible for the content it makes sense they are moving away from comments.

You have no inherent right to post your opinions on a site or comment on their reports.

Do you think cable and terrestrial news programs should have a ticker tape of live tweets continously running so you can “make your voice heard”?