But if the author of the news story, or opinion piece, or blog post, tends to the comments, replies to the good ones, signals the bad ones, chastises the loudmouth bullies, and generally runs the comment threads like a serious discussion group, a serious discussion will result.

It's an issue for the news industry because tending to comment threads is not part of a journalist's traditional job. But I would argue that it is now and they ought to get busy doing it. For one, the journalists that do it and do it well will be better read. And they'll be better informed. They'll get tips in the comment threads. They'll get constructive criticism that will help them do their job better. And they'll get leads on new stories before others will.

I had innumerable discussions with colleagues from the newspaper I work for about the value of online reader comments. They normally say that most of the comments don't add any value to the discussion, and that many of them need to be moderated because they're obscene, rude or irrelevant. And if one takes a quick look at the comments most articles are getting, that actually seems to be true.

Of course, as Fred Wilson points out in the article above, closing commenting sections is not the solution to this problem. On the contrary: Just having one won't do the trick. Any media outlet serious about online conversations needs to show to commenters that they are serious - by engaging with them in a debate. Otherwise, commenting sections on news sites become a graveyard for the blurbs of self-obsessed people. And that does not only not add any value to the content, it actually takes value away from it.