They don’t like their ‘doctrines’ being challenged. (They really said that…)
Desperate to cling onto their ability to dictate reality, the crumbling mainstream media is beginning to kill off article comment sections in a cynical bid to silence dissenting voices.
Studies confirm that article comments sections – for better or worse – are heavily swaying public opinion. How many times have you read a mainstream news article about NSA spying, drones, gun control or any other other hot button issue where the author sides with the establishment, only to have their argument completely eviscerated by the respondents in the comment section?
Recent polls show that trust in mainstream media is hovering at record lows. After largely failing to influence the court of public opinion via paid trolls, the establishment is starting to panic and is responding by moving to cull comment sections altogether.
Popular Science and BoingBoing.net recently announced their decision to kill comment sections on their website. The New York times also recently announced that it is scaling back comments and removing them from some articles altogether.As an excellent Daily Tech piece highlights, Popular Science admitted that its decision to pull the comment section was in order to preach a “scientific doctrine” on global warming without being challenged. The origin of the word “doctrine” is to indoctrinate. Therefore, Popular Science is taking the most unscientific approach possible – by censoring debate and stifling alternative ideas – in order to indoctrinate its readers.
The decision to kill comment sections on news websites will only result in the mainstream losing traffic to alternative sites which allow free expression and do not resort to censorship.