The BBC News website similarly disables comments on any article that's even remotely controversial. While some would undoubtedly consider that a good thing to protect the quality of the conversation, I'm not so sure myself. UK citizens are forced by law to fund the BBC through what is effectively a tax on television ownership. In addition, the BBC's takes on certain issues are known to be quite out of step with the feelings of the majority of the UK population. Allowing the BBC to selectively disable comments on such articles, which are forcibly funded by the people who might like to comment on them, seems wrong on some level. I'd rather the BBC removed commenting across the entire site than have the power to remove comments on specific articles they know are going to result in disagreement.