>It's always funny when some rag tries to say "X declined to comment". No one is going to comment on some random crap you publish on what's a glorified blog

Strong disagree. I like when people writing articles at least give the other side a chance to comment. It makes me feel the piece is less obviously biased. Of course it can be abused by giving the other side just a dew hours to comment (so basically no real chance), but it's still better than nothing.