The News-Sentinel needs to just do away with the comment feature...

[bird jam]

I am usually able to spot which stories will have comments disabled but this one is a puzzler to me:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/fe...ille-shooting/

Is it out of respect for the dead? (If so, why this story and not other tragic stories?) Is it fear of more of the raging gun debate?

[O.D.B.]

"The District Attorney's office said 13 weeks would not represent a viable fetus and would not support a second murder charge," DeBusk said this morning.

Would be my guess.

[bird jam]

"The District Attorney's office said 13 weeks would not represent a viable fetus and would not support a second murder charge," DeBusk said this morning.

Would be my guess.

Ah, the abortion debate! How did I miss that?

[bird jam]

"The District Attorney's office said 13 weeks would not represent a viable fetus and would not support a second murder charge," DeBusk said this morning.

Would be my guess.

So what changed between yesterday and today? (Comments are now allowed):

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/fe...hooting-could/

[F-Stop]

I can only imagine the fuckwit comments that would have gone with this story:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/fe...d-with-dui-is/

[bird jam]

Interesting that they chose to allow comments for this article: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/ma...o-contest-pub/

[bird jam]

Interesting that they chose to allow comments for this article: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/ma...o-contest-pub/

And then for Jamie's Chipman Street recap yesterday (which is still the top story on the website today for some reason), they allowed exactly one comment:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/ma...ings-in-focus/

I know why comments would be disabled for this story - there is literally nothing that can be said about it that has not already been said, and any comments section allowed underneath would inevitably devolve into the usual litany of (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

But it is curious (to me - as you can see I am fascinated by the decision-making that goes into the comment system) that a single comment was allowed before shutting them down. Did one just slip by the goalie before the gate was closed?

[Bbeanster]

My favorite recent comment on this case came from the guy who said the verdict was a victory for white families.

[Boris]

I read the comments because it makes me feel better about myself.

[Hayduke]

I read the comments because it makes me feel better about myself.

I'm seeing potential for a mash-up where KNS comments are used as captions for photos from PeopleOfWalMart.