Crossroads of Web, credibility full of potholes — chicagotribune.com:

Earlier this week, the Tribune shut down comment boards on its Web site for all political news stories. It also took down comments on an opinion column about Muslims, and on a story about the Illinois governor and a story about a violent crime in which a child was killed.

Those are the latest on the list of volatile topics — including race, immigration and rape — that bring out anonymous writers who are so nasty, obscene and racist that the boards were beginning to read like a community of foul-mouthed bigots.

So much for the Web 2.0. I wondered why comments sections are so full of spam and idiots. Now we know why.