They make up the rules as they go along, and they allow all sorts of name calling and personal attacks from the left but will ban us if we reply in kind. Usually it's against my personal code to use more than one account but they basically forced my hand by repeatedly suspending me for a week. I figure if half my comments never make it through then it's okay to use multiple accounts, especially when you have DNC mouth pieces straight up lying all the time and nobody is allowed to call them out on it.
It also depends who's working the comments. Some mods deny everything, mostly on the weekends. On weekdays sometimes I'm surprised on what makes it through.
What I did notice is that politicians are paying attention, and it's always interesting to see them spontaneously address points that were in the previous week's comments. A lot of swamp creatures live in a bubble and this is one of the few forums where they get a glimpse of what's going on in the outside world even though it's heavily edited.
There were some excellent comments from our side today btw.
What bothers me most is that the commenters for the most part aren't bothering to read the posts that came before them. I can't count how many of them trotted out the "Second Amendment only applies to a militia" argument.
I posted the counter argument to that, about how the right to keep and bear arms applies to "the people". It doesn't say "the right of the militia to keep and bear arms." But, people persisted every other post to repeat their misinterpretation over and over.
It's impossible to even have an honest and well-thought-out conversation with anyone due to the arbitrary post limit per person.
I've avoided most comment sections for all news orgs mainly on principle, but also due to the futility of the exercise. In principle, I hate giving clicks to Left-leaning, Democrat-supporting "news rags". They make money while banning the people who know more than the author of the article. And there's little to no chance of changing anyone's mind who's reading and posting in the comments. They "felt the need" to express an opinion, troll everyone, or call the people they don't like names.
You're right about the standards enforcement. One guy posted how anyone wanting to carry firearms is a "Barney Fife" who doesn't have the skills to safely us it in public (project much?). Then he says they are all bullies and Rambo wannabes who are weak. How is any of that not insulting and off-point? It's pure character assassination aimed at one side of the argument. Was his comment deleted? Nope.