They don’t want open debate, they want a left-wing circle jerk.
Sorry for the crude term, but I find this to be true of all left-leaning sites.
I’ve even been banned from leaving comments on articles on SFGate.com because I’ve factually challenged the people who write these left-biased opinion articles, such as Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli.
Here is an example of Garofoli “journalism”:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/08/MNB313DUTE.DTL
Basically, Garofoli is calling the McCain camp racists for brining up the Obama-Ayers connection.
First, remind the liberals to live up to their OWN set of rules. Then go outside the experience of the liberal. You want to cause confusion and retreat.