Well, I assume that since the comments typically seem to be related to the article, someone must be reading all these articles. Then again, how would I know that?
Lots of comments are basically just a reaction to the headline (bringing up questions/complaints which the article addresses without referencing the article's points).
It's not really that surprising, engagement in any community is largely driven by a desire to participate in a discourse around interesting topics. I do think it results in several levels of conversation happening at the same time around a topic though.
