For better or worse the exact same thing is true for comments on blogs, social news sites, and elsewhere. The people writing the articles on their personal sites get all the credit, whereas the people analyzing and fact checking what others are saying are often providing just as much if not more value.

Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of comments are completely crap, but so are the vast majority of blog posts. And because the average blog post gets way more attention than the average comment, trying to keep things from becoming completely insane is a completely thankless job. And unfortunately highly necessary, or else bloggers and journalists would basically have free range to completely make shit up and be wrong about basic facts, both purposely and accidentally, and generally spread all sorts of propaganda and misinformation.

And what's more, leaving good comments is really an art form, one that's quite different from writing longer stuff but really on par with it in many ways. And yet there really aren't more than a handful of blog commenters who have achieved any measurable amount of reputation or success because of their comments.

Commenters are generally seen at best as critics, people who complain instead of do. But really the role they play in the ecosystem is not just important but in fact essential.