Can article comments be too harsh?

With most people getting their news from Web sites now, do you think it is possible that a journalist who reads comments from a story, and then does a follow up to the same story, can become biased based on what they read? Steve Myers of the Poynter Institute looked at the issue of comments online, focusing mainly on the time around when NFL star Sean Taylor was killed. Before he was pronounced dead, there were comments regarding his well-being, and hoping he would pull through. Others had backgrounds surrounding racism and said his rough past had caught up to him. When reading news online, do you read the comments that follow to see their reaction to the story?

Recently, I read an article about a University of Utah basketball game, where Utah had lost the game, mostly to missed free-throw shots. The Utah head coach, Jim Boylen, is the former assitant coach from men's MSU basketball, and because I am of relation to him, I thought I would check out the comments to see what people really had to say. Most of them argued about the refs and the bad calls they had made, but most of them were in regards to Jimmy. Some comments were not hurtful, calling him coach ridilin and such, but others were juts vicious. It made me wonder how newspapers decide to regulate these comments, and how they decide on if a comment has gone too far.

Is there a point at which certain comments can become too vicious? In the article by Steve Myers, he explained that the Washington Post deleted many comments about Sean Taylor that were extremely racist. While it is the Washington Post's Web site, it is ethical for newspapers to edit their comments on articles? Is it to keep the community and reputation of the paper safe, or is a way to regulate what readers read. Is it wrong to delete user comments who want to voice their opinion?

While I do believe the newspapers have a right to control such comments, especially racist ones regarding Sean Taylor after a serious incident which later caused his young death, I also see it from a point as regulating the reader's views. If your paper supported McCain, and a user commented on supporting Obama, would you delete it to keep the readers Republican and more McCain? Is it ethical?