They all ran pretty much ran the same story citing “racism” and a lack of commenters (a lie). The reality is the comment sections leaned pretty heavily pro Trump and often eviscerated the liberal narratives presented in the story/editorial.

I haven’t seen anyone report it as a story, but it’s true. Here are a few example. Different papers. All the same story. All the same day. All owned by Advance Publications (Reddit’s majority shareholder) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Publications

NJO.com https://www.nj.com/news/2020/02/njcom-removing-comments-from-site-on-thursday.html

Syracuse.com https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/02/syracusecom-to-end-reader-comments-on-website-beginning-thursday.html

Cleveland.com https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/02/open-commenting-at-clevelandcom-is-going-away-heres-why.html

Staten Island Advance https://www.silive.com/news/2020/02/silive-to-end-commenting-on-website-beginning-thursday.html

Oregon Live https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/12/oregonlive-eliminates-comments-joining-other-media-organizations.html

AL.com https://www.al.com/news/2020/02/end-of-an-era-comments-end-on-alcom-on-thursday.html