Isn't DD style commenting the way to deal with it?
Why not review each comment before allowing it to post?
Are there 3rd party 24hr services that would do that for you?
They did moderate comments, it takes time and resources to do so and I guess they didn't see the ROI.
They have also taken a lot of heat in the comments on misleading and erroneous posts. I believe the decision to kill comments was finalized after last week's post about a right wing demonstration on a beach went viral and drew lots of negative comments before being closed to comments.