I suspect this writer is not referring to ALL comments, just some of the less thoughtful ones:

“I basically like “comments,” though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It’s as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots.”

- Gene Weingarten, columnist for the Washington Post ^[1], on how the Internet is changing print journalism.

The problem is the people that vitriol is directed at won’t recognize themselves as the maggots . . .