Noam Chomsky's blog "manufactures consent."

Blogger Pejman Yousefzadeh has figured out how radical political critic Noam Chomsky deals with unwanted commentators on his blog (i.e., those who disagree with him):

. . . In order to comment on the Chomsky blog--or on other ZNet blogs--one has to donate to ZNet. Since donations in all likelihood come overwhelmingly (if not exclusively) from people who buy into the ZNet editorial line, the only people who are allowed to comment on ZNet blogs like Chomsky's are people who by and large agree with him.

To call this arrangement intellectually cowardly is to unfairly malign intellectual cowards. If the whole effect of a comments system is simply to create an echo chamber, then any self-respecting blogger would refrain from such an arrangement. It appears, however, that the ZNet crowd is not so high-minded.