Google is trying something new ...

Note the little  comment icons  that are starting to appear next to news stories.   Google explains this as follows:  "We'll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question. Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we'll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as 'comments' so readers know it's the individual's perspective, rather than part of a journalist's report."   The first one i spotted is shown below.