Ditto for both Boston newspapers. It can literally ruin your day reading some of the comments below even mundane articles.

The NYT has a good approach: Approve only those comments which present reasoned arguments in a semi-intelligent way. There's a lag, but the comment threads are excellent reading.

Another approach: Force everyone to use real names when leaving a comment. I am not sure how that would work, but the trolling would drop away if real identities were tied to people's words.

Unfortunately, it might also inhibit people from commenting, too. Anonymity is a great way to say what you actually think.