Articles are submitted to HN to be critiqued and discussed. In this instance the story is about a person who (apparently) is widely disliked in the tech community. It's no surprise that the comments are negative.
I'm not sure why his comment warrants such a hostile reaction when it is in the interest of the community that people engage in self-moderation and policing to keep it healthy.
Additionally, even if the attacks on Pogue's personality granted it credence, I personally feel it doesn't belong here and isn't useful for any of us to spend our time as if we're judges in a tech scene popularity contest.
The more interesting discussion is about how this could be relevant to Yahoo and their attempt to change direction. Or if this type of move is a harmful trend for the Times, such as how they lost Nate Silver.