The left-wing group Media Matters posted a message on its site this afternoon (Tuesday, August 23, 2005, viewed by this writer at about 2:30 pm Pacific time), "Due to unusually high traffic at Media Matters for America, the discussion boards have been temporarily disabled. We apologize for the inconvenience." As of Tuesday evening, the message still appeared.

 

        Although a few new posts by Media Matters may have been added after the closure of the boards, a review of recent items of discussion does not overtly indicate any "usually high traffic" that would prompt a closure. For example,

• An item on "Sen. Gorton's O'Reilly smackdown" has 0 comments.
• An item on the New York Times' and Fox News' coverage of "Able Danger" has 0 comments.
• An new item related to Pat Robertson's incendiary remarks has 0 comments.
• An item on the Washington Times' David Lambro has 2 comments.
• An item on the National Review's Rich Lowry has a whopping 11 comments.
• An item in which Media Matters calls on ABC Radio to fire Pat Robertson has 4 comments.
• An item on the Washington Post's Mike Allen has 5 comments.
• A front-page, day-old post on Pat Robertson has 99 comments (the most from the past couple days, but not "unusual" for a lively story).

 

TheMediaReport.com asks ... "Unusually high traffic" on a Tuesday afternoon in August?