indyank - 9:19 am on Dec 30, 2012 (gmt 0)

Are you folks actually suggesting that editorially hand-picked links from a "highly respected and very well trafficked <same niche> news site" are somehow harmful?

They aren't useful as not all of them count. And in some cases,they might prove to be harmful if Google mistakes them for paid links or any other sort of manipulated links.

Are you actually suggesting that Google isn't capable of sorting out multiple links from a "highly respected and very well trafficked <same niche> news site"?

Yes they do fail in many cases if not all. If google were able to sort out all links, then they wouldn't have to release a disavow tool.

Are you actually suggesting disavowing links from a "highly respected and very well trafficked <same niche> news site"?

Nope I would never suggest the disavow tool as I am still not clear on how google treats them. I haven't yet come across them clearly mentioning the disavow tool is for both webmasters who wrongly built links to their own sites to manipulate ranking and for those who want to disavow links from spammy sites on which you never had any control. Google had only said the disavow tool is for disavowing links that you built yourself.

If the loss in traffic isn't big, I wouldn't personally pay attention to correcting this.Rather I would focus on building better content and getting more natural links from other relevant sites as well.