Hey Shawno,
You must create the thread first. On my site i have a special "news" forum where these are located. I disallow general users from creating new threads.
If no one has replied to the thread I've created, it says "Comment on this news (0 comments)"
What I've found is that if someone posts a thread in another forum that I end up developing into a news story, I can move the thread into the news forum, and merge it with the "official" news thread. I had to do this recently, it works like a charm.
Again, check out my
main page to see how i'm using it.
r