After over 25 years when my radio, & TV when with in range, were rusted on to the ABC, I found the rot started about 20 years ago.

Everything on the ABC first went further & further left/green, & of little real value. It's treatment Pauline Hanson back when, & today is nothing but a disgrace.

It underwent a change where it tried to present an unbiased face, while pushing left/green ideology every bit as hard, but trying to be more subtle about it. That is when it lost me. If they couldn't be honest left, they are just a waste of time & money.

The last 2 programs I ever watched were catalyst, until it was taken over by the far green ratbag fringe, & a great BBC thing Junkyard Challenge, or something similar, now disappeared.

It is so bad today that you can't even watch their election coverage. Once by far the best resourced, & best coverage, the bias makes it impossible to watch today.

It is no longer worth saving, & is probably too far gone to be able to be saved anyway.

While agreeing that the ABC is losing it's direction, I agree with Aka that it is probably not the reason this site is losing viewers. I seldom read the comments on OLO, or the Forum...because the right-wing bigotry, racism and at times vile intolerance of so many regular commentators is sickening. It is good that these people have an outlet for their views, and no one is forced to read them, so they don't matter, but many thinking people prefer a more balanced and respectful arena.

Aka,

You were not frightened off by any extreme rightists. You left because you found that your own views were not universally accepted. You were stunned to find that everbody did not agree with you. This is a common condition of the left; they mix only with their own kind, continually agreeing with each other, and patting each other on the back for being such 'good' people, unlike those dreadful right-wingers.

As a right-winger, and proud of it, I would say that at least 80% of OLO posters disagree with me. Some of them throw mud at me, and I sling some at them.

If you cannot express your opinions on OLO and not feel threatened, then you have to ask yourself if your opinions are valid and worth having - if they worth defending. You don't even have to defend them. Just state them and leave it at that. This is Online OPINION, not Online Argument.

I agree with Joe: give OLO another go. No harm can come to you.

ttbn,
I am not afraid or offended, but simply have better things to do with my time. I prefer an intellectual discussion, not a snarling pub brawl interaction.
The reiteration of the same old stuff gets tedious and even the calibre of writers has diminished over the years. On the same token, I wouldn't submit an article just to become fodder for the neo-con ultra right snipes, that rely on venom and not intellect.

Perhaps something of interest will catch my eye, like this article, but often these days I simply delete the notifying email

Hi Yburp,

You'll find "bigotry, racism and at times vile intolerance of so many regular commentators is sickening" on pretty much every blog site. There's plenty on both, or all, sides of every discussion. However, there's nothing really to worry about, nobody can reach through cyberspace and grab you by the throat. You're perfectly safe to contribute your own "bigotry, racism and at times vile intolerance." We all are. Give as good as you get, Yburp.

I was born and raised on the ABC, 2BL and 2FC, and SMH, in Sydney mainly. Nowadays all three radios in the house are glued onto Classic FM. I like most of the presenters, even when they verge too far towards the faux-Left and, like Tony on Q&A, either stack the panel, or set audience members up to ask the 'right' questions, or like last week, set up a panellist to show what a dill they are. Cheap and easy tricks, but they get a bit tiresome. Then there are the Dorothy Dixers to his favoured guests. Watch tonight and see if I'm wrong.

Hey, that's life.

Cheers,

Joe

Hi Aka,

The thing about freedom of expression, and a robust democracy, is that as many people as possible have to get involved, they have to put their oar in, if only to be rebutted and then have to re-think and re-phrase their opinions. Everybody is entitled to their opinions, and everybody else is entitled to criticise those opinions.

For example, I've learnt a lot from you over the past seven or eight years and re-thought many issues because of that. I'm interested in your thoughts on the Referendum, for instance - it seems that the eventual question is going to come down to either tinkering with the Constitution, OR a Treaty. I'm still up in the air about every suggestion, in terms of what it might achieve that really counts. I don't really know what 'sovereignty' means unless it means complete independence (and financial independence as well). Ironically, forty-odd years ago, I even supported the notion of a separate State, vaguely somewhere up north, but got that knocked out of me by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Maybe one does get more conservative as one gets older, in the sense of a 'why change unless you can go to something better' conservative.

Cheers, Aka,

Joe