I grew up in Brisbane with the courier mail, not even good for toilet paper, getting better lately but still a long way to go. When i heard about Fairfax starting up the Brisbane times, i was cheering Cm's demise until i got onto BT's website, what a disappointment, even worse than CM's or the Australian's website. None of which offers the option for a comment directly on an article.

Even Crikey which started well has degenerated into allegedly professional journalists showing blatant bias and attacking posts which dare to differ. The punch has been no better either, in both cases crikey and the punch are ahead of the morning papers and the 6 0clock news, but only just.

Frankly the only hope i can see of any future opportunity for Australian people to stop being sheeple, is engaging in the open debate i have seen so far on OLO. I have seen an equal measure of articles from extreme left, right and somewhere in between, plus comments, replies, etc.

Totally open fearless honesty is the only way, keep it up OLO.

I see we have the usual view of "balanced" by some people as no conservative views at all.

A bit like when PM Rudd was elected many journalists and radio/TV comperes insisted that all conservative or "right wing" journalists be got rid of.

Yep, balance all right, just depends on where you place the fulcrum.

Isn't it interesting that the conservative types tend to do less of the barrages of insults and attacks, tolerence is expected from the conservatives and never given to them is it?

I agree with curmudgen on the poking of fun at the eco/climate/population types who want to regulate everything, must be more balance they want e.g their ideas and no one else's.

These two images (accessed from Mumford's The Pentagon of Power)give a stark description of what Western Civilization is really all about--especially in the last 500 years.

1. http://dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel13.html

2. http://dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panal14.html

The "culture" of death thus rules to here.

In my opinion all of right-wing opinion and cultural advocacy, especiall and death saturated paradigm. And the "religion" which is an integral part of this power drive. This is especially true of such outfits as Regnery books and all the right-thinking outfits that link into it.

Re the politics of the time I find that Jules Henry in his book Culture Against Man(1963)summed it up perfectly.

"In Western Culture today one must make a distinction between the culture of life and the culture pf death. In the minds of most people science has become synonymous with destructive weapons,i.e. death...Where is the culture of life? The culture of life resides in all those people who, inarticulate, frightened, and confused, are wondering "where it will all end". Thus the forces of death are confident and organized while the forces of life---people who long for peace--are, for the most part, scattered, inarticulate, and wooly-minded, overwhelmed by their own impotence. DEATH struts around the house while LIFE cowers in the corner."

Meanwhile I find that this site provides access to the best of the best critiques of the ruling death and destruction machine.

1. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com

Plus this site exposes the activities of an institution much admired and strongly supported by the Regnery hooligans

1. http://www.soaw.org

I fear that many of the above posters have missed the real issue, although that's understandable since the intention of Young's piece is to distract from the core problem: OLO's protection of Malcolm Turnbull.

Historically, OLO has been mostly even-handed in publication [though clearly anti-environment]. That's what makes it so odd that OLO should not only refuse an article scrutinising Turnbull's financing, but refuse an author who has had all of her previous 13 articles published.

The Turnbulls are deeper into OLO than any other Liberal clan, and that's precisely what makes this deviation from editiorial policy so noteworthy.

Also, be aware that it's been 2 weeks since The Age article, but there's been no OLO discussion about it. That's because all threads on the topic were rejected until Graham Young was allowed to publish and therefore set the terms of debate.
I'm short of time and I'll write more tomorrow, but check out Crikey's article and Young's consecutive, contradictory statements about why the article was pulled.

Oh, and Turnbull just Newspolled the lowest approval rating of his career. Wouldn't it be nice for him if he had some friends in the online media who might help prevent further scrutiny of his conduct?

Fascinating stuff.

Overall, I think that the articles that OLO publishes are quite well-balanced in terms of "Left" vs "Right" perspectives. While their quality is somewhat patchy, I think that the editorial balance is at least as good as most comparable forums based in Australia.

And Fairfax has gone to sh!t lately - but they're certainly not alone among the printed media.

Having said that, Graham doth protesteth just a little too much, methinks. While 'New Matilda' is an equivalent online project to OLO but from a decidedly "Left" orientation, I doubt that their legal and journalistic resources are any better than OLO's.

Not to mention that, on certain topics, OLO's commentary is often more rabidly "right" than that which is found in even the most tabloid of the MSM forums.

Then again, that's one of the aspects of OLO that I find most interesting. Nowhere else do I encounter more extreme views expressed from the anonymous commentariat, including those who post on Fairfax and Murdoch sites - and the most extreme are invariably from the far "right".

I've never encountered more religious fundies, climate delusionists, gender tragics or ranting xenophobes than I have at OLO - but I have to admit that's a big part of the attraction. It's both informative and amusing, and above all distinctly Australian, which is why I tend to participate more here than elsewhere.

Disclaimer: CJ Morgan is a member of the Qld Greens :)

ooh! C.J. I didn't know you found me attractive.

seriously, I agree with you that OLO is one of the most unbiased sites for public discussion, that's why I like it too.