Spindoc I thought exactly the same in RobP's list, clearly not a single conservative person or organisation there and all ALP/PM Rudd apologists. (Gratton balanced .. what?)

Have a look at say 730 report when the coalition are on, it's generally a savage cut across your bows never let up attack session and if the government is on it's a lovely fireside chat, with little bits of help with answering if they find it hard going, lots of time to spin whatever they want.

Hardly balanced, but as I mentioned earlier, depends on your personal placement of the fulcrum, RobPs is way off down where the ALP wants it .. good for you RobP you're exactly what the ALP sees as a loyal supporter, are you a.

RobP .."I know these are nominally left-wing leaning but it's not their fault they're dominating the field." it is their fault since they exclude conservative views - name one conservative working at the ABC..?

"If the right wants to get involved, it knows what it needs to do ... get it's hands dirty and get involved." really, when they get involved they are shouted down and denigrated. Let's see Sunday Insiders with 3 conservatives and one liberal thinker.. that would be something to watch, since it is ALWAYS the other way around with an ex-ALP staffer compering. Let's see the ABC hire a conservative journalist .. just one!

Balance .. I wish! This country is choking in liberal points of view and is poorer for it.

odo,

The general problem with today's conservatives is that they are so busy being right that they're not prepared to mix it with their opponents (there are always exceptions to that rule - Tony Abbott being a prime one in recent times). They simply don't want to get their hands dirty and pretty much only do so when forced to. I think that is VERY MUCH our problem and their weakness.

Re being an ALP supporter, I'll give credit where I see it - I don't give a continental if it's the ALP or the Liberals that do some useful things for people. What about you - what's your position on this?

Are you saying that the programs I mentioned are completely UNrepresentative of the population? Are you saying that there's no such thing as a good leftie? I think they very much have something to offer if only on the human side of the equation. They also tend to be into awareness raising only and couldn't solve a problem if they tried, but someone has to start the ball rolling. The conservatives certainly won't do so as they know all the answers (that are important to them) and don't want to move outside their comfort zones; they don't want to upset the apple cart. And in that sense, they get what they deserve ... little influence.

Re balance: the closer one looks at what's going on, the more imbalance one sees. But that doesn't mean that the overall situation is not balanced out by all the competing forces - the seen and the unseen.

Fractelle,

a) Stop being difficult.
b) Sucking up wont get you anywhere either.

SJF,

'disturbingly defamatory to the people who work in the domestic violence field'
I think not. For a start how can you be defamed by someone who is patently a fruit loop. Secondly, all he said was they *seek* employment, doesn't mean they are successful.

But thank you for bring back the fond memories I have of the South Park Hate Speech episode.

I fail to see how the length of a piece reflects on it's content or the integrity of the author. Ditto any leanings.

Surely, the opportunity to reply, comment and check source material is a welcome serendipity for all of us who feel passionately about contemporary issues that define 'right', 'left' or just plain old superstition advanced as "moral" intent. Yes, there are religious devotees aplenty who a generation ago [or is it just pre-Howard?] shared rooms with Napoleon and Elvis.

But this venture here, allows mainstream Australia to inform homophobic, racist apologists we think they are simply offensive. Or, as Justice McClelland stated today - "repugnant". [ http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/31/2642010.htm ]

It's only through constant use of varied descriptive terminology - as opposed to pure cherry picked nonsense - that we can raise awareness, influence erroneous intuition, break through the shackles of religio-political conformity, expose sabotage of democratic processes and indoctrination passing as education. Schizotypal personalities that embrace meta-magical thinking remain due to evolution favouring their reproduction.

On the other hand being confronted with opinions one feels must be commented upon, or deconstructed forces one to articulate such objection and, IMHO, is most informative in revealing how durable or effective ones ideas are in a public arena.

http://www.atheistmedia.com/2009/06/sapolsky-on-religion.html

RobP, many Australians read “a” newspaper, (often in a quiet place where, you know, you can, sort of, concentrate). I suspect most catch up with news and current affairs via commercial TV/radio news, ABC TV/Radio news.

As you suggest, these are “nominally left-wing leaning”, which is the point I was making in terms of media “balance”. Let’s face it; the full spectrum of public media is in the business of forming and shaping public sentiment. If the fulcrum point is to the left then so too is public opinion which is in my view, very unhealthy.

OLO on the other hand is a warts and all examination of every possible issue from every perspective. OLO’ers are not too lazy to do their own investigations and research, not to mention sharing their sources and being open to challenge.

I would like to see each of the media you listed, nominate a presenter to represent them on OLO. They would poop their pants.

Who would like to hear from Megalogenis, Grattan, Kelly, Sheehan, Waterford, etc or Kerry O’Brien on these pages?

Ooooh yeah.

At the risk of repeating myself- perhaps I'll paraphrase myself:

Rather than making assertions of bias, why not raise the level of discussion with a few facts- ie examples of bias. These could be of the form of minutes or column cm considered un/favorable left vs um/favorable right, or whatever metric you please. For all of the assertions paraded above, I can't find any data at all to support the claims of bias.

Opinion, yes- but please inform OLO readers so that they can form their own opinions with a few facts- or would that spoil a good argument?