I saw on a website again relating to Andrew Bolt. Total comments in reply - 615 - I'm not putting a comment down.

For me, why do so many, in principle want to waste their energy any more replying to this man? Why not energy towards something positive?

People can't have any reasonable discussion with him. I won't read his opinions or watch his program ever again.

I want to improve Australia through my volunteer work - not through silly chit chat! Why won't others take up the challenge?

Nathan, sadly, the truth often hurts. Many just cant accept that and prefer to call a person a racist, simply because they tell the truth.

<<..Why won't others take up the challenge?<>

<<>..I want to improve Australia through my volunteer work - not through silly chit chat! <>...[i will take that as a commentary]

anyhoW IT SEEMS YOUR UPSET BECAUSE YOU somehow found yourself at his website..likely as a link..or because of a given topic..you wonder that 800 plus replies..[all lies?]

you wonder why..its to get their opinion
before one they feel will be heard..or help them spead their adgenda
OR TO CORRECT ERRORS/DANGERS OF HIS AGENDA..OR TO TROLL Away from his addenda

in life i have learned..that the listener..[THE READER]
IS THE HIGHER..THUS THE LESSOR SEEKS THE TO Hear/hoping no doubt for some change..BUT IM NOT SEEING MUCH TO RESPOND TO/BEYOND A SET UP PLAY ON SOME GET Bolt adgenda.

i admit..i once avoided the dude..TILL THE DAY HE MADE ME ANGRY
anD I RESEARCHED..his 'facts'.thinking to bring him down a peg or two..but then found he was right..

dont underestimate him mate..REMEMBER 'AVOIDANCE'..ISNT..A real lot..more advanced than putting your fingers in your ears and going la la la la la LA

just because we avoid..HEARING anything..DONT MEAN ITS TRUE OR FALSE
JUST OUT OF MIND...OOOOHHHHMMMMMMM OOOOHHHHMMMMMMM OOOHHHMMMMMM

Andrew is passionately jealous of retaining our culture and values so he will challenge ideas. We live in a democratic society so we learn to accept, debate or ignore ideas.

Joeseph, retaining your culture is one thing, but outright abuse of tax payer funded privileges, from all groups should be exposed for the waste it is.

Now if people take offense of that, even if based on racism, then thats tough titties in my view.

That indigenous woman on Q&A the other night needs to leave her office a bit more regularly so she can see for her own eyes what goes on. Its been an ongoing joke for generations and we are now at a point where ALL WASTE must be reined in.

Nathan, what is essentially different to replying to Andrew Bolt or replying to an article-writer or ordinary respondent on OLO?

You are right into the latter and obviously don’t view that as a waste of time.

Presumably you are responding to people that you disagree with all the time on OLO. So, why are you lambasting Bolt and thinking of him as a waste of space?

NathanJ welcome to the club.

Now you know how most of us feel when we somehow get onto an ABC TV or radio program, or a website.

You of course have the major advantage in the you don't have to pay for the stuff you don't like, the majority still have to pay for the ABC garbage, as well as be disgusted by it.

My main point to what other people have said re Andrew Bolt it that is isn't worth the energy. People can be doing a lot more good things in our community. I aim to promote and encourage that.

For example one day I spent 12 hours straight at a book sale raising money for a volunteer group I'm involved with. Good or bad?

In my view doing this is 100% better than petty comments - but do you know why people do it re praising or attacking Andrew Bolt - its a lot easier.

Just another point I'd like to raise is that there is so much misinformation out there or balance. Not everyone wants to be extremist left (i've seen them on the streets screming against religious protesters) or (right more wing like Andrew Bolt and his Liberal Party program that hates Labor, the Greens and the Palmer Party) - but, there is no "label" for myself - people, like myself just want to be individual, make change, see positive change worldwide and don't want to be "normal" or "boring".

NathanJ, "For example one day I spent 12 hours straight at a book sale raising money for a volunteer group I'm involved with. Good or bad?"

Good or bad rather depends on the aims and actions of the group you are involved with and its connections.

If it is providing a service to others that will help not harm and the lion's share of the money raised ends up at the sharp end and not in the organisers' pockets I would say good for you.

That shouldn't stop you from participating as all good citizens should in what is going on around you. You are free to express your views and should do so. What you should be opposing is any move to limit your free speech.

Hi Nathan

What, twelve hours ? Straight ? Wow. Phenomenal. Awesome. Cool. Maybe there's hope for Gen Y, after all :)

Keep it going !

Joe
www.firstsources.info

Nathan J>> People can't have any reasonable discussion with him. I won't read his opinions or watch his program ever again.<<

NJ, I have the same issue as you, my stomach churns at the mass media’s slanted view and their ability to totally disregard facts that do not fully corroborate their point of view. The media as a whole have become partisan, whether right or left, and the expectation of the public is for an unbiased press.

Opinions should be left to forums such as OLO and fact without comment should be the first priority of a mass media service. In bygone times the media left editorializing to a dedicated portion of their service, one they prominently declared as “editorial.” Today every reporter in every organization presents the facts as decreed by the team he is on.

When I was a kid Bob Santamaria had a slot on telly where he gave his opinion as does Bolt on the political issues of the day. He was an advocate for the working class but against the communist influenced Labor Movement. He was not on the side of the developer or entrepreneur, so not an advocate for the Liberal agenda. He was a staunch Catholic so Vatican policy did direct some of his opinions....but he was about as call a spade a spade as I have seen in the paid press....and that was fifty years ago.

I am not saying that the press not been a vehicle for partisan propaganda in the past, but the battle lines are now firmly drawn. Journalists should not be “with em or against em” they should report on what facts have presented to themselves only....but a lefty journalist has a snowball in hells chance of spruiking his diatribe in a right orientated media outlet. As does a right wing journo in our ABC....no facts other than those that suit the Left agenda emanate from the ABC these days.....and being a public broadcaster that’s a travesty.

Speaking of Bob...found this,,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLoZalF29JY

Nathan, SOG,

I am glad for you that you have decided to exercise your right not to listen to people with opinions that differ from yours. However, many, many more people will read and listen to Bolt, read the Telegraph and do all those things that you abhor.

When sitting cloistered with your fellow left whingers, don't be surprised when the rest of the world disagrees with you.

Shadow Minister,

The people who responded (over 600) on the Andrew Bolt - newspaper page, simply fought against each other.

There was no rational or well researched debate. People can believe what they want - but it can be so difficult to get a simple message across to other people - when (left or right) people push a simplistic line - and people say things like Andrew Bolt "He represents the majority of Australians" or the hate Tony Abbott protests over the weekend.

Where is the well educated debate? What about real action - that will change Australia for the positive? Actions speak louder than silly chit chat - that was my point from the start.

NathanJ,

Let's see: You didn't like the discourse on a Blog about Bolt, so you started a new discourse on a new Blog, and in your very first post say:

"I won't read his opinions or watch his program ever again."

It is clear that educated debate is not coming from you. Your mind was made up before you started.

Continue with what you are doing, but don't be surprised when no one cares.

Talking about educated debate - the following link
provides a few thoughts:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/andrew-bolt-trifled-with-the-facts-20110928-1kxba.html

Free speech is not an unfettered right. It doesn't
have to be balanced or fair but it should be factually
accurate.

SM>>Nathan, SOG,
When sitting cloistered with your fellow left whingers, don't be surprised when the rest of the world disagrees with you.<<

SM, given I refute the “survival of the fittest” conservative doctrine you abide by, I do not make decisions on support along party lines. I have said many times that no major party represents my views. They both lie consistently and shamelessly. The only difference between them is their ability to manage our economy. Both are running down the wrong track but one is better at it than the other...which one....you choose.

My issue is selective editing from the media, two sides, two different edits. So I rely on what I heard them say in opposition and what they say when in government. About your lot and one subject only....Coal Seam Gas.....O’Farrell said he believed land owners had the right of refusal to the Multinationals......in power, nothing changed.

Abbott said the land owner had the right to choose who entered his property....in government he has not uttered a single syllable along that line......liars sport, and you defend them with your “let them eat cake” attitude...your like the picture of Dorian Gray tiger.

SOG,

Firstly, what you are burbling about has nothing to do with the thread. There is no "conservative doctrine" and no "survival of the fittest". The closest we come is not baling out businesses that have no hope of surviving without subsidies.

Secondly I think you are misquoting Abbott.

SM.....fair is fair....you accuse me of being of the left....so I respond that you are just this side of a National Socialist.....I spent six years savaging the vandals that Labor have decended to and you read none of it?

Now that one of the High Priests of the left (Tony Jones) has apologized to Bolt i don't suppose any of his disciples on olo would also follow suite. The silence is deafening.

Shadow Minister says of me:

"It is clear that educated debate is not coming from you. Your mind was made up before you started".

But was it?

My biggest concern more is that so many people out there don't have their own opinion - and so they will easily grab onto people's "comments" like Andrew Bolt (to the right) or say (Christine Milne) to the left. It's easier.

I was recently reading an excellent report (based on data) from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. It was well written - and very professional. Also when someone puts forward a good idea - my mind changes immediately - its an amazing feeling I get!

Yet now I have physically turned off 90% of television. I don't buy newspapers because they are just filled with garbage, the same writers - and plenty of full page advertising.

This site is a lot better - as I can try to encourage other people to 'be themselves' - not 'be' a defender of Labor, Liberal or the Greens.

People do however need their own views to go down that pathway. Will you, along with the 600 others who wrote on the (newspaper based) page take up the challenge?