Scott Balson's response to the editorial Return to Making the News.You can play a lot of games on the internet.
Recent criticism from different sides of politics has been levelled at political parties for tenuous links between their home pages and those of ‘supposed’ radicals.
Links on internet pages allow users to quickly skip from one page to another.
If there is a direct link from an Australian political party homepage to the Nazi Party then that should be condemned.
If they could be linked in just one more step then maybe that should be condemned too.
But where does an individual, a business or a political party draw the line in taking responsibility for various links three, four or more steps removed from their pages?
One QT journalist spent 10 minutes playing on the internet yesterday. His revelation - you can link Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party homepage to ‘80s rock band Poison in under eight clicks. Big deal!
Most internet users value the free and open exchange of ideas the technology allows.
At the same time, most internet users should be able to recognise a link from a political party homepage which is five, six or seven steps away does not necessarily indicate support for the views expressed on that page.
Scott Balson's response to the editorial Return to Making the News.