Mick,

these are turbulent times indeed and this arena provides an excellent opportunity for the asking of questions and the receipt of answers to those questions (regardless of how one views the answers requested). Many of the commentators do give first hand and insightful accounts that do enlighten the debates.
The scale of the interest in this site indicates that a lot of people are sourcing the site and are using it for filler stories, I know of reporters who do use it.