Monday 3 September 2007

Non-toxic toys

Brendan O'Neill has something for parents, toy importers and headline writers: "the good news is that Chinese toys are not killing our children."

So why all the scary stories, then? Says O'Neill, don't underestimate "the role of Western irrationalism in driving the toxic toys scare." See: Toxic Toys: Is China Poisoning YOUR Child? - Brendan O'Neill, Spiked.

4 comments:

Lindsay Mitchell said...

I vaguely noticed yesterday the TV programme Target was also discovered to be wrong regarding the levels of formaldehyde in pyjamas from China.

Matt Burgess said...

The chief exec of the company that makes Target was torn to pieces on Morning Report today. Sean Plunket absolutely nailed him. Rightly so - his only response was to say that even though the public was misled, there is a benefit in making them aware of imaginary issues. The ends justify the means, in other words.

Anonymous said...

...the public was misled, there is a benefit in making them aware of imaginary issues...

Yes, TV3 had engaged in airing fraudulent programs in the past to deliberately mislead the public. The aim has always to drive rating.

The following is one of those program that TV3 deliberately edited to make psychic Jeanette Wilson's guess work seemed credible and accurate. TV3 never admitted such fraud at all.

Jeanette Wilson - Psychic Medium

Anonymous said...

But sean let him off the hook when his lame excuse for not properly ascertaining the facts was “we are a small organisation with limited resources”. Sean should have screwed him there and demanded to know why they ran a story they had no ability to sustain. They should stick to panty sniffing tradesmen.

On the slight credit side, at least he fronted. How often do you see media organisations, the same ones that demand accountability from others, hiding behind PR statements and refusals to be interviewed? Utter hypocrites.

Insider