"A lie goes around the world while the truth is getting its boots on." This is a mantra which politicians live by -- but blogs are making more difficult.
Academician Greg Clydesdale from Massey University obviously thought it would work for him when he released a so called academic report suggesting Pacific Islanders were a nett drain on the New Zealand economy -- a report trumpeted on the front page of Wellington's largest paper, and telegraphed around the mainstream media with all the speed of The Big Lie.
However, while the MSM were all abuzz debating the report's conclusions, blogger Lindsay Mitchell was checking the facts -- and the facts in the report, she said, were wrong. Dead wrong. His figures for crime, employment, housing and welfare, on which he was relying, didn't even begin to support his argument
It's taken the MSM nearly two weeks to catch up on Mitchell's observation, and it had to wait for a government department to check the figures: Radio NZ reported this morning [audio here]that the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs has organised reviews of Clydesdale's report, and
Otago University associate professor of economics Paul Hansen says the paper is riddled with errors, does not back up its claims and is not fit for publication.
He believes it fails to support its central idea that the only goal of immigration is to generate economic growth.
The report's author, says Radio NZ, could not be reached for comment. Not surprising. Now how about tracking down for comment some of those editors who gave the report's conclusions front-page treatment without checking the facts within?
1 comment:
Aha! But his scheme for mars assumes a right of ownership by the U.S. govt already.
If they have the right to control how mars is appropriated, doesn't that make it their property?
Safer to stick to a more Lockean interpretation of ownership. Mars is currently unowned. Once someone mixes their labour with it, THEY can control its appropriation.
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