Comments on: How to stop the neo-prohibitionists from winning

By: David Strange

David Strange — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:27:34 +0000

It can also be news-worthy when organisations are found to be lying through their teeth. If you’ve seen the (pleasingly widely reported) story about the IPCC report that claimed as fact that the Himalayan glaciers would have entirely melted by 2035 or sooner (when this ‘fact’ was just plucked from the air by some Indian fellow and never peer reviewed or even published, read more here) you can see that such stories can make it into the press. I think a government select committee publishing duplicitous statistics and unfounded conclusions in an attempt to curtail our freedom is certainly worth reporting.

By: ed tully

ed tully — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:00:52 +0000

you seem to be under the charming delusion that journalists want to report the truth when in fact what they need to do is to create stories that sell newspapers.

By: David Strange

David Strange — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:04:42 +0000

The invalid interpretation of data and selective reporting of facts typify the neo-prohibitionists. This gets me vastly annoyed. I get even more vexed when such prejudiced, misleading information is regurgitated uncritically by the press. There seems to be a view that it is acceptable to do this as the neo-prohibitionists are honestly trying to save us from that evil monster alcohol which causes so much damage to all of our lives. This, of course, is absolute twaddle. These moral crusaders are simply trying to justify their existence by inflating the perception that there are very serious alcohol problems and, as we cannot be trusted to look after ourselves, only their pet ideas can save us. Certainly there are people with drinking problems, but to suggest that at least a quarter of of the population falls into this category is manifestly a pile of old drivel. Even the slowest journalist should realise this and then go on to analyse all of their statistics and conclusions in greater detail. Until journalists start doing this, and we should be prompting them to do so, we are in danger of biased opinions forming government policy and infringing on all our our liberty.