tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post4904082441589724652..comments2024-03-26T10:03:51.827+13:00Comments on Karl du Fresne: Flat Earth News: a reviewKarl du Fresnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-56277864892998855162008-07-05T23:51:00.000+12:002008-07-05T23:51:00.000+12:00Looks like a book worth reading. Great review. Tha...Looks like a book worth reading. Great review. Thank you.<BR/><BR/>I have to confess to being deeply, deeply cynical with respect to commercial media. I have watched over and over while the "mainstream" media slavishly print the party line almost without question. <BR/><BR/>Example: It was obvious in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq that there almost certainly were NOT any WMD in Iraq. Yet media everywhere continued to daily produce news copy that accepted there were. Especially in those newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black. <BR/><BR/>Again, today, we see the US and Israel, making claims about an Iranian nuclear weapons program for which absolutely no proof at all has been presented by anyone. Yet the media report these claims as though they are proven facts. <BR/><BR/>Why is it that when the media get it wrong, the errors are so consistently aligned with the political leaders how are trying to pull a fast one? <BR/><BR/>Our own media now seems to be in the grip of this same illness. Week before last we saw the NZ Herald mount a mini-campaign against a coercive, arrogant government to save dimmer switches and chandeliers. Howls of outrage from Remuera and St Heliers filled the letters columns. <BR/><BR/>If they had not framed the phasing out of incandescent bulbs in such negative terms, they would have had to tell the truth: Phasing out incandescent light bulbs will save NZ 20% of residential power currently used, or roughly 1.5GW in peak demand each day. That is equivalent to THREE Project Aquas at 520MW each. Or roughly $2 billion we won't have to spend on building generation or ruining rivers. Plus, we get to save another $500 million on our individual power bills. <BR/><BR/>Some of those facts even appeared in the Herald story. under the misleading headline and surrounded by negative framing and backed by an editorial thundering against coercion and the nanny-state. <BR/><BR/>Turns out you can keep your dimmer switches after all if you use the high-efficiency bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. The story was wrong. <BR/><BR/>Dimmer switches were in no real danger at all. <BR/><BR/>The aim of the story can only have been to - yet again - portray the government as coercive and arrogant and that is what they did. <BR/><BR/>Again, when the media err, it seems they can only err in National's favour. <BR/><BR/>Oooops.Steve Withershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04221815213521767405noreply@blogger.com