"Journalist" Deborah Coddington has received a serious spanking from the Press Council over her infamous "Asian Angst: Is it time to send some back" article in North & South. The press council found that the article was inaccurate, discriminatory, and that its use of statistics to back claims of a gathering tide of Asian crime was misleading. Tze Ming and Keith are deservedly gloating, meanwhile Coddington is spitting tacks over being held to the basic standards of her profession (which I think rather proves the Press Council's point). But what I'm wondering is whether this will mean the end of Coddington's attacks on "crazed bloggers". After all, she's just demonstrated a clear lack of any professional or intellectual standards - something that is not true of those she criticises - and it would seem beyond hypocritical for her to complain that other people are not meeting a standard she has so clearly failed to meet herself.
basic standards of her profession
ReplyDelete...such as respecting the embargo on the press council ruling.
It was admittedly rather inconvenient from the point of view of her column schedule, but she could always get a blog.
...such as respecting the embargo on the press council ruling.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, Lyndon, that's something the Press Council might not like to pontificate on too loudly - otherwise they might find their workload increasing exponentially.
"I ask myself, if the head of a training organisation doesn't know what embargo means, what do they teach student journalists these days?"
ReplyDeleteAn embargo is a request not to *publish* before the set date. It isn't a requirement not to gossip to your friends, laugh at the person concerned, etc.
As a matter of fact, that's exactly what it said "Do not publish before..."
ReplyDeleteAlthough knowing the standards of Deb's arguments, she'd insist she'd only published its contents.
Then there's the amusing story of Audrey Young, who just plain got the date wrong on 'that' Dunne speech.
I hadn't realised that she'd broken the embargo herself as well.
ReplyDeleteEven dumber..
Despite the fact that she did highlight a problem with excessive migration to New Zealand in the 1990s, I only see hate and poor quality in journalism in her beating up Asian crime. We should be looking to strenghten national unity, not trying to provoke ethnic division. Coddington's sort of garbage is just unnecessarily divisive.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for your welcome to blogosphere, Idiot/Savant :D.