Spam Journalism #49
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article.
The Herald now appears to be infected with the same spam virus as the Dominion Post:
Bombshell plan for reform has Ryall squirming
“Health Minister Tony Ryall is distancing himself from a controversial recommendation that would in effect resurrect a part of National’s 1990s health system.
“He is testing public reaction before commenting on the proposal, which could be interpreted as breaching National’s election promise “not to carry out another round of restructuring of the public health system”.”
As I have posted before. There is no “bombshell plan” because there is no plan. There is only a political think-tank report. The kind that wander across Ministers in their hundreds. So to say that Tony Ryall is “squirming” is nothing but a pure fabrication constructed by Labour, in conjunction with the sensationalism-obsessed media. As Ryall reasonably points out:
““The Government isn’t making the case for or against the recommendations in this report. We’re going to consider their proposals over the next couple of months. We’ve got it out there for public feedback.””
I do not hear the sound of wriggling…
Continuous media frenzying over every single report made to a minister will have only one result. Reports will become more and more timid and be afraid to propose the more “out-there”, non-politically-correct views.
Everybody will be the poorer.
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Aug 17 09 11:46 pm
This seriously annoys me MacD.
If people were serious about wanting the best quality health care for the citizens of this country they would not play this sort of politics with the issues.
Its fair enough and important to debate how much we should be putting into the health sector. Whether or not screening programs (for any screenable condition you care to mention) are an effective use of resource. How many bypasses, hip replacements per year can be performed and the criteria for who gets them etc etc Important questions given that Health care like everything else is a finite resource and cannot be otherwise.
But what did Chris Hipkins have to say about this report.
Nats: Poor people should just die
He could have read it and constructively criticized it – that would be a good way of earning his pay and useful.
As it is he just used it for rabble rousing.
andrei´s last blog ..Baying mob increases third world poverty
Indeed. Unfortunately, I think you will find that Health is far too much of a hot button for politicians not to succumb to fear-mongering and point-scoring.