Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. (MacDoctor definition) Sue Kedgley is the prime motivator behind this short piece of HoS drivel. This also illustrates how OIA requests tend to resurrect stories several month down the line. Even when there is clearly no extra information in [...]

Fran O’Sullivan has an excellent article today on some of the potential problems the John Key will face when he meets the Chinese Premier next week. It reminded me that there is an article I wrote a while ago, about the comparison between Fonterra’s melamine “scare” (which was a media beat-up) and China’s very real [...]

The HoS has run an update on the spam story on melamine contamination at Fonterra. There is something slightly bizarre about an update on a story that does not exist. All very Zen, really. The HoS story, of course, is also an excellent example of spam journalism: Silence as danger melamine tested. Food safety officials stayed quiet [...]

Welcome to a new series inspired by the non-story of Paula Bennett and her daughter’s gangsta boyfriend.  As I have said, this type of sensationalist headline followed by a non-existent story is the “spam” of newspapers. Journalistic viagra for the unwary. Today’s wonderful example: Fonterra melamine scare over iron supplement Diary giant Fonterra has endured a second [...]

And there is that fishy smell of red herrings on display. Tian Wenhua, the disgraced CEO of SanLu, is attempting to blame one of the Fonterra co-directors for misleading her into thinking that there was a safe level of melamine that was acceptable in milk. Fonterra, of course, states that it made it “vividly clear” [...]

Headline from Reuters: Methane hints at life on Mars. Now they have discovered the source of the methane and there IS life on Mars.   Fonterra seeks a new joint venture…. Add a Comment

Apparently, the briefing paper on the SanLu milk scandal given to Helen Clark (on 5th September) suggested that organised crime syndicates, rather than the officials at SanLu were responsible for the adulteration of milk with melamine powder. “The Chinese milk supply has been targeted by Chinese organised crime, which has been adding as a byproduct of the [...]

SanLu is likely to face bankrupcy, making Fonterra’s stake (which was recently written down by $139 million to $62 million) increasingly dicey. One News reports: Industrial experts told the newspaper that it is unlikely a single company will be able to take over Sanlu as its debts total more than 700 million yuan  ($NZ169 million) [...]

I have been crawling round the Chinese blogs all week, trying to find more information on the children effected by the Melamine milk contamination. Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities are immensely efficient at removing all references to the scandal. Mop.com ran a SanLu photoshop picture collection which was taken down by the next day. I particularly liked the [...]

Now there is a leaked memo from SanLu alleging that they were attempting a cover-up on the 11th August, nine days after the board was notified that there was melamine in SanLu’s milk. The memo recommended Sanlu “do anything to pacify victims, and accept all they want to keep them silent for at least two [...]