Cigarettes and Poor Journalism

It has been a couple of days between posts and this is one isn't particularly flash. Just a couple of articles from stuff.co.nz.

The Dom Post reports:

The government is to forge ahead with a ban on branded cigarette packets.

Woohoo!! This is fantastic news, smoking is disgusting and we all know smokers are morally deficient people. Bring on the day when the smoking of tabacco is banned outright in this country!

The second is from the Wellingtonian and is about Council staff earning more than $100,000 a year. It says:

It pays to work for Wellington City Council. Forty-eight council employees earn more than $100,000 a year. The average wage for Wellingtonians is just under $35,000.

This is outrageously poor journalism. Rather than reporting the news in an unbiased manner, the reporter (Emma Beer) is putting a slant on the story from the first sentence. She is also drawing a comparison between two completely different things.

When I was living in London it was a pleasure to grab a copy of the Guardian and indulge in some fine journalism. Unfortunately the standard here in New Zealand is slightly lower and this article is really scraping the barrel.