Yesterday I commented on the very strange case of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, but produced by Stuff writers here in New Zealand. The article, critical of the Fisherman’s Friend, was widely published in Australia but has not appeared here. I found that curious.
Perhaps we have an answer. Perhaps it is verboten to cricitise the PM in any way. The rumour is that after Steve Elers’ article “Prime minister needs to be held to account over coronavirus claims”, welcomed here as well as on other sites as a breath of fresh air, appeared on Stuff on ANZAC Day, the good people of Stuff got a call from the very nice people from the PM’s Ministry of Truth. Result? Said article now carries an (un-dated) “clarification” [cough].
Consisting of a collection of ad-hoc justifications for the PM’s false claim that so annoyed Mr Elers into comment: it’s a mess of riders, what-abouts, cautions and bad maths:
“New Zealand was ranked 31st in the world for testing rates per capita on Monday, April 20, according to Worldometers. This placed New Zealand in the top 15 per cent of all countries.”
Except: it doesn’t. The Ministry of Truth might pretend it does but facts say it does not. There are fewer than 200 countries in this world (195 to be exact) so a position of 31st cannot, and does not, put us in the ‘top 15%’ by any stretch of the imagination. And who says being among the top 15% made us ‘among the highest in the world’, as Ardern had claimed, anyway?
Now we know why the Sydney Morning Herald‘s article by Stuff’s Luke Malpass and Thomas Coughlan hasn’t been sighted this side of the Tasman: Stuff is already seated firmly on the Ministry of Truth’s naughty chair, and fearful of further admonishment.
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