“When you say something in public, ask yourself are you saying it because it is politically correct, or because you know it to be factually correct? Are you choosing intellectual laziness over emotional discomfort?”
It’s a good question to ask. And those who heard the Today interview will know that Browne has to be a bit careful with his rhetoric about “factual correctness”, since in that interview he did rather have to beat a retreat from the claims he was making (p.8) about how it was “factually correct” that the pay gap between women and men owed to “different work/life choices” and “childcare breaks” rather than “sex discrimination”, the alternative, “politically correct” explanation. In the interview, he agreed that there were a mix of relevant factors, seemed to agree that pushing the “factually correct” line to an extreme would be misleading, and asserted, falsely, that there were “several pages on this issue” in his report “that go into it in some depth”, whereas in fact there’s just over one page (pp.59-60), and “depth” is a very generous self-assessment indeed of the level of analysis.
Still, this is trivial, and we’re only just getting going.
Richard A @ 3:56PM | 04/01/2006| permalink
Chris – nowhere in this post have you condemned the brutal massacres carried out by Saddam Hussain while he was dictator of Iraq. Instead you evade the issue by quibbling about so-called “facts”. It’s this kind of biased coverage that people like Anthony Browne are talking about, only to be crushed by powerful left-wing bloggers such as yourself and other liberal blogistocrats.
Chris Brooke @ 4:18PM | 04/01/2006| permalink
You’re right. Oh dear. I think that may mean that The Terrorists Have Already Won.
Richard A @ 4:46PM | 04/01/2006| permalink
Not only that, but they Hate Freedom.
Chris Brooke @ 4:55PM | 04/01/2006| permalink
They Hate Our Freedom. Not just Freedom. Our Freedom. They Hate Our Democracy, Too.
Richard A @ 5:14PM | 04/01/2006| permalink
Tsk. It’s all just Hate Hate Hate with some people. What about kittens? Surely they can’t Hate Our Kittens?
Chris Brooke @ 11:43AM | 05/01/2006| permalink
Nobody Hates Our Kittens (except possibly the woman a few doors down the road, but I’m not going to write about her here).