Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Tony's words: your taxes paid for this

It seems one of ABC's senior reporters, Chris Uhlmann, has spent some time counting the words of PM Tony Abbot. One would think there are more important and fulfilling activities for a senior journalist to undertake.
The result:
What we can learn from Tony Abbott's words


A new analysis mines more than 200,000 words Mr Abbott uttered in Parliament and in speeches in the 12 months before and after the election. It is a fascinating portrait of the changing times.

Fascinating?...  Hardly. No mention by Chris in this ludicrous piece of who spent the time counting the numbers, the methods used, the manner of analysis, and ABC have to gall to use the words "scientific " to describe it. ABC complain about funding cuts then undertake utterly pointless "research" such as this. No mention also of Uhlmann's connections to the ALP (his wife is the ALP member for Canberra).

Some of the comments sum it up nicely...
What a load of cobblers. Surely Chris, with your training, you can find something more important than this dribble.

This is complete and utter rubbish. Of course the words he uses have changed because its a different year, and there is different things to talk about. Thats why QANTAS is one of those words on the list above. I bet he uses the words 'Islamic" and 'State' more now than he did before the election. That does not mean it is some kind of a strategy. It just means he is doing his job.

This kind of superficial textual analysis does more harm than good. By looking simply for words, phrases, without a context we misrepresent meaning.
It seems that the conclusion is seeking to explain away, rather than reveal.
Where's the methodology?


Think the ABC is home to quality journalism? Think Again!

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