Accuracy in geography and journalism is a nonnegotiable
ONCE again, the media shows that it struggles with simple geography once it gets past a road end — and the ODT is no exception. Today’s front page (30.11.18) reports a fatality ‘‘on Mt Cook’’. It happened on a mountain called Footstool, within sight of the village. There are 13 named peaks on the 14km ridge between Aoraki/Mt Cook and Footstool.
Last week, a website headline reported a canyoning accident ‘‘on Mt Aspiring’’. There are no canyons on Mt Aspiring/Tititea, but plenty in the Mt Aspiring National Park, which stretches over 135km from north to south.
An egregious example a few years back was a rockclimbing accident, also reported as ‘‘on Mt Aspiring’’. It happened at Hospital Flat, beside Mt Aspiring Rd, a mere 17km from Wanaka and nowhere near the actual mountain.
More effort is required, both because accuracy should be a key component of all journalism and because this sloppiness must cause intheknow readers to doubt the veracity of the rest of the story.
David Barnes
Lower Hutt
Fossil fuels
IT’S not generally appreciated, but burning fossil fuels puts many toxins into the atmosphere and environment. For example, benzene, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mercury, silica and radon. Many of these are carcinogens, infant developmental retardants and health risks for adults and the elderly. I’m almost tempted to wonder if the antifluoride movement and its fatuous claims might be welcomed by the petroleum industry.
Stuart Mathieson
Palmerston
Increasing diversity
REGARDING ‘‘Women CEOs in public service exceed 50%’’ (ODT, 6.12.18). The reported statements by Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter — ‘‘Having more women in leadership is not only the right thing to do, but diversity helps organisations function more effectively’’, and ‘‘Increasing women’s representation in senior leadership in the public sector is part of the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan that we launched in July this year’’ — together strongly suggest that such appointments are now made primarily with gender in mind, regardless of the absolute merit of the applicants for the jobs. Thus it seems very likely that the best qualified people are not being appointed to these jobs.
Further, having had most of my working life in public service, my experience revealed to me that increasing diversity is likely to result in distraction from achieving coherent results. B. Swale
Clyde