Paul Lockyer & quality journalism: Paul Lockyer’s "documentary on the Queensland floods this year was just simply outstanding", said Laura Tingle last month. The veteran ABC journalist was part of her top 10 quality journalism sources in Australia.
In April Alan Knight wrote: "Lockyer had been in the ABC helicopter in central Queensland, covering the flood crisis , when he heard of a disaster, across the Great Dividing Range in the Lockyer valley. They set out at first light. The ABC pilot, Gary Ticehurst dodged the thunderstorms, found a hole in the clouds and landed on a patch of dry land near the smashed pub at Grantham."
Today the ABC reports: "Journalist Paul Lockyer, pilot Gary Ticehurst, and cameraman John Bean are believed to have been killed when their chopper crashed near Lake Eyre yesterday evening."
Creative bankruptcy at 7.30: The ABC’s current affairs show 7.30 is boring. Hungry Beast is interesting. Mr Denmore Explains.
Bias in the journosphere? At Larvatus Prodeo, Kim wonders why panelists on the ABC’s Drum seem so willing to swallow self-serving business propaganda: "Sure, they’re socially liberal, but it’s insane to call these folks left wing. They *are* the inner city dwelling latte sippers of legend, well paid, socially ‘tolerant’, and probably fitting best politically into the more milquetoast faction of the now departed Democrats."
Beer And Neoliberalism: Thanks to craft breweries, American beer is a lot better than it used to be. That’s good for beer drinkers but bad for unions. Matthew Yglesias explains.
Skepticlawyer is "spectacularly irritated": It turns out that one of the alleged London rioters studied at Oxford and has a Masters degree in Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies from the LSE. "At least the little snot went to St John’s, not Brasenose", writes Skepticlawyer. Commenter John H links to a debate over advocacy driven research at Science 2.0.
Disability as an economic cost? The Australian government spends billions of dollars supporting people with disabilities, writes Carl Thompson at Working at Perfect. But "proper disability support is not an economic cost, but rather an economic benefit. A benefit that actually pumps money into the economy and reduces unemployment."
Measuring poverty: Is it important to measure the poverty rate? Lane Kenworthy suggests an alternative.
Are corporations people? No they’re not says Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry: "if corporations are people, it means we’ve reinstated slavery, because corporations are bought, sold and even killed by their owners every day."
Andrew Norton’s new blog: With a new job at the Grattan Insititute, Andrew Norton has decided to start a new blog. He writes: "as one of Grattan’s public faces I need to make sure that my blogging doesn’t detract from Grattan’s focus on areas where ‘fact-based analysis’ can contribute to public debate." The new blog is here.
Quote snatching: Brooks Bayne tweets a popular quote from Adam Smith: "The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations." But did Adam Smith actually say this? Probably not. So who coined the phrase "poverty of aspiration"? Was it Aneurin Bevan? Ernest Bevin? Harlan Douglass? Does anyone know?
Paul Lockyer will be a great loss to journalism
“Disability as an economic cost”
Doesn’t seem very convincing to me – as long as the money *could* be invested (either by the government or by citizens) in more economically profitable outcomes than that which is achieved by spending it on specialized assistance for disabled people then it is effectively a net cost surely? Indeed, I would think from a purely economical rational point of view, the most cost effective arrangement would that anyone (disabled or otherwise) who is unable to provide for themselves should be put down as cheaply as possible. Which is why, thankfully, government policy is not decided on a purely economical rational basis.
Also, re that “poverty of their aspirations” quote – regardless of who said it, it makes no sense to me. If the majority of people were poor because they didn’t particularly aspire to a greater standard of material wealth – i.e. they were poor by choice – then why would anybody consider there to even be a tragedy? Assuming that is that these people weren’t somehow miserably unhappy but unable to realise that their unhappiness was at all due to their poverty, which seems a stretch.
Wiz, the sort of people who traditionally have supported euthenasia and eugenics tend to be economically irrational as well.
Anyway, even the most hard core libertarian would only be advocating that we don’t provide welfare, so the disabled could starve or maybe sell off the good bits for medical spares.
Now that sections of the conservative end of the blogosphere here downunder are pushing Rick Perry as the next (Republican) president of the United States, maybe it’s timely to look at the unfortunate case of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Paul,
That is a very interesting case
By God, what an awful case, Paul.