Fooled again: Journalists with short memories.
On Tuesday, November 9th, another sea lice study was released. Same stuff from the same folks. You know the story by now: sea lice from farmed salmon apparently wreaking havoc on wild salmon.
Yesterday, we blogged about how these same "scientists" are quite slick at making data agree with their preconceived ideas. But even more disturbing than a few biased activists posing as credible researchers, may be the easily manipulated media folk that get played, every time. Wow, these guys have short memories.
Like the "PCB" and "pink salmon are going extinct" studies of past, media are eager to report, at face value, the "feelings" of anti-salmon farming activists - without even so much as a courtesy call to a salmon farmer.
Before any salmon farmer even got to work on Tuesday morning, CBC radio was happily reporting "fish farm sea lice more widespread than thought". No quote from salmon farmers.
And then, after most stories had been scripted and aired, the salmon farmer finally gets the call. What do you think, they ask?
What do we think? You mean, what do we think of a scientifically complex, mathematically heavy and carefully twisted study that we haven't read yet? The same study that most journalists had received early copies of, complete with Coles Notes, and now expect an immediate response to fill in a single pre-written quote saved for the 'salmon farmer'.
Nice. And they're more than happy to fall for it...every time.
