Lazy reporting and media spin.

I have commented many many times on how reporters, eager to slope off early on a Friday or just plain lazy will take statements at face value and not bother doing any work other than a quick copy and paste.

Walesonline is guilty of this, taking Mr Shenker's lies, half truths and spun facts and putting them out as so called news.

A quick Google search on Alcohol Concern under news finds that they are among the top for reporting the dubious facts from this fake charity/quango that is almost totally funded by taxpayer cash.

First up this little gem where the unelected quango Alcohol Concern Cymru are saying that health should play a part in allowing drink licenses. Strange I don't remember voting for them to have a say on the political stage?

“We would also urge that the Licensing Act be amended to make public health one of the key considerations when deciding whether to grant new licenses or extend existing ones.

If these new age prohibitionists got their way, there would be no pubs left in Wales.

Next up a non story over a pub sign and so taxpayer funded non job who thinks he knows better than us called Andrew Misell, a so called policy manager at fake charity Alcohol Concern, said he believed pubs needed to think about the sort of messages they were sending out and should make it clear to customers that they were welcome to have a soft drink.

Andrew do fuck off old chap, no one voted for you and I dislike you using my tax money to dictate my lifestyle choices.

Then a debate on should there be a hike in booze prices. Guess which way the prohibitionists going?

And we have our very first lie reported and missed totally by the press when they report Alcohol Concern figures state that alcohol is 75% more affordable today than it was in 1980. Wrong, see the sidebar for how duties have made it more expensive in real terms not less.

Plus the argument of units comes up again, despite them being discredited and meaningless, see the sidebar again.

Finally some lazy hack ran a non story on how a supermarket wanted to sell legal goods and shock horror, people might actually want to buy a few cans. The old anti-social boozing fear scare story.

Maybe Wales On Line might care to do a story on how a quango is attempting to dictate policy, how it is the new face of the old prohibitionist movement and how it gets almost all its cash from your money via central government.

Then again that might require some work, so instead Wales on Line will keep copying and pasting the press releases from Alcohol Concern.

Time to give it up, a message to Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern.

Your mono eyed paymaster has gone, okay you have a budget for this year but with luck this new government will slash your fake charity along with all the translators for Somali pirates claiming asylum and diversity tree hugger non jobs.

See what I really dislike about your organisation is not the lies so much, or the half truths, or the fact lazy 2nd rate reporters take your shit and put it out as fact; oh no it is the fact that you misuse the charities act.

How so people will ask, and so I shall explain. Most charities, real ones that is help those who need help. We have all seen them, the numerous shops on the high street filled with OAP's, collecting cash for everything from cancer suffers to abandoned dogs.

They are staffed with helpers who give their time for causes they believe in and do a lot of good work, often with little or no thanks or publicity.

Then we come to Alcohol Concern and groups like it, no shops on the highstreet, no folk giving their time and most of their cash comes from your pocket. Yes that is right, central government gives them cash via the Welsh Assembly, NHS etc etc. Less than 1% of their budget was through donations.

Indeed they help not one drunk get off the demon booze, unlike outreach centres who do the practical hands on work. Instead they lobby.

They lobby government, using your money to do so, taking cash from the NHS and councils that could be used by proper charities to help people in need.

Sadly the charities act allows lobby groups with paid staff to claim they are charitable, even if their only aim is to keep themselves employed and to increase taxes on our pleasures.

One day Don, the axe will fall on your group and others like the potato marketing board(yes it's real Google it) and I will be there laughing as the wind blows alcohol concern away like a dried up dog turd.

Sky fed non story by lobbyist Don Shenker.

Shame on you SKY, falling for Don's lies and half truths.

Still you have to start with a headline, so make it a shocking one:

One in 10 people plans to drink more than 40 units of alcohol during an evening out, according to research.

That would be the meaningless units, see the sidebar its all there. Apparently a unit was created by some bored boffin on the back of a fag packet and is based on absolutely nothing.

That is the equivalent of twice the recommended weekly limit for men and three times the weekly recommended maximum for women.

That would be recommended weekly limits created by the same boffins who created the meaningless units.

The figures were discovered following research into the drinking habits of 214 people in Liverpool, Manchester and Chester.

Nice to see that they took a large base for this, a whole 214 folk.

The scientists took them through a series of interviews, breath tests and assessments of their levels of drunkenness, such as slurred speech and ability to walk.

From the overall sample, 80% said they intended to drink more before returning home, with one in 10 believing their total alcohol intake would be more than 40 units before bedtime.

Yea Gods, do SKY not have the common sense to see they have been fed a prepared story by a lobby group Alcohol Concern, a group that is funded by YOU. They are not a charity, at least not in any meaningful way, instead they misuse the charities act; pass themselves off as a charity whilst pushing a political agenda calling for regulations and higher prices on your tipple.

Anyway over to the lobbyist Don who told Sky News Online: "Men who regularly drink over 50 units a week and women who regularly drink over 35 units a week are considered 'high risk' and very likely to develop alcohol-related health problems.

Now note the use of the scare word "likely", despite the fact its based on meaningless units. Its likely that one day Don may discover that he has a pointless job, develop a backbone and leave the public teat for a real job in the private sector. Ok, not very likely but it might happen if his beloved Labour lose and your tax money is not mis-used to fund puritanical lobby groups.

"That some people are drinking over these amounts in a single evening is cause for real concern.

"This study highlights the increasingly heavy drinking culture in the UK and the lack of understanding, or complete disregard for the potential health and social harms that can result."

More lies and hype from Don will be reported, as an when someone in the media is stupid enough to give him the time of day.


Please note, should Don have a problem with the facts he has the right to reply, come on Don over to you....