The following letter to a local radio station relates to a recent news story in which Tony Clement, Minister of Industry was treated by the media as if he'd actually rescued a swimmer in distress, when he'd done no such thing.
"What is this nonsense that Tony Clement is a hero? He didn't rescue anyone. Instead, he put himself in danger by diving into the river, fully dressed, without plan or forethought, and he's lucky he didn't have to be rescued himself. Clement's wife and father-in-law were the ones with the foresight to grab a life-jacket, and run down the river to intercept the swimmer. But this point is not given the prominence it deserves; instead the coverage focused on Clement's totally useless act.
"Clement's plunge into the river is on a par with his other plunge into stupidity--the replacement of the mandatory long form of the census with a totally useless voluntary form. Both are acts taken without an intelligent assessment of the situation. On the river, Clement only put himself in danger; with regard to the census, he endangers sensible public policies at all levels by degrading the quality of the information that organizations of all kinds, public and private, will have to work with in future."
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