One of the reasons citizen media has evolved in to such a formidable (but very likeable) beast is that it recognises that the corporate media leave stuff out they don’t like or agree with. This results in bias and confusion amongst the public. This won’t go away but it can be partially redeemed by becoming empowered to find out for ourselves and to find sources that focus solely upon the facts and their analysis. With this in mind Dorset Eye has utilised a wonderful charity that does just this.
Some of the highlights this week:
We’ve done 15 factchecks of the Government’s EU leaflet.
Start here
The government explicitly states that the leaflet is arguing for the UK remaining in the EU. So it is not attempting to be even-handed.
Given that, much of the leaflet is accurate and the government deserves some credit for ensuring that it was published with details of the sources, making it easier to judge independently.
There are a number of facts and figures that are highly contestable, or where readers are not given information that they would probably want to know, for example:
- “8% of EU exports come to the UK” is a reasonable measure, but on another reasonable measure, you can make it 17%.
- “For every £1 paid in tax, a little over 1p goes to the EU.” Again, this could be much higher—in fact, a little over 2p—depending on how you choose to count it.
- “We control our own borders… giving us the right to check everyone”. The right to check does not amount to the right to control entry, in the case of EU citizens.
You can join the discussion/debate on these issues and many others at https://www.facebook.com/dorset.eye and/or
https://www.facebook.com/groups/280126085520259/
AND on Twitter at @dorset_eye.