A lot's being made of a study by a West Australian academic that supposedly says Australians with Aussie flags on their cars tend to be more racist than those whose vehicles are flagless.
What it actually says is that 100 people in a Perth park on Australia Day will give a range of responses to loaded questions about immigration and multi-culturalism.
Using research as a hook for media is nothing new. It cuts both ways - PR gains a client or issue some profile while media have some news to run.
Pitching flimsy research as something substantial when it ain't just leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth.
Here at Lighthouse we're planning to conduct some research on Australia Day into people wearing those ugly blue bucket hats.
The tip is they'll be Sunday Telegraph readers.
I actually agree with most of the answers given by the "racists". A term, which essentially seems to be applied here to describe anyone who dares to think their society and values are worth preserving and who recognise that unrestricted immigration will invariably threaten that.
In any other non-white country such an observation would be so obvious as to be trite.
Posted by: M Pearlstein | January 25, 2012 at 05:41 PM