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offsite link News Round-Up Wed Apr 23, 2025 00:59 | Richard Eldred
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offsite link Merz Once Promised to Cut AfD Support in Half. He Has Doubled it Instead Tue Apr 22, 2025 19:00 | Eugyppius
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offsite link Reeves Cannot Blame Trump for British Growth Downgrade, Says IMF Tue Apr 22, 2025 17:23 | Will Jones
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offsite link Climate Adviser Racks Up 40,000 Air Miles While Backing Tax on Frequent Flyers Tue Apr 22, 2025 15:11 | Will Jones
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offsite link Migrant Crime League Tables to be Published Tue Apr 22, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
The nationalities of migrants with the highest rates of crime will be revealed in official?league tables?for the first time under plans due to be announced by the Government today.
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Voltaire Network
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offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

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Immorality, Journalism and Mayan Meltdown

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Thursday June 11, 2009 09:47author by Paddy Hackettauthor email rasherrs at eircom dot net Report this post to the editors

Journalism and Credibility

In his article in the The Sunday Business Post David McWilliams dishonestly fails to reference a main source for his article called Moral of the Mayan Meltdown

"The Mayans simply ran out of resources. They cut down all the trees to
transport rocks from the quarries to make their ornate temples.

Competing nobility, with each chief trying to show he was the biggest, got
involved in what could only be described as an ''arms race'' to build the
most splendid palace. This involved huge amounts of labour, which were taken
from the farms and massively reduced the amount of farmers available to keep
their agriculture going.

They also cut down huge amounts of wood, causing massive soil erosion and
flooding. The mad dash to build the most ornate palace used up enormous
quantities of materials. To support this madness, the cities needed to
produce enormous amounts of food and water, and they needed to pay for it.

This was the ancient equivalent of people consuming far more than they could
afford and getting into a monumental ''keeping up with the Joneses'' battle,
which would ultimately bankrupt them. Interestingly, the Mayan currency was
devalued during all this." (Moral of the Mayan meltdown; June 7th 2009;
Sunday Business Post page 23).

A reading of Collapse by Jared Diamond will show that the above "ideas" have been borrowed from "Collapse". In my view David McWilliams should have had the honesty to reference in his The Sunday Business Post article Jared Diamond. His failure to do so, in my view, raises questions concerning the credibility of his journalism in general.

Related Link: http://patrickhackett.blogspot.com
author by Conorpublication date Sat Jun 13, 2009 15:04author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I agree.

 
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