14th June 2007

At the moment, Resource consent hearings are being held on the proposed project by Meridian Energy to build a wind farm on the Lammermoor range in Central Otago to generate electricity.

Anton Oliver, well known rugby player and All Black has presented a submission and because of his notoriety, the press has given it the prominence of Abraham and tablets of wisdom from on high. No other submissions have rated more than an inch of column space in the press or on television news (north of the Otago border that is).

Why we think celebrities and film stars have any more wisdom than the rest of the pack is beyond me. They might be more practised at publicly stating a point, but that doesn't mean it comes from any experience or special wisdom on the subject. That the media fall over themselves to quote them verbatim rather than do some real analysis sums up the quality of the fourth estate these days.