It is to be hoped that no one was near the proboscis of Jason Clemens, Executive Vice President of the right-wing Fraser Institute, when he told this tall tale to Steve Paikin recently on TVO's The Agenda:
For a parsing of Clemons' concoctions, please click here.
thx for posting this Lorne. I find it interesting that Clemens feels the need to disclaim The Fraser Institute's right wing agenda. Hmmm in answering steve's questions "Me thinks he doth protest too much." there's a reason their making these disclaimers. Strategy?
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed odd that he said this, Pamela, especially on a show like The Agenda, whose viewers tend to be reasonably well-informed when it comes to politics.
DeleteOur motto is "If it matters, measure it". Funny, I thought the FI motto was "You pick the conclusion, we'll cherry-pick the data."
ReplyDeleteEven if the former is truly the FI way:
1) The only thing that "matters" to them and their funders is money
2) This is the sort of thinking that leads to nonsense like the NIH under Thatcher remove wheels from gurneys in hospital hallways and labelling them beds.
- Anonymous Coward
I think your version of the motto describes nicely the modus operandi of the Fraser Institute, Anon. I suppose the same could be said of most of the rabid right.
DeleteIf they communicated that they come at economics or their 'research' from any bias, they would open themselves to investigation, as they are a registered not-for-profit organization and therefore - as a result of their tax status - receive benefits (or their donors receive benefits and write-offs from donations) from the Canadian public that other organizations might not get.
ReplyDeleteThis also comes in the wake of the CRA auditing any organization that claims special tax status. They will NOT publicly announce any specific bias or direction because they might become subject to the same kind of scrutiny (or give evidence to those who want to see the Fraser Institute fade from existence).
That may be true, Anon, but I don't think their disclaiming any kind of bias is what protects them from the audits that other organizations have fallen prey to at the hands of the Harper regime. It is more likely their immunity arises from the fact that they and Harper Inc. are singing ideologically from the same choir book.
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