Unspun

Here we go again with that dreaded disease among journalists in Indonesia, Expertitis. The last we saw of this disease, it was lurking in the inside pages of The Jakarta Post. But now it’s emboldened and appears in today’s front page under the headline Stop tobacco use among minors, experts say.

And who are these experts who are calling for the obvious? Well, they are apparently health experts. The first and only expert quoted is Rachmat Sentika, a executive of the Indonesian Paediatrician Association. I guess if you wanted to, you could put up an argument that he’s an expert, although I think readers can decide for themselves whether an executive (president, treasurer, secretary?) of the  Indonesian Pediatiatrician Association can be considered an expert.
But the headline and the intro paragraph promises “experts.” No other experts, other than Rachmat, were produced in the story which then meanders to “meanwhile” related comments made by a legislator and the chairman of the Indonesian Cigarette producers association.

So wasn’t the headline a bit misleading? This is not the first time The Post is doing this, and I’m sure that it won’t be the last. Doesn’t anyone query the reporters and the copy editors about these tendencies to Expertitis?