The sole upside for the government in its release of a three month old threat to contaminate infant formula is that the story knocked Winston Peters off the front pages.
In case that sounds like a conspiracy theory, the government was in a no win situation here. If it went public with
every such threat the moment it was issued, it would be creating a pretty dire incentive for every crackpot and
attention seeker in the country. That’s why, as Prime Minister John Key said, other countries tend not to publicise
threats of this kind.
Yet with the blackmail letter’s end of March deadline looming, a policy of complete silence probably wasn’t still an
option, either More>>
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