I hear that the print version of the SCMPost is now regarded as something rather like me — a technically outdated relic of a past era. Nowadays it’s all about hits, and they only get hits on the on-line version. My source also passed on the interesting snippet that the King of the hit-magnets was Mr Alex Lo, whose daily efforts in print occupy a prime position on Page 2. This is nice for Mr Lo, who as a result is presumably unlikely, at least in the near future, to join the large crowd of Post ex-columnists (declaration of interest: of whom I am one) watching the Decline and Fall with the traditional mixture of terror and pity. This is not so much good news for readers, however, because as a result they are exposed to a certain amount of — shall we say inaccuracy?
The Post’s budget does not stretch to a fact-checker, apparently. This morning’s offering on the upcoming, or possible not upcoming, Occupy Central manifestation provided a good example. “Wherever such mass protests occurr … they always end in tear gas, pepper spray and batons,” quoth Mr Lo. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of fact. And columnists venturing into matters of fact should avoid using words like “always”. I participated long ago in numerous mass protests — how long ago can be gathered from the fact that they were mostly either against the Viet Nam war or the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia — which did not in fact end in tear gas etc. Modern writers can be forgiven for having missed the 60s, but a brief search of the memory banks should have turned up the protests in Hong Kong against national security legislation in 2003, which were massive by any standard, extremely protestant and entirely peaceful.
Opinion is free; facts are sacred; bullshit is bullshit.
tim's experiment 
I stopped reading Alex Lo’s material months ago in protest at the appalling quality of his opinions, not just that he often blurts “facts” which are far from but that he clearly distorts facts, otherwise simply known as lying. Lo gets no clicks from me.