Why do media repeat Labour’s lies?

1 News reports:

But Labour leader Chris Hipkins said there is “absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is going to reduce smoking”.

“It’s a $200 million-plus tax cut to the country’s biggest tobacco company,” he said.

This is a falsehood, no ifs and no buts.

I deal with this here. The Government has agreed to halve tax on heated tobacco products to see if that will lead to more smokers using them, instead of cigarettes. They are less harmful.

The actual tax on these products is $5.97 million, so the reduction in tax is $3 million, not $200 million.

So what is this $200 million figure? It is an estimate of the reduced tax revenue from smoking, on the assumption 7,200 smokers stop smoking, and substitute to heated tobacco products.

This is not a tax reduction on tobacco companies. It is less taxation, as fewer people smoke and fewer cigarettes are purchased. Labour are complaining that there will be less tax revenue from smoking, because fewer people will smoke.

The media should not just repeat claims that are so fundamentally false.