Amateurish reporting

Headline says:

Govt 'playing the figures' on welfare

...apparently.

The quarterly September benefit data was released last Friday.

Mostly it's positive.

But the Manawatu Standard found someone to disagree:

Lew Findlay, co-ordinator of Shepherd's Rest, which helps people struggling to find housing, thought it was the wrong time of the year to be releasing the statistics. "They play the figures." As the summer comes closer, people are able to go off the welfare system, opting for seasonal work, he said. "We have had nine people who have left Shepherd's Rest because they found work." Four of the former residents found casual labouring work under the Government's "$3K to Christchurch" scheme. A more accurate number would be found during "the middle of winter", he said.

Well you can have winter, spring, summer or autumn figures Lew. Take your pick. But perhaps the journalist might be expected to make the point.