Former Central Bank chairman and current Morgunblaðið editor Davíð Oddsson wrote a column contending that the current parliament has mentioned him by name over 100 times – a contention based on a misunderstanding of the parliamentary website’s search function.
In the Sunday edition of the Morgunblaðið column Reykjavíkurbréf, Davíð says that even though he has not set foot in parliament in seven years, members of the current parliament have mentioned him by name at the podium 158 times. This was written in response to the news that Leftist-Green MP Álfheiður Ingadóttir had complained that Björg Eva Erlendsdóttir has been mentioned at the podium although she was not there to answer for herself. Davíð writes that while “deeply touched” to have been brought up so often, there is still a discrepancy regarding who may or may not be mentioned at the podium.
However, this conclusion appears to be based on a basic misunderstanding of how the search function of althingi.is works, Eyjan points out.
Guðmundur Magnússon brought the matter to light, saying that the parliamentary website search function would not have searched for the words “Davíð Oddsson” together, because – as the site says at the top of the search page – it can only search for one word at a time. Using two words, even within quotation marks, will return in cumulative results for both words separately; in this case, for “Davíð” and “Oddsson” apart. In reality, he says, Davíð Oddsson has only been mentioned at the podium of this parliament 11 times.
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