Monthly Archives: January 2010

BBC Luvvies For Labour

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The BBC is going big on “Doctor Who star David Tennant ‘backs Gordon Brown’“. Tennant, a Scot recently replaced by a younger man, is quoted:

“Clearly, the Labour Party is not without some issues right now and I do get frustrated. They need to sort some stuff out, but they are still a better bet than the Tories.”

Meanwhile, election year sees the start of a new topical comedy show on Radio Five Live presented by Chris Addison, the only person who comes anywhere near to matching Tennant’s recent levels of BBC ubiquity. So, will Addison’s new programme offer a fresh perspective on current affairs, or will it be the same tiresome worldview from the BBC’s left-wing comedy establishment? Addison’s opinions on the Conservative Party could give a clue:

“It’s very difficult, if you were brought up as a child during Thatcher’s period, to ever contemplate being a Tory. There is no way I can physically bring myself to vote Tory. That will stay with me till I die.”

On Twitter a couple of days ago he was asked what he thought about the current government and responded:

“Better than the alternative.”

A little later he tweeted:

“My political leanings are decidedly liberal.”

Which, coincidentally, is the first box you have to tick if you want to present a Sunday morning programme on Radio Five Live.

Update 5.05pm. Perhaps we’ll be treated to some of Addison’s views on Europe. From an interview with him on the BBC’s comedy website:

I am fiercely pro-European. I would very much have liked to see this country join the Euro a few years back. Not least because it would greatly annoy the kind of people that I don’t generally like.

I’m fiercely pro-European as well (OK, maybe not “fiercely”), but I don’t buy into the anti-democratic EU project.

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Book of Revelation

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BBC environment correspondent David Shukman has a book out in April: “Reporting Live From the End of the World“. A suitably alarmist double meaning in the title there, but I guess it’s more catchy than “Reporting Live From a Temporarily Low Reservoir (Rain Sure To Follow)”.

In his tips to schoolchildren on how best to report on the environment Shukman offers this advice: “If it’s about rubbish, get yourself right in the middle of it.” Like this:


At least he knows exactly what will happen to all the unsold copies of his book.

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Eats, shoots and leaves

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I commented in the open thread about mistakes and shoddy editing. Here’s one.

‘Six Palestinians killed in West bank, Gaza attacks’

Was this responsible for another piece of carelessness that shows how one thing can lead to an other?

“Israel yesterday shot dead six Palestinians in two separate incidents in the West Bank”

It appeared in an anti-Israel editorial in the Observer the next day.

Of course the two incidents were separate, but one was in the West Bank, the other in the Gaza strip, and a comma is different from a forward slash. But if I’m right, it suggests that carelessness, combined with agenda-driven churnalism is alive and well, and that some of us don’t bother to read beyond a headline.

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James Cove Update

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On Monday I blogged about some of the ‘global warming is going to kill the ski industry’ stories produced by the BBC over recent years. Many of those news items came from the BBC’s long-time ‘man in the Alps’ James Cove who, I pointed out, had just started his own online ski news venture. For some reason I was in an uncharacteristically generous mood because I offered Cove my best wishes for his new PlanetSki website.

I’m feeling less generous today.

Cove spent a decade producing global warming scare stories for the BBC, but in December on his PlanetSki blog he said, “the snow level has been pretty similar on average throughout the last decade” and quoted a 73-year-old mountain guide who said, “Overall things really haven’t changed that much.” That’s not the impression Cove was creating with his articles for the BBC. He knew what his editors wanted and gave it to them. It’s what hacks do.

Now I see that Cove’s PlanetSki website is facing accusations of plagiarism. A writer for another ski website, PisteHors, has noted the similarity between an article of his about Corsica and one written by Cove in August 2009 for PlanetSki (the Internet Archive shows that the PisteHors article first appeared in June 2006 and was last updated in April 2008). Cove even embellished his version with invented quotations:

PisteHors:
The snow is usually very good above 1800 meters and can be found down to 1400 meters depending on the conditions. Skiing is possible from December through to April but you can only rely on snow after mid-January. There are currently three downhill ski areas on the island and always talk of projects of creating a real ski resort in the style of the Southern Alps.

James Cove:
The snow is usually very good above 1800 meters and can be found down to 1400 meters depending on the conditions.
“Skiing is possible from December through to April but you can only rely on snow after mid-January,” says a spokeswoman from the island’s tourist office.
“There are currently three downhill ski areas on the island and always talk of projects of creating a real ski resort in the style of the Southern Alps.”

PisteHors:
In 1934 the worst avalanche of this century occurred on the slopes of Castagniccia at only 700 meters altitude, sweeping through the village of Ortiporio and killing 37 people.

James Cove:
In 1934 the worst avalanche of this century occurred on the slopes of Castagniccia at only 700 meters altitude, sweeping through the village of Ortiporio and killing 37 people

PisteHors:
The regional ski committee has a long standing plan to develop a ski station in the bowl at La Lattiniccia on the road pass close to Corte The proposal is for 30km of pistes between 1550 and 2400 meters altitude with the possibility of doubling the area in the future. The total cost of development is estimated at 12.5 million € including necessary artificial snow cover. Presumably a large part of this money would come from European funds. Whether this project will ever be realised remains to be seen.

James Cove:
Corsica has several small ski stations and one, near Corte in the centre of the island, has ambitious plans.
The regional ski committee has a 12m euro plan to develop the bowl at La Lattiniccia.
The proposal is for 30km of pistes between 1550 and 2400 meters altitude with the possibility of doubling the area in the future.
It would however need funding from the EU for the project to go ahead but, so far, that is not forthcoming.

PisteHors:
Before you get ideas of snow, sex and sun in the isle of savage beauty you should be aware that Corsica is basically a 2,500 meter high rock surrounded by huge expanses of ocean. As such it catches every weather system as it tracks across Europe. Off piste skiers and freeriders need to carry an altimeter, maps and compass and know how to use them.

James Cove:
Corsica is basically a 2,500m rock surrounded by huge expanses of ocean. As such it catches every weather system as it tracks across Europe.
Off piste skiers and freeriders need to carry an altimeter, maps and compass and know how to use them.

PisteHors:
In the winter violent storms are somewhat less frequent but the constant wind drives the snow into potential slab avalanches. Powder is rare due to the wide daily temperature variations which leads to its rapid transformation. This stabilized snow-pack is favourable to extreme skiing.

James Cove:
In the winter constant wind drives the snow into potential slab avalanches. Powder is rare due to the wide daily temperature variations that leads to its rapid transformation. This stabilized snow-pack is however good for off piste skiing as it makes the snowpack safer.

With that level of journalistic integrity is it any wonder Cove’s alarmist articles for the BBC were so unconvincing?

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BIRD-BRAINED BBC

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One of the defining features of the BBC’s ‘climate change’ coverage is that they give almost daily unmoderated airtime to government-funded fake charities such as the Royal Society for the Protection for Birds to spout their propaganda about habitats being under threat because of the relentlessly rising heat. Typing ‘RSPB climate change’ into the BBC website search engine yields a love-in orgy of hits, such as this one; such items have been a staple of Today for years. How ironic then, to read this story, in which an RSPB spokesman says not only that the current arctic weather was seriously putting wildife at risk, but also that the 1962-3 cold winter was “arguably the single event that had the greatest impact on wildlife within living memory.” Chances of this admission being properly reported and analysed by the BBC’s cadre of ‘climate change’ fanatics? Like the weather, sub zero.

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BBC IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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Last night, BBC Northern Ireland ran a very important “Spotlight” programme which raises fundamental questions concerning the behaviour of Northern Ireland’s leading political dynasty – the Robinson family. This is causing seismic tremors in the local political topography and I think the BBC should be congratulated on finally producing a programme that has the consequence of challenging the political status quo. As I say, there are many issues flowing from this and some of these may limit my time here in the days ahead…..interesting times, folks!

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David Shukman on weather and climate

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Following yesterday’s item aimed at making sure the kids are still on message about MMGW, today we had Newsround for grown-ups. In a report which aired on the 6 pm news on both BBC 1 and Radio 4 this evening, David Shukman explained:

“The key thing is that there’s a difference between the weather and the climate. The weather’s what you get day by day, month by month, like this cold spell. But the climate is the kind of weather you get over a thirty year period, and that’s what the scientists say is changing.”

He was a little less clear about any distinctions back in May 2008 when he reported on a dry spell affecting Spain:

In a year that so far ranks as Spain’s driest since records began 60 years ago, the reservoir is currently holding as little as 18% of its capacity – at a time of year when winter rains would usually have provided an essential boost by now…
And it may also remind people of the forecasts from climate scientists of still drier conditions to come in the approaching decades.

As soon as Shukman left the area, it rained. A lot. From the Guardian, 7 June 2008:

After months of the worst drought for 60 years, Spain has experienced the wettest May since 1971; it rained on 18 days of the month. Heavy rains have continued into June, which is rare during the Spanish summer…
In Catalonia, the worst affected area, reservoirs whose levels had been reduced to only 20% are now nearly half full.

A proposed water pipeline, cited by Shukman as evidence of the changing climate, was cancelled. From New Europe, 16 June 2008:

The Spanish government recently cancelled a controversial plan to build a 62-kilometre pipeline to divert water from the river Ebro in the Tarragona region to the Catalan capital Barcelona, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said. There was no longer the situation of “extraordinary necessity” that had prompted the plan, Vega said.

If Shukman did a follow-up pointing any of this out, I can’t find it online.

Here are some images from his May 2008 report. This, remember, was explained with reference to climate change:

And here are some images taken from a Spanish blog in October 2009 showing the blogger’s recent kayaking trip to the same Sau reservoir:


The blogger states (via Google Translate):

This year the Sau had a significant level in the water, exposing only the latest instalment of the famous bell tower of the church of Sant Romà de Sau.

As far as the BBC is concerned, some weather events are more climate change than others.

Update 8 January 10.40am. The BBC School Report website offers children the benefit of David Shukman’s top ten tips for reporting the environment. In tip 7 Shukman tells the kids:

If it’s about a drought, stand in a dried-out reservoir.

If the drought then suddenly ends, thus undermining your narrative, don’t worry – just move on to the next alarmist story.

Best of all is this sentence from tip 9:

You’re an ambassador for common-sense in a world of spin.

Who knew Shukman had such a sense of humour? (Hyphenating “common sense” in that context isn’t setting a very good example to budding journalists, though.)

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