Hold the front page! Richard Black has told Anthony Watts that he is correcting a story in which – using all his scientific brilliance – he told the world that rice yields are falling “because of global warming”. The reality is that over the past few decades rice yields have grown hugely thanks mainly to brilliant agricultural scientists who understand the relationship between optimum plant breeding, soils, temperature, irrigation and growth. Mr Black plainly did not read the press release and he got completely the wrong end of the stick, presenting – as usual – warmist twaddle. It will, of course, be interesting to read what Mr Black has to say and I welcome his willingness to acknowledge his error. But, call me a cynic, I am expecting a sting in the tail…especially in view of what Bishop Hill calls Mr Black’s “slack-jawed” acceptance of the alarmist narrative being applied to biodiversity. Is this the BBC’s latest crusade? Mr Black has certainly got form, in this area.
STING IN THE TAIL?
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Funny how the true believers always make a mistake erring on the alarmist side.
Mr Black reports what he is told because I don’t see any evidence of any actual journalism. A bit like most people who puport to be journalists today at the BBC and to a lesser extent the MSM in general.
Part of me understands the pressure of a news organisation to regurgitate anything off the AP, but with the billions that the BBC extort from the great British public one would think they could even make a token effort. It’s obvious there is no appetite for impartiality at the BBC where they desperatly latch on to any burp in
the climate and spin the story to support their discredited narrative.
The three mongs (Black, Shuckman and Harrabin) have long since lost any credibility, when you give scientific jobs to arts media leftie luvvie twats this sort of thing will happen.
The three mongs don’t have an O’Level in science between them, they don’t have the ability (or desire) to review these stories for accuracy before they print them.
It’s great that Black is aware that he’s being watched. But he won’t stop doing what he’s doing until it hurts him in his wallet.
Note that despite the fact that his article has supposedly been revised, the gist of it is still (deliberately) misleading.
He still implies that rice yields will fall. The correction was supposed to be that the rate of growth in yields will fall. i.e. the yields my still increase, just not as fast.
Correction 12th August: this story has been amended to reflect the fact that it is the rate of growth in yields that has fallen, not the yields themselves.
The article is still being headlined on the Climate Change page of the Weather section – bizarrely. Reading the various headlines in the climate change section is enough to make you weep – some people will be taking in (or should that be taken in by?) every one of those nasty little “stories”.
Black knows he is being watched, and he loves it. His “journalism” gets worse by the day, and I have no doubt whatsoever he is sniggering as he writes it. It is so laughably, disgracefully, alarmingly one-sided and ill-informed it has gone way beyond parody. The fact my licence fee pays this idiot is, in itself, a singular reason to refuse to stump up the outrageous tax. Black is a charlatan and a disgrace. He is, nearly, as bad as it gets on the BBC. I pray every day a wind turbine is built right outside his house, but I fear there is no room in the lefty enclaves of north London. On a serious note, I simply cannot believe he is allowed to get away with it. His “correction” is nothing of the sort. He may have tweaked one word, but the whole thrust of the piece remians as it is. And now is on to his next joke piece – the Russian fires are do to “climate change”. Surely there are editorial guidelines about this? Surely he has broken the very terms of his contract?