The content of Fiona Fox article on the BBC College of Journalism site has been ably and rightfully savaged in the comments that have been posted. There’s nothing I can add, except that it was shooting ducks in a barrel. My point about this latest exercise in smug, we-know-we-are-right agitprop is to ask who at the BBC thought Ms Fox was qualified in the first place to write such a piece?
First, Miss Fox is not a scientist. According to her own CV, she is a press officer who happens to have been appointed to a post that provides information to journalists about science. Most of her career has been actually been spent in political activism. Her current role is no different, as the Centre’s consistent, one-sided support for the political objectives of the warmist creed illustrates. Everything she does is underpinned by warmist zealotry; she is not objective, and is thus in no position to be able to reliably rebut Mr Sissons’ arguments – especially as she herself spends much time berating those who dare to challenge “the science” of global warming.
Second, she is an extremist who has demonstrated a lack of sound judgment. For example, she has written for Living Marxism, a publication in which she seemingly sought to blur the lines of responsibility for the Rwanda genocide and to gloss over the massacre by machete of thousands of children. Even the Guardian attacked her for the extremism of her stance. This was admittedly some time ago, but nothing she has done at the Science Media Centre indicates that she has changed her politics or worldview.
Thirdly, and most importantly, Miss Fox says she is a journalist, but I am afraid her qualifications and work experience are very limited. She obtained a trendy two-a penny media degree from Thames Polytechnic, then went straight into agitprop press office work with a succession of agencies which are hardly at the centre of national life.
Peter Sissons, by contrast, the man she tells us does not know what he is talking about on the subject of bias, went straight from Oxford university to the bear pit of ITN newsroom, and he rose under the great Sir Geoffrey Cox to become one of their leading foreign correspondents. He was shot covering the Biafra war, and, re-invented himself as an industrial correspondent and then presenter. He rose to the upper echelons of ITN under Sir David Nicholas and when Channel 4 News was launched in 1981, he was the natural choice as presenter. In that pioneering role he won numerous accolades and awards. When he was at the height of his powers, the BBC decided to do what the BBC does and throw more than the equivalent of a million pounds in his direction to poach him.
I dwell on this because, in my book, though Miss Fox is entitled to her opinions (as we all are), she is emphatically not in a position to be able to judge properly or objectively whether Mr Sissons has got it wrong when he says the BBC’s climate reporting is propaganda. Nothing she so piously says undermines his observations, and the way it is said demonstrates instead that she is not fit to lick his boots. She is a jumped-up press officer of limited vision and intellect with no experience of working in a newsroom, he is a giant of British journalism who won his spurs at the coalface of newsgathering time and time again. That the BBC College of Journalism – their self declared “centre of excellence” – should choose her to rubbish Mr Sissons in this way is a disgrace, and an indication of how low BBC journalism has sunk.
I’m still astonished to discover that there’s a BBC ‘College of Journalism’! I might try and enrol, just to see what goes on there.
It’s probably where they learn all about boys’ bottoms, and what may be accomplished with them…
@Natsman
Please, all “boy bottom” activity has been outsourced to Stephen Fry under the new management re-organisation. It’s important to keep abreast (or abuttock) of these issues.
Great post Robin! FF the star turn seems to have really stirred up a storm for herself and the idiots who thought,
“this will work she will sort out everything I mean what could go wrong?” the cretinous “£$%^& ‘s !.
Yes, a brilliantly written post Robin. Ms Fox has shot herself.
Excellent post, Robin. The cretins (as Matthew calls them) at the Warmist BBC will still feel that she has done a good job: After all, she has said all the things that they regard as sacrosanct and her defending not allowing opponents to make their point, is after all BBC policy.
If they read the comments they will have a chuckle and believe that they have all been written by “Right-Wing nutjobs”, as they call people with independant thought, and totally ignore them. They really cannot comprehend that they could ever do anything wrong, on any subject. Such is their extremely narrow, and completely intellect-free position on everything.
Agree.
If you check her entry on Wikipedia you will see she is also a former leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
I can understand why the BBC may need a college of Journalism but WTF is someone like Fiona Fox blogging there ? I fear it may be a college for teaching BBC reporters the correct way to skew their stories in the right way.
“… a former leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.”
Just shows how far left the BBC has swung!
I’d bet she found the job through an ad in The Guardian.
I think there can be little doubt about it with a complete schmuck like Kevin Marsh in charge.
I think there can be little doubt about it with a complete schmuck like Kevin Marsh in charge.
Best post I’ve read on here in a while. Only issue is that it’s fish in a barrel not ducks 🙂
The comments on the other site are a fantastic read, unfortunately she seems so pig headed that they won’t get taken in.
Lots of farm references for Ms Fox lol…
The comments are a joy to read. FF gets a complete bitch-slapping, richly deserved for that disgraceful article. The only concern I have is the moderators seems to have bunked off BBC school for the day. And no sign of the troll-army that infests blogs like dellers rushing to the rescue.
After these “revelations” she should be toast. Unless the BBC can get the government to arrest BBBC contibutors under the fox-hunting law…for hounding the Fox!
‘She obtained a trendy two-a penny media degree from Thames Polytechnic, then went straight into agitprop press office work with a succession of agencies which are hardly at the centre of national life. ‘
Sounds like the ideal career progression for the supportive media arm of the politico-media establishment.
One rather wonders of she has not now rather risen a tad above the parapet level of her own incompetence, and is now attracting fire not only at her personal failings, but those of the entities who hired and support her as she supports them.
So, Fi-luv, how’s the gig in Oslo going?
I reckon a few licence fees are getting thrwon on the bar bill to cheer up tonight.
Wasn’t that the purpose of Labour vastly over-expanding graduate numbers? To generate an army of second-rate labour-voting job fodder to swell the ranks of the quangos, charities and public sector? Not to mention the media. FFX is living proof of that.
Great post Robin. Couldn’t agree more.
I posted on that BBC site, but it was rejected. Is what I wrote in any way wrong? here is the email I received after posting (my post is included at the bottom);
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URL of content (now removed):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/blog285/F20361032?thread=…
Subject:
Why Peter Sissons is wrong about BBC climate coverage
Posting:
Fiona, I checked your entry on Wikipedia, is it true that you were also a former leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party?
If true, this explains a lot, regarding the input and ideology of the BBC over the past decade or so.
So tell us, please, how do your journalistic qualifications stack up if compared to Peter Sissons – or is towing the party line, like a Pravda of the 70’s and 80’s qualification enough, these days?
Nothing out of bounds there, just a truth too unpalatable for the moderator to permit.
OK, so after these last couple of posts I think I’ve got it: in Beebland anyone opposing ‘open borders’ is a dangerous extremist, but an unrepentent Marxist who thinks the whole ‘hacking people to death’ thing has been overblown is the perfect exemplar of middle of the road impartiality.
A-huh.
I guess we’re just lucky Marxists have never been implicated in any violence.