Former BBC science reporter David Whitehouse explains with masterful precision here why BBC science journalism has turned into sychophantic political drivel. Basically, Mr Whitehouse says that the corporation should be challenging eveything it hears from scientists; instead it is recycling their words as if they were gospel. To me, the most telling blow is when he compares science reporting now to how political reporting used to be in the 1950s before Robin Day and the young Turks at ITN broke the mould.
Proof that he’s right is not hard to find in today’s wearisome quota of alarmist propaganda put out by the posse of so-called BBC science correspondents. Here Richard Black continues his strident eco-tub thumping from Durban, his homily this morning based on a slavish regurgitation of a press release from an outfit called ECOFYS, a group of eco-whack subsidy looters who are busy fuelling Chris Huhne’s insatiable desire to cover the United Kingdom with bird-slicing rotor blades. And here, one of Mr Black’s colleagues, Joanthan Amos, feeds the world-is-melting frenzy with a piece of recycled pap from another alarmist boondoggle, this one the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
BBC “science” reporters: strenuously working to peddle you unfiltered alarmist propaganda from freebies everywhere.
Right on cue – just as the weather and traffic reports tell us about snow in the UK (pretty standard British winter) so inevitably the BBC will want to tell us about tonight’s episode of Frozen Planet.
Fair enough then that David Attenborough (Beeb stalwart – apart from that recent pension enhancing gig with Sky) is interviewed (from some secret location – you can tell he wasn’t in the studio) by BBC Salford local radio’s Nicky Campbell.
Oh dear, most questions are not about wildlife but about man-made global warming. I say most because Nicky also invites Sir David to have a pop at US Republican Presidential candidates who believe in intelligent design creationism – I know who asked?
Well it seems that if we don’t all mend our ways the world’s cities will drown and all the polar bear are going to die of heat stroke.
Particular ire is heaped on Nigel Lawson.
There was a time when I would have been outraged by these unashamed political ploys but you know this stuff now has the feel of a rather desperate rear-guard action – and that makes me optimistic.
Not much of a conspiracy theorist myself, but surely it is not down to random coincidence that the final episode of Frozen Planet, by all accounts an AGW fest of momentous proportions (which I dare not watch for fear of having to purchase a replacment flatscreen tomorrow), is being shown during the closing sessions of the current self-abuse boondoggle taking place in Durban.
That exact thought crossed my mind. It’s been a very interesting series, but I won’t be watching tonight’s episode either.
Wait for the grand gesture from Huhne on holiday in Durban with the other loonies and parasites. Citing Attenborough, Huhne will get out our chequebook and sign away billions, agreement or not (and probably not), on extending/replacing Kyoto. The BBC will stand shoulder to shoulder with Huhne and there’ll be no mention of the GWPF Report (unless it’s to slag it off while not mentioning its contents).
The BBC is corrupt – no other word for it.
Still…John Humphrys is our man!
He achieved the seemingly-impossible in making me despise the C.A.B and hug my neighbourhood loan shark today.
His 8a.m white flagship interview with some bod from the LoanShark Guild was a masterclass…just mention words like “research”, “facts” and quote other BBC shows-and Humph gets his snout flattened as he careers into the waiting crashed car of an interview that inevitably results.
Like all Beeboids…mathematically dim, and scientifically suspect-but likes a cheap holiday home and lots of expenses as done by Andy DuFrayne.
THe LoahSharks might throw Humphrys bloated carcass over the side some day…but for now, he makes a great gargoyle for their ship.
If Loan Sharks don`t coin it in now in the run-up to Christmas…well, it won`t be because John Humphrys didn`t sell the cause.
The BBC vampires and bloodsuckers might despise the cross, but they recoil at the calculator nowadays…no wonder they fall for green slurry and Guardian voxpox.
Bet Southern Cross are queuing up to get Humph in to rehabilitate them now!
Comedy Gold this bloke…Paul Mc Mullen needs to get in there now to rescue BBC Current Affairs…send for Rupert !
Yet again the BBC’s incompetent journalism and bias come to the fore. Had the BBC done some research, not into opinions on the payday loan market, but into its mechanics they would have been able to give the wider public an appreciation of what happens there and why the R3 report was a load of contentious crap.
When I worked in the City in the 70s, one of my clients was one of the large players in that market and, AFAIAA the significant characteristics haven’t changed. The borrowers were all employed, generally owned or were long-time renters (private or council) of property and were – in the words of my client – “respectable”. Generally, they didn’t use banks or, if they did, borrowing from the bank was a long, wearing process and an incrediibly (to them) legalistic merry-go-round. More to the point, the banks didn’t want the business but were content to lend to my clients to fund the business.
The average loan (then) was about £250: this was borrowed on, say Monday and £260 was paid back on Friday. On a simple calculator that’s an interest rate of about 300%: Of course, that £10 is not pure profit for the lender: the average admin cost for each loan was about £5 and on top were provisions for bad debts and the cost of borrowing from the commercial banks. For the lending institution – as long as it knew what it was doing – this was good business. For the borrower the £10 borrowing fee (despite it being the product of, on the face of it, a ridiculously high rate) was acceptable. The alternative source of money was your friendly neighbourhood loan shark who would want £300+ back on Friday and, if you didn’t pay, would administer a severe beating plus an increase in the interest rate.
Did we hear any of this from an indignant Humphrys? Of course not: the BBC position is that all bankers are looters and all lending to the little people, no matter how high-risk, is, by definition, a rip-off. Again, the BBC exhibited its wilful ignorance and institutional journalistic incompetence. Actually this was an interesting topic which could, in other hands, been very enlightening. Instead all we got was a failed prosecution by the BBC: a prosecution, moreover, that should never have been brought.
I heard this, and thought that the “loan-shark” man gave a reasonable account of himself, and the lending activities, whilst Humphrys sounded like a complete, uninformed oaf. I suppose that’s because he is. I wonder if he was wearing his “slanket”…
300%?
DP
Yup – and 300% in this market was at the lower end of what was charged. You have to look at what else was on offer and there wasn’t a lot. Neighbourhood loan sharks (usually an offshoot of a drug dealing “business”) would be charging around 7000% (by lending £250 and wanting £4/500 back 5 days later). Late payment was very expensive financially and might also mean a broken arm. I don’t know what pawn brokers were charging but it must have been way up there. But, again, as I wrote, for the borrower the charge for the loan was perceived as small and reasonable (£10 for a £250 loan).
The AGW bandwagon is rolling, and they’re having their day at Durban, so no doubt are pulling out all the stops to make a show of it. Most of those that are attending are already sold on the myth, the rest are either going along for the ride, or in the hope that western economies are going to shove large wodges of cash their way (for which I’m sure they’d sell their grandmothers, if necessary).
I think the rest of us will just have to be pissing in the wind whilst this farce progresses, because we won’t get a look in, so committed and brainwashed are the AGW contingent. On Newsnight last night, some excited bloke seemed to think that China was “coming round” to the idea of cutting emissions. Knowing the Chinese, and their inscrutability, I suspect that they’ll say one thing and do another.
It’s all about emissions (no, not that kind…), without any regard to the fact that CO2 isn’t a problem at all, and certainly not a pollutant. The blinkers are well and truly welded to their heads, and nothing else will get through to them, truth or not. This blind faith in a quasi-religion is astounding, and begs the question “how much undiagnosed lunacy is there amongst mankind?” because it is becoming readily evident amongst the saner of us, that large groups of people are going stark raving mad.
The one good thing about the BBC’s science coverage is that it gives us a preview on how they’re like to report politics, if they thought they could get away with it.
I guess there’s a limit to how much ‘peculliarity’, ‘idiosyncrasy’ and ‘stubborn mindedness’ you need, after all
Can never have too much left of centre thinking though!
In terms of BBC science reporting/discussion, interesting to listen to the Infinite Monkey Cage. It is meant to be a light-hearted affair and is quite engaging, but listen to a couple of recent episodes and see how many Guardianspeak tropes and views are proffered by the hosts and guests. Climate, creationists, the Daily Telegraph, it’s all there!
I get the feeling poor old David Attenborough has been rail-roaded by the comrades at the BBC combine into towing the Party line on pro-AGW or face his much-delayed ‘retirement’. I think he resisted for a number of years, but in his old age, and more vulnerable to the whims of younger, unprincipled morons with power, the idea of going against the militant political agenda of his employer must seem a pretty daft idea when faced with the punishment for doing so.
It’s a tragedy the otherwise excellent ‘Frozen Planet’ series (and it really has been fantastic film-making) has been saddled with this oafish attempt to propagandize; it’s another grim example of the creative vandalism the pro-AGW eco-apparatchiks within the Corporation seem to enjoy so gleefully, perverting everything with a ‘nature’ angle to suit to their, blinkered, dominant narrative. So sad.
David Whitehouse makes so many excellent points in his piece about the current wretched state of BBC science reporting I hardly know where to begin, so I’ll just also urge other readers here to check out the link – it’s well worth reading.
I am not so sure about that, and I do not think that Attenborough is as frail as you may portray him. He has presented another groundbraking naturalist series which although it ends with a polemic stating that warming in both polar regions will be a disaster, actually has many episodes which conclusively show that the time when the poles are at their warmest, are the times when life is most active and diverse, therefore warming = good! The balance of the series shows nature benefiting from warmer polar regions.
ALL life benefits from a warmer world, which makes the AGW farce all the more surprising. You would think that they would welcome conditions which were more comfortable, and conducive to life, wouldn’t you? Instead of which, they think that they can deprive us of our economies, security and lives in order to cool it down, when all the signs and portents seem to indicate that the world is cooling all by itself quite nicely, thank you. the fact that it has done this regularly before escapes them, as do historical events which indicate that a cooler planet is accompanied by human (and animal) strife, poor harvests, wars, desertification and a general world-wide malaise. None of this adds up at all. They don’t seem to like humanity, do they? Well, at least the rest of humanity other than themselves, of course.
BishopHill has a thread on the David Whitehouse article. Evidently it was posted at Huffington Post in the US, where he has a regular slot.
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/12/6/whitehouse-on-science-journalism.html
JA
You make some very good points in that thread, particularly about BBC Groupthink on CAGW and the practice of churnalism at the BBC and elsewhere. Another theme explored in that thread, that journalists reporting on science are not excused their bias or incompetence just because they are not scientists, is an interesting one. It is clearly not the case that just because someone is a scientist or has a scientific background, his journalism is perforce not tainted by bias.
IMHO the example of David Gregory’s rare engagement on this site concerning the BBC coverage of climate change (confirming the BBC’s line that the science is sound, global warming is happening and CAGW is a scientific fact) exemplifies the mistaken opinion that purely by virtue of having someone with a scientific background report and/or comment on science will produce reportage – or, more to the point, the assessment of the particular science involved – so impeccable that it makes it beyond criticism.
As its Wednesday, can we have a new board please.
The solution to resolve any further lavish MMGW conferences taking place is simple.
All the warmist idiots who travel on windmill aeroplanes all around the world talking nonsence to each other, whilst unable to be even considered for a part-time job at Speedy Bake, should:
Debate a real MM threat – That they might have to pay their own fare or even consider walking to the next venue.
Just look at the picture of the Arctic ice pack, As far as I can see the polar ice cap is doing just fine.
You may remember back just five years when we were promised by the BBC in hundreds of reports crafted by their eco fascist comrades that the Arctic ice caps would be gone in a few years. It looks fine to me. Oh and the graph on the right shows the reality of global cooling, you see the trend is in decline.
The truth will out in the end, that the beeboid scum cannot or will not see it is a testament to their ugliness.
The BBC don’t film in the Arctic in winter because it doesn’t suit thir agenda, but in the Summer they’re up there in droves filming the big melt…
Just saying 🙂
On several occasions the BBC has tried to cast Senator Imhofe as a loony extremist because he challenged the Global Warmism cult. The BBC cast him as an outsider.
So it is amusing to see Imhofe telling the Warmists that they are the outsiders – they are all gathering in Durban, and no-one is paying them the slightest attention. Not even when Richard Black screeches at his ludicrous loudest.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/07/inhofe-to-climate-conference-nobodys-listening-any-more/
Imhofe’s message rings partially true in America, where cap and trade was killed and Kyoto was never a formal commitment. But Obama’s administration is still choking the US fossil fuel industries, while lavishing billions on boondoggle wind and solar power.
Here in the UK things are far worse. Yes, we are all ignoring the Durban jamboree, but much damage has already been done. People are dying of fuel poverty, jobs are being shipped abroad, firms are enjoying a right-royal rip-off on windfarms and solar power, the countryside is being despoiled – the economic costs of Warmism policies for the UK are horrendous. All with the blinkered and biased backing of the BBC.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/07/inhofe-to-climate-conference-nobodys-listening-any-more/
@John Anderson – Just wanted to say how much I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. Chris Huhne, here in the UK, is a dangerous man who is actively holding back the development of shale gas – a potential game-changer for entire energy business – because of his wretched AGW tendencies. It’s an outrage and an insult to every one of us facing fraudulently inflated energy bills in the UK.
I can’t get over how cowardly and disingenuous successive BBC journalists are towards him – never asking the ‘difficult’ questions, never daring to confront him on the obvious folly of his ‘renewables’ policies which are causing so much havoc to ordinary people. I get quite upset thinking about it. Who is there to speak up for us?
New climate change scare, anyone? The world is getting colder thanks to CO2 emissions, and will become as lifeless as chilly Mars by 2012. So cough up the green taxes now or when you toboggan to France on a glacier next year all the grapes will be icicles and you won’t get any wine. And we’ll all be eaten by polar bears skiing in from the Arctic.
If the CAGW fraudsters could do it they will do it.
CO2 emissions cause global cooling, the call goes out to cut CO2 to help warm the planet, a global conference is called? Only by keeping global temperatures below or above 2c can we hope to save the planet from warming…cooling..warming…cooling or something and if something costly is not done now to increase rapidly falling sea levels er…uhm..people living by the sea wont be able to get to it or something.
And the BBC will be at the forefront of the about turn.
As a member of a Mensa group that tried to take on the thickos at the BBC. A short and simple statement about the prevalent ignorance in society was made by the group.
In the scientific method when you make an assumption you then try to prove that assumption right or wrong, if the IPCC assumes that man-made Global Warming was 0.68 Kelvin and then a growing number of scientists calculate that it was between Zero and 0.1 Kelvin using methods such as the use of the CO2 Atmosphere of Mars as a proxy. Then it is reasonable to say that the statement
“this is the Worlds biggest ever scientific fraud” is a fact not an opinion.