Back in November, the BBC begrudgingly admitted that some of its greenie/current affairs programmes broadcast on BBC World News and made by an outfit called FBC Media (UK) Ltd had been illegally sponsored by influence groups including the Malaysian and Egyptian governments to the tune of at least £18m. This was no small beer, and I sensed it was the tip of an iceberg because also drawn into the net of accepting inappropriate sponsorship was the Television Trust for the Environment, an organisation made up of green nutters who boast about having the largest library of such material in the world and who supply dozens of programmes to the BBC.
As I reported in November, trustee Richard Ayre was duly appointed to investigate. This was a bit like putting a fox in charge of a hen house because not only is he an ex-BBC journalist of 30 years, but also he is a member and past chairman of the militant rights group Article 19, which believes fervently in warmist claptrap. In other words, he’s about as impartial on green issues as his boss, Chris Patten, is about the EU.
Mr Ayre has now published his report. This is what he says:
“A small number of programmes broadcast on BBC World News between February 2009 and July 2011 broke BBC rules aimed at protecting our editorial integrity. These rules ensure that programmes are free, and are seen to be free, from commercial or other outside pressures. Three current affairs programmes were sponsored, which is nota allowed. Three other programmes were partly sponsored by external organisations with a direct interest in the subject matter and this too broke our rules. In one other programme, the financial relationship between the sponsor and the production company was acceptable but was not made clear enough to viewers. In the case of eight other programmes, all of which featured Malaysia, we found that the production company which made the programmes appeared to have a financial relationship with the Malaysian Government. This meant there was a potential conflict of interest, though the BBC was not aware of it when the programmes were broadcast. Nne of the programmes breached the BBC guidelines on impartiality and none of the BBC’s news bulletins was affected.”
So what Mr Ayre has done is nail the production company for all the blame, and to say that’s it. Move along, there, nothing to see, it was only a little localised problem and we have dealt with it, even though it wasn’t us to blame, it was careless, nasty outsiders. Tell me if I am wrong, but this – like most such BBC inquries – stinks of one word: whitewash.
But meanwhile, as I noted in November, TVE has mysteriously vanished from the web without a trace, and the corporation continue to churn out greenie nonsense on a monumental scale, as well as being directly involved in propaganda. I note, for example, that the BBC is working hand in glove with EDF Energy – one of the power giants specialising in spreading hypothermia – in brainwashing kids about climate change and greenie moonshine. And who are among the principal paid advisors of EDF? Why the BBC chairman and his deputy of course.
And who are among the principal paid advisors of EDF?
Questions won’t be answered.
It’s a ‘unique’ thing.
Great work Robin.
As you say-this is only the tip of the iceberg and there seems to be some big cracks appearing…albeit at a glacial pace.
Keep at the fissures with your ice pick…remember Heather Brooke!
The riddling of the Beeb wiith these vested interest nutjobs with their librabry of slipping polar bears is well worth rooting out.
Be painstaking, like ground elder…but Ayres response is so complacent, that you`ll muck out the green barn.
Reckon Islam will be easier to remove, given that its not grafted into the souls of the BBC as global warming is!
Riddled with corruption, bias and fraud on a mammoth scale.
Your caring, ‘green’, ideological, money-grabbing BBC.
Lord Reith, if only you knew…
Article 19, which believes fervently in warmist claptrap
The Beeboid connection to this organsation has been quite strong. From 2006-2010, trustees have included
George Aiagiah, BBC News presenter and journalist;
Anne Howarth, Senior Vice President, Global Channels, BBC Worldwide
Richard Sambrook, Director, Global News Division, BBC World Service
Catherine Smadja, Head of digital and commercial broadcasting policy branch and Director of the Digital Switchover
Programme
Simone Pennie Finance Director, BBC World Limited
Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC jounalist
It’s just so depressing, isn’t it? That sense of helplessness, knowing these charlatans and frauds within the BBC will go on behaving exactly how they please, regardless. That’s possibly the most frustrating thing about it for ordinary license payers like myself (and possibly most of the contributors here).
The BBC’s infiltration by militant ‘greens’ with their barmy climate alarmism and distinctly ‘anti-everything’ agenda happened a long time ago, but it happened most intensely during the cosy NuLabour years. Doctrine from the most powerful ‘green’ organisations somehow embedded itself into the editorial policy of an allegedly ‘impartial’ broadcaster, even managing to skew the bias of all ‘climate’ (in effect everything environmental) reporting until all sense of journalistic integrity was subsumed by a suffocating cloak of duplicitous panic mongering – which in turn paved the way for cowardly politicians to ride the populist wave…and start taxing us all for a non-existent problem.
It’s so thoroughly disgraceful it frankly beggars belief. The problem for us is that these attitudes remain firmly embedded within The Corporation, which is as incestuous, self-serving and dimissive of it’s critics as ever. Dare to step outside of its political remit on any subject and you risk being ignored or, more sinisterly, ridiculed and humiliated. Now where have we seen that kind of behaviour before?
I am gainfully employed in the private sector earning just enough to not qualify for any state benefits. I like being self-sufficient in that way. Having had a large shock in the size of my energy bills a couple of years ago, I decided to ration my use of electricity and gas more efficiently. I used to keep several tropical fish tanks as this was my main hobby and passion. I got rid of them all. I stopped using the heating at all in most of the house and only slightly heat the room I am in. I no longer have the heating on in the bedroom once I am in bed. I do not know how much more I can do to cut back, as I almost use no power as it is. I recieved a 400 quid rebate last year, because my usage is so low, Yet my energy company, Eon, sent me a letter today upping my direct debits by 66%!
I cannot imagine how those with kids cope with heating bills. And a massive chunk of it is these insane climate change levies.
If the BBC have any compassion for the lower paid and the less well off, they should be exposing the cAGW fraud and demanding bills be lowered. We need to STOP building those bird killing wind monstrocities which stand idle on freezing cold, still days when the electricity is needed, and are switched off when the wind blows too hard and when consuption rates are low overnight, they could be wizzing around at a hell of a rate making electricity that no-one needs. Tough, it cannot be stored, as the national grid has no way to store the excess electricity produced.
We NEED to build a national network of thorium nuclear power stations, increase the fracking to get at the gas and keep digging coal.
Thorium…now there’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen the BBC discuss. That one is RIGHT off the agenda. It’s pretty much the same for shale gas, which now looks like it might exist in such quantities within the UK to sustain the country for up a century.
I agree it’s a complete scandal that these alternative energy sources are being deliberately kept off the agenda – helped, of course, by zealots in the green movement who use their contacts in the BBC to make sure The Corporation doesn’t go near them in any favourable way. It’s fine for the BBC to churlishly dismiss shale and thorium/nuclear, talk them down and otherwise discredit them, despite gowing evidence their exploitation would lead directly to massively lower fuel bills and dependable and secure energy for the forseeable future.
But we are dealing with a monolithic, political animal in the BBC. It has set out its stall and now refuses to budge. Anything with a whiff of ‘fossil fuels’ about it is to be ignored or undermined, unless it serves the dominant narrative of the AGW doctrine.
Fracking will come if the USA give it the green light, and then Obama sees it as politically worthwhile for him to swerve around his natural allies.
We will get it only if and when we shake off the detestable EU-and Sarkozy in particular.
Until then, we can tilt at the windmills that won`t turn….bit nippy and they`re a bit fragile for our climate, you see!
cjhartnett
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-25/obama-backs-fracking-to-create-600-000-jobs-vows-safe-drilling.html
Seems http://tve.org/ are coming back…