Former BBC presenter Robin Page has uncovered a blatant piece of agenda-driven editing in a recent edition of the BBC’s Countryfile:
The woman talking about hedgehogs to John Craven was the excellent Rebecca Willers from the Shepreth Wildlife Park – she too was featured in my last Diary. On the programme she attributed hedgehog decline to road kills and loss of hedgerows, and then it was clear to me that she had been edited. I know that Rebecca believes badgers are serious predators of hedgehogs as she would not let the CRT put hedgehogs on Lark Rise Farm because of the local badgers.
I telephoned her. “Yes,” Rebecca said: “I mentioned that predation by badgers was an important factor in hedgehog decline several times and it was edited out.” So there we have it – Countryfile changing the story to avoid the facts, or so it seems.
Is it just coincidence that this editorial decision by Countryfile was helpful to those activists opposed to badger culls? I doubt it.
(h/t the BBC’s David Gregory-Kumar)
Interesting that it was a tweet from someone named Jamie Foster in DG-K’s feed. That’s BBC science stuff, which is his patch, so I hope he’s had a word with his colleagues about this. I assume he’s at least mildly concerned about it since he allowed the tweet to stay there. This is far from the first time the BBC has deliberately edited something science-related to make it fit their agenda. I hope DG-K is paying attention.
Whoever Jamie Foster is, he’s not your typical Beeboid, either. Probably not BBC at all, judging from his tweets.
Foster nothing to do with the BBC, just RTed by DGK.
Interesting that DG-K follows Foster at all, seeing as how he espouses certain unapproved thoughts expressed here.
I think he’s covered the badger story for BBC Midlands (or whatever it’s called) and, unlike Countryfile, seems open to both sides of the debate.
I remember him talking about badgers a long time ago. It’s good that he’s aware of the bias amongst his colleagues. I hope he doesn’t just leave it as an RT and actually complains in house. This is a rather big deal seeing as how the BBC has form on censoring unapproved thoughts (or editing them to make them appear more approved than they actually are) on science issues.
I agree. The subject matter seems trivial in comparison to many other major stories going on at the moment, but the editing of this programme tells a tale about how some at the BBC view impartiality.
CRT?
Countryside Restoration Trust – it’s in the link.
If only the hegehogs had a washed out pop star hypocrite who knew Freddie Mercury eh?
Air guitar poses all round…very much the PETA/Bono/Macca way that the world is judged these days.
Hello Cleveland!
Will nobody think of the cattle?
Surely the point here is that badgers may or may not be spreading bovine TB but that there is a vaccine that could be used to prevent it from affecting cows if we were prepared to pay. Are we too mean to spend an extra half penny a litre to protect the cows and stop killing badgers?
Badgers are part of Britain’s heritage, part of our folklore, they deserve our compassion. Why do we spend billions on people who would destroy our culture but won’t protect our natural heritage? Don’t we value Britain any longer? Personally I am on the side of the badgers rather than the aliens who want to do us harm.
The point here is Countryfile’s editing.
I don’t think that the vaccination route is at all simple at the moment and not just on an economic basis. Whilst I am no expert on this I have quickly googled and found a couple of references – but am sure some of the problem is that if cattle are vaccinated then they cannot be tested for tb as the vaccine makes them all come up positive but please if someone knows I am wrong then post .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/jun/05/farming-badgers-cattle-tb-cull-vaccination
http://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news/vaccination-little-benefit-in-immediate-future/
springwatch on bbc 2 has never been the same since kate humble left,as for airport which she is fronting now on bbc 2, what car crash television that is,just awful.
Ah, ‘Countryfile’- another programme I watch with the sound muted and with subtitles on, to escape the constant background music.
You actually watch Countryfile?
I gave up that unedifying “pleasure” years ago, when all the agendas and leftie presenters scrambled aboard.
My main point was about the muzak that now blights every factual TV programme. Yes, I do watch ‘Countryfile’, often having it reduced on one side of the computer screen whilst I am working on a project. It is true there is a certain amount of AGW-ism, it is not obviously leftish or agenda-strewn. And, thank goodness, they haven’t yet seen fit to bring in a burka-clad or a ‘sufficiently black’ presenter for balance.
Agreed about the background music. There are certain tracks which are ubiquitous, featured in nearly every single one of them. There’s this one burbling strings riff which sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it. It saves money, of course, but it gets annoying. Howard Goodall and these people have made a very nice living.
…mmmmm, a dozen comments and nobody has asked the most important thing (and stalwart member of classic, corny old jokes club), what the difference is between a hedgehog and the BBC?!
do tell
Oldest gag in the book. “With the hedgehog, the pricks are on the outside”. Lol!
Cheers!
Yet another example of BBC bias shown again by the Countryfile programme. This time the BBC cannot deny it. The facts are that since Badgers became a protected species in the UK their numbers have rocketed. The incidence of bovine TB has increased in parallel. Badgers are now a top predator as their numbers are no longer controlled by wolves or man. So if you are happy for badgers to spread TB and eventually decimate wild life, including hedgehogs, then continue to object to man controlling badger numbers down to what they were before badgers became a protected species.