Author Archives: DB

"Of course it was climate change what done it."

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The final part of a read-it-all post from Burning Our Money:

BOM correspondent NN suffered a seizure while watching a BBC news report on Wednesday about salt traders in Timbuktu. According to the report – a NEWS report note – said traders have apparently had to swap their transport camels for great big climate destroying trucks, because global warming has made the camels too tired and thirsty to do the work (well there is also the small matter of the always biddable truck being able to haul in one week what it takes the moody camels seven to achieve, but the real villain is definitely global warming). After a strong dose of smelling salts, NN emailed – “They sent a sodding reporter and camera crew and translator to sodding Timbuktu for this garbage. By camel? I would be willing to wager that they flew in a nice shiny aeroplane and then carted all their gear on one of the very same evil trucks that cause climate change. At least I hope so. The thought of BBC reporters earning 45 days of per diems while lugging their crap around on 1st century technology is truly alarming. What could have been a really good example of creative destruction and new technologies replacing old for the good of all involved becomes a truly loopy example of green non-thought. And spare a thought for the Tuareg salt-trader. Who wouldn’t rather spend 45 days in blistering heat and thirst with a load of wheezing camels than seven days in an air-conditioned truck listening to Timbuktu FM. Of course it was climate change what done it. Aaaaargh. I think I need to leave the country to escape the madness, – by horse.” We may join him.

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Two "gates" and a couple of degrees of separation

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A few weeks BC (Before Climategate) there was another “gate” controversy which, I have to concede, generated slightly less interest among the Biased BBC readership. Well, you’ll all be pleased to read that F-Bombgate has just about reached its denouement:

The BBC investigation into the sabotage of an early morning 5 Live sports news bulletin with obscene material has concluded that chief suspect Ben Jacobs will not be offered any more freelance shifts. But the Beeb will be extremely careful with any statement for fear of legal action by Jacobs, who has kept silent since denying any involvement. He claims someone logged on to the BBC computer system in his name.

Now, bear with me here. Via Richard North at EUReferendum I see that Little Green Footballs blogger Charles Johnson (who has apparently re-reinvented himself as the sword of truth against the evil forces of the Right) blames us all for Climategate:

“The CRU theft was a criminal attempt to sabotage the Copenhagen climate summit, and the entire right wing blogosphere is complicit in the crime.”

Apart from his role as the sanctimonious conscience of the blogosphere, Johnson is also a jazz musician who, according to Wikipedia, has featured on a couple of albums by bassist Stanley Clarke. And with that as my tenuous link, here’s the moment once again (possibly for the last time, but I can’t promise) when a blooper reel of BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght was sneaked into a sports report by person or persons known or unknown:

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Harrabin: media wrong, science not settled!

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Make sure you’re sitting down for this one.

BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin on Radio Five Live Breakfast this morning:

“There is a sort of misapprehension here that we in the media have probably helped to perpetuate: that the science of climate change, all the details, are settled. In fact there’s a lot of uncertainty about big areas of the science as to what will happen.”

A frank admission from an unexpected quarter. The fallout from Climategate continues.

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Climategate – Now Show vs Daily Show

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As a number of commenters pointed out over the weekend, the first in the new series of The Now Show (Friday 27 November) chose to deal with Climategate by circling the wagons around the poor put-upon scientists and mocking the sceptics. The best that the collected comedy geniuses could come up with was a crap James Bond evil villain conspiracy sketch, the set-up for which was an absurd straw-man quote that Steve Punt claimed to have seen somewhere. The underlying message was, “Nothing to see here, move along.”

In contrast to this predictable response from Radio 4’s group-thinking leftie establishment comedians, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart set aside his own ideological leanings and took aim:

(There’s more but this was the first Youtube clip I could find. Newsbusters has the full transcript in which Stewart goes on to mock climate sceptic Senator Inhofe, and to express despair at the contempt for the scientific method revealed by the emails.)

American viewers get a challenging take on the subject. UK licence payers get a pathetic wet fart of an effort from Radio 4’s tired old comedy echo chamber.

Isn’t it time for a shake-up, Ms Raphael?

Update. Full clip can be viewed courtesy of none other than Senator Inhofe.

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Poor Ickle Poley Bears

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The Polar Bear Song Wednesday, 23:20 on BBC Two (Wales only)

Tom Rugg, a biology teacher from Chepstow, has written The Polar Bear Song to raise awareness of climate change among children. In an exclusive video diary for the Green Wales season, follow Tom to Hudson Bay in Canada to meet Polar Bears International and ask questions on climate change from his pupils. The organisation will use the song to raise awareness of the impact of global warming in the Arctic. See how the sea ice is decreasing and the bears go hungry. Can a song help to save the bears?

Warning – you may feel the urge to jab a sharp instrument repeatedly into your ears. A bucket may be handy too.

This is part of the BBC’s Green Wales season, the promo video for which states: “Every day Wales is waking up to news of climate change…” It certainly is if it’s got the BBC on in the morning.

Apparently the Welsh are much more susceptible to this stuff than the rest of us.

In other Green Wales news: Expert calls for a ‘greener’ Hajj

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Richard Bacon Update

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Yet another anti-Palin tweet from Richard Bacon today to add to the ones I highlighted on Friday.

So self-serving and transparent of Bacon in his continuing attempt to prove himself to his media luvvie peers, more like.

Update 20.30. I don’t know if the Twitterer who goes by the name of blackbarbie_ is real or not, but I quite like her. (If she’s not the genuine article I think she could be Rod Liddle taking the piss.)

Last week she told Marcus Brigstocke that she liked Fox News, which drew this condescending response:

Earlier today she asked Richard Bacon why he doesn’t like Sarah Palin. How does a PC, liberal, white, allegedly impartial BBC presenter respond to such a question from a conservative black woman? No answer yet, but stay tuned.

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Some good news to start the day

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A tweet from Marcus Brigstocke this morning:

Maybe he’ll have to move into that massive “solar-powered” motorhome he’s got parked outside.

Update. Is it a leak, or was his roof hacked by Russians? Either way, I hope it didn’t cause him to miss an appearance by his favourite politician on the Andrew Marr Show today.

Update 2. Rod Liddle has some thoughts on Brigstocke in his Sunday Times column today. Hat tip to George R, who has posted the relevant segment in the comments.

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Mann Made Climate Change

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The BBC has a new article on its website about the latest work from Michael Mann, and it’s as if Climategate never happened. Gerald Warner mocks the BBC, while Watts Up With That mocks Mann’s apparent discovery of the Medieval Warm Period

The BBC clearly thinks it has “done” the CRU scandal and is now carrying on as before, faithfully reporting the carefully orchestrated release of Copenhagen climate propaganda.

(Hat tip ibjc and Marky)

Update 19.05: IPCC climatologist says Mann no longer credible, acknowledges career probably screwed for daring to say so.

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Richard Bacon,Twitter & the BBC

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In the latest issue of Standpoint, Nick Cohen argues that the recent Twitter campaign against the Daily Mail’s Jan Moir was less about “‘reader power’ in action” and more to do with like-minded people “affirming their membership of the liberal tribe…”

The use of Twitter to affirm one’s trendy, right-on credentials is especially noticeable among the UK’s tweeting celebs and media luvvies. The most followed of the lot is the BBC’s Richard Bacon who, as one of the chieftains of Twitter’s “liberal tribe”, cheered on the hunt for Moir.

He was asked about Twitter by Matthew Wells on this week’s Guardian Media Talk podcast (16 min in):

Wells: How do you feel, Richard, about your personal power to influence people by what you say on Twitter?
Bacon: It’s an issue for me because I work for the BBC, and I work for Five Live and I do programmes that are news based. And it’s difficult, and I think there’s a grey area at the moment. I’ll often re-tweet – you know what re-tweeting is? You can put up a link to an article that I like, and on occasion I’ll be re-tweeting to an article that may well express an opinion that I’m sympathetic towards. That’s not the same as me expressing an opinion, but you could argue that it is. Now that…to me this is a grey area that I imagine one day they’ll legislate.
Channel 4’s Benjamin Cohen: We’re having a policy launched very soon at ITN to say what we can and can’t say.
Bacon: There’ll be some committee…
Guardian’s Emily Bell: Are you going to have non-tweets, things that you cannot tweet?
B.Cohen: We’re going to have subjects that you shouldn’t tweet about.
Bacon: Are you?
B.Cohen: We’re trying to keep the broadcasting [unheard] in what we tweet, so – don’t express an opinion.
[Crosstalk]
Bacon: What about that grey area that I mentioned? Re-tweeting a link to an article, often I’m just saying here’s an interesting article, but occasionally – and I guess I did do this with Jan Moir – you’re going look at, you know, here’s what Charlie Brooker says about Jan Moir and really I agree with that. And so it’s a grey area and probably someone from the BBC Trust will be listening to this podcast and the rules will all change and I’ll regret saying these words.

Bacon has just signed a three-year deal to present the afternoon slot on Five Live, during which time he’ll be covering, among other things, the next US midterm and presidential elections. His views of one potentially influential player in those elections can be gleaned from some of his tweets [click image to view]:

[For those who don’t know, Andrew Sullivan hates Palin with a deranged passion (he’s the “liberal blogger at The Atlantic” mentioned in this Jonah Goldberg article), and Levi Johnston is now a performing monkey for the Palin-hating media in America.]

And here’s Bacon on Obama:

I suspect that the BBC will indeed follow ITN’s example and issue Twitter rules for its employees, but I’d rather they just let them say what they want. The insight it offers is most instructive.

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Hudson Hushed

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Paul Hudson, the BBC weatherman who in October was forwarded some of the Climategate emails (those relating to his article “What happened to global warming?“) has been gagged by the BBC. From the Hull Daily Mail:

When contacted by the Mail, the weatherman said he was not allowed to comment and asked us to speak to the BBC press office.
A BBC spokesperson said: “Paul wrote a blog for the BBC website on October 9 entitled Whatever Happened To Global Warming. There was a big reaction to the article – not just here but around the world. Among those who responded were Professor Michael E Mann and Stephen Schneider whose e-mails were among a small handful forwarded to Paul on October 12.
“Although of interest, Paul wanted to consider the e-mails as part of a wider piece, following up his original blog piece.
“Last week, Paul spotted these few e-mails were among thousands published on the Internet following the alleged hacking of the UEA computer system.
“Paul passed this information on to colleagues at the BBC, who ran with the story, and then linked to the e-mails on his blog this Monday.”

Hudson posted a brief follow-up to his original article on October 12, the day he was forwarded the emails. The emails weren’t mentioned in that blog post nor in the five subsequent ones written prior to the CRU story breaking last week. If Hudson wanted to “consider the emails as part of a wider piece”, he wasn’t in any rush to do so.

(Note – the Hull Daily Mail article appears to misquote Hudson’s blog, stating: “I was forwarded the chain of e-mails on October 23”. It actually says: “I was forwarded the chain of e-mails on the 12th October”.)

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