Wonderful letter here from a genuine expert on the science of sea-level changes to the president of the Maldives saying that – despite his publicity stunt in which the cabinet met underwater – his fascist little fiefdom is not going to sink between the waves. What do the BBC do? Report the president’s demands for more money to deal with the impending (non) disaster: Mohamed Nasheed said there was so … Continue reading
This morning, the Times reported that the World Meteorological Orgainsation, using data from CRU, and with the clear purpose of influencing the discussions at Copenhagen, had claimed that this year had been the fifth warmest on record. Hours later, our dear BBC environnment correspondent Richard Black reports the same story. He mentions that there’s some controversy about the figures – and about CRU – but without a peep about the … Continue reading
The BBC’s job is to report impartially what goes on in the world. To pursue that task, it receives at least £750m of your money every year, and it has almost 5,000 staff who are directly involved in journalism. So when steel-making on Teeside, one of our oldest manufacturing industries, faces closure, with the loss of 300 years of tradition and 10,000 jobs, you would expect the corporation to be … Continue reading
The BBC Trust’s From See-saw to Wagon Wheel, p 40: The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts, and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus. But these dissenters (or even sceptics) will still be heard, as they should, because it is not the BBC’s role to close … Continue reading
In a recent blog post I drew attention to some anti-Sarah Palin tweets from the BBC’s Richard Bacon, and said that I thought the BBC would “follow ITN’s example and issue Twitter rules for its employees”. Bacon was asked about the BBC’s attitude to his Twitter influence on Saturday’s Adam and Joe Show. He responded: “They’re going to check what I write before I put it up there, which will … Continue reading
The BBC reports that the Dear Leader has said technology such as crime maps and online school reports will cut bureaucracy, as Labour attempts to halve the Budget deficit.; Ahead of Wednesday’s pre-Budget report, the PM said “efficiency savings” would help to save £12bn over four years – £3bn more than planned in the Budget. Great news. I suppose one might pause to wonder how £12bn worth of theoretical “efficiency … Continue reading
Well, The Guardian along with 55 other newspaper titles in 45 countries may declare that we have “14 days to seal history’s verdict on this generation” as regards the gathering of the AGW cultists in not so wonderful Copenhagen, but hey, the BBC is doing the best it can for “the cause” today. Did anyone else catch “Today” this morning? Check out the totally unbiased headline “A Deal consistent with … Continue reading
Even the BBC’s coverage of bias is biased when it comes to the climate change debate. This, posted today, is the BBC’s attempt to create “balance” in the debate about AGW. I haven’t the time now to go into detail about why this is a blatant, pathetic whitewash. I am sure others will in due course. But how about for starters, the words devoted to the AGW case are far … Continue reading
Wat Tyler has responded to Marcus Brigstocke’s dire Now Show rant about the Taxpayers’ Alliance. This was Brigstocke’s humble tweet following the recording: “No knock out punch I fear” Yeah, because that was likely to happen. “Following a series of unfunny remarks made about us by Green Party and CND supporting posh kid Marcus Brigstocke on The Now Show, we have decided to disband the Taxpayers’ Alliance.” I see that … Continue reading
Further to Robin’s post yesterday about this week’s Newswatch, here are the transcripts of the exchanges between presenter Raymond Snoddy and environment correspondent Richard Black. First exchange: Snoddy: Richard Black, as a journalist do you think the BBC really underplayed this story despite Today and Newsnight items? Black: In quantitative terms I’m not sure that we have underplayed it. I don’t think that stands up. But there is another side … Continue reading
