Saturday 4 December 2010

The BBC and climate change

The BBC World Service is running a series of programmes at the moment entitled 'The Climate Connection'. The questions they are looking to answer through these broadcasts are as follows:
  • Is our lack of action on climate change down to a failure of communication?
  • How can economics be used to change personal behaviour around climate change?
  • What's stopping us from taking action on climate change?
  • Can a new approach to leadership combat climate change?
  • How do language, religion and culture influence how we think about climate change?
Earlier this year culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that the licence fee would have to fund the World Service from 2014. Currently it is funded to the tune of £256m by the taxpayer through a grant from the Foreign Office.

It is right that the World Service has full editorial, managerial and operational independence from the government. However isn't it time the BBC accepted that there is scepticism around the science of climate change and start reflecting this in its programming? With output like this funded by British taxpayers, the BBC needs to demonstrate it is a true public service broadcaster rather than a promoter of one viewpoint over another.
  

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5 December 2010 at 10:54

    Yes, they should have some space for critics but the overwhelming scientific evidence is on the side of manmade climate change; the BBC's output reflects this.

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  2. All Seeing Eye5 December 2010 at 16:38

    Vias34450; well the pile of self-reviewed grant-chasing ClimateGate-exposed publicity-seeking scaremongering alarmist stuff is certainly "overwhelming", that's true. But the BBC constantly stifle and undermine voices which don't agree with their editorial stance.

    If the Warmists would accept legitimate debate and scientists weren't too afraid of losing grants and tenure to speak up then you'd see that the situation isn't as neatly gift-wrapped as the BBC (and others) would have us imagine.

    ReplyDelete

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