The Impartial BBC, continued
Recent news on energy

It is now widely known that in 2006, the BBC arranged a seminar, attended by sympathetic scientists and others, in which it was decided to take a proactive line in promoting alarm over global warming.

This decision was in breach of its Charter, which states that its coverage of controversial issues should be impartial.

Tony Newbery, a blogger, of Harmless Sky, made a FOI request for the names of the 28 people attending the seminar.

The BBC pitted six lawyers against Mr. Newbery to keep the names secret, and the resulting judgement was that the BBC, being a private organization, was entitled to withold the information.

However, the story moves on ......

Maurizio Morabito (the blogger 'omnologos') found a way of accessing the information via the internet's 'Wayback Machine' - so we can now read the list which the BBC fought to keep secret.

Note that there are plenty of AGW supporters on the list, but there are no balancing groups represented, and the wind industry was involved.

This list has been obtained legally.

As one blogger put it ..... The list of attendees from the BBC side shows that they purposefully intended to force their biased view on the British public through all their creative output (comedy, drama etc) across all their channels 24x7.

This isn't just news reporting bias, this is institutional bias and propaganda at Orwellian levels.

BBC propaganda is especially pernicious because it masquerades as unbiased and objective when it is not.

Specialists:
Robert May, Oxford University and Imperial College London
Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre, UEA
Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant
Trevor Evans, US Embassy
Colin Challen MP, Chair, All Party Group on Climate Change
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation
Claire Foster, Church of England
Saleemul Huq, IIED
Poshendra Satyal Pravat, OU; Post-Doc Rsch Fellow, Crichton Carbon Centre.
Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund Ethiopia
Iain Wright, CO2 Project Manager, BP International
Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
Matthew Farrow, CBI
Rafael Hidalgo, TV/multimedia producer
Cheryl Campbell, Executive Director, Television for the Environment
Kevin McCullough, Director, Npower Renewables
Richard D North, Institute of Economic Affairs
Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Labs
Joe Smith, The Open University
Mark Galloway, Director, IBT
Anita Neville, E3G
Eleni Andreadis, Harvard University
Jos Wheatley, Global Environment Assets Team, DFID
Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia

BBC attendees:
Jana Bennett, Director of Television
Sacha Baveystock, Executive Producer, Science
Helen Boaden, Director of News
Andrew Lane, Manager, Weather, TV News
Anne Gilchrist, Executive Editor Indies & Events, CBBC
Dominic Vallely, Executive Editor, Entertainment
Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
Elizabeth McKay, Project Executive, Education
Emma Swain, Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual
Fergal Keane, (Chair), Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Fran Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering
George Entwistle, Head of TV Current Affairs
Glenwyn Benson, Controller, Factual TV
John Lynch, Creative Director, Specialist Factual
Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
Jon Williams, TV Editor Newsgathering
Karen O’Connor, Editor, This World, Current Affairs
Catriona McKenzie, Tightrope Pictures
Liz Molyneux, Editorial Executive, Factual Commissioning
Matt Morris, Head of News, Radio Five Live
Neil Nightingale, Head of Natural History Unit
Paul Brannan, Deputy Head of News Interactive
Peter Horrocks, Head of Television News
Peter Rippon, Duty Editor, World at One/PM/The World this Weekend
Phil Harding, Director, English Networks & Nations
Steve Mitchell, Head Of Radio News
Sue Inglish, Head Of Political Programmes
Frances Weil, Editor of News Special Events

THE SEMINAR'S PURPOSE
The purpose of the seminar was "reaching new and wider audiences".

Shortly afterwards, BBC's 'Climate Chaos' series began.

Popular scientist broadcasters who refused to take the BBC line were quietly dropped. Ever wonder what happened to David Bellamy, Johnny Ball, Piers Corbyn, Bob Carter, David Whitehouse?

Here are some of the programmes which were broadcast after that seminar. I could have made it much longer, but listing all of the BBC programmes which support AGW would be a big job; the propaganda goes on and on.

Even the jokes on comedy shows have to be vetted. Cheap laughs about 'deniers' are a favourite.

It never stops.



23 May 2006: PS-Mag: David Attenborough Kicks Off Climate Chaos

From bbc.co.uk web site:

Are We Changing Planet Earth?
Wednesday 24 May, 9pm, BBC One
David Attenborough draws on his life-long insights into our planet and presents his personal take on climate change. Part two follows next week.

Songs of Praise
Sunday 28 May, TBC, BBC One
Sally Magnusson visits an environmental project in Oxford that has made a real difference to the local community, and meets with historian and environmentalist, Martin Palmer.

Test the Nation – Know Your Planet
Sunday 28 May, 8pm, BBC One
Are you aware of climate and environmental issues? We put the country to the test in the popular quiz show.

Can We Save Planet Earth?
Thursday 1 June, 9pm, BBC One
Part two of David Attenborough’s investigation.

Five Disasters Waiting to Happen
Tuesday 6 June, 9pm, BBC Two
We examine five global locations and scenarios: London, Shanghai, Mumbai, Paris and Tuvalu. All have been identified by experts as vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The Money Programme
Friday 2 June, 7pm, BBC Two
The Money Programme spends a week with a family in Teesdale – the area with the UK’s highest CO2 emissions per capita.

Panorama
Date and time TBC, BBC One
The Bush administration has resisted calls to engage in Kyoto, and has been accused of a systematic campaign of disinformation and harassment against the scientific community – gagging scientists, re-writing major reports, and allowing the oil and coal industries to drive policy. Panorama investigates these claims.

Climate Change shorts
You can also watch eight short documentaries on the affects of Climate Change via the BBC Four website. For legal reasons, these are only available if you are in the UK.
http://www.psychicsahar.com/artman/publish/article_711.shtml

Panorama: Climate chaos: Bush’s climate of Fear was on BBC One on June 6 2006 (links to transcript)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/5005994.stm

24 May 2006: Uni of Oxford: Oxford studies on the environment inform the Government and the BBC Oxford University scientists were among those playing host to the new Environment Secretary, David Miliband, on Wednesday 24 May when he visited Wytham Woods to see first hand the effect of climate change on wildlife and habitat… Another recent visitor to Wytham Wood was Sir David Attenborough, whose programme launches the BBC’s Climate Chaos season, coincidentally on the same day as the Environment Secretary’s visit. Sir David is filmed in the wood talking about the sun’s energy in ‘Are We Changing Planet Earth?’ ( BBC One on Wednesday 24 May at 9pm)

2 June 2006:Oxford University’s Lower Carbon Futures Team Leader, Dr Brenda Boardman is in ‘The Money Programme – The Real Cost of Going Green’, where she advises a family on how to reduce their carbon effect to save them money and help the planet too (BBC Two on Friday 2 June at 7pm).

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2006/060524.html

One other point - a representative of CBBC attended - children's television.

If you have decided to spread propaganda rather than simply inform, including children among the target audience is logical.


JG adds.....if propaganda was outlawed, the Whitelee Wind Farm Visitor Centre would have to be closed....

NOTES

Robert May, ex-President, Royal Society
Although an atheist since age 11 (sic), May has stated that religion may help society deal with climate change. While referring to what he believes to be a rigid structure of fundamentalist religion, he stated that the co-operational aspects of non-fundamentalist religion may in fact help with climate change. When asked if religious leaders should be doing more to persuade people to combat climate change, he stated that it was absolutely necessary. (Wikipedia entry)



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