Wednesday
Mar032010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill BBC presenter can't question AGW
Mar 3, 2010 BBC Climate: other I'm grateful to Charles Crawford for this item, in which BBC Radio Five Live's Peter Allen tells a listener that he is not allowed to question manmade global warming. The programme will soon disappear from the BBC website so an excerpt is attached below.
Reader Comments (53)
Yer Grace, you wrote:
'I've heard reputable sources echo Cool Dude's statements about there being no top-down direction of BBC journalists. I'm therefore trying to understand what the Seesaw to Wagonwheel Report discussed earlier in this thread was about, if not providing guidance to journalists.'
It may be innocent guidance.
From my history lessons however I recall a certain period in Germany in the 1930s/40s, where that sort of thing - much stricter and better organised, naturally, seeing these were Germans - was called 'Sprach-Regelung'.
Something similar obtained in the former Soviet Union.
In both cases there was no need to threaten those who transgressed: everybody was fully aware of the consequences.
These consequences are not as dire today, in regard to the BBC, but not getting any work from that institution is not exactly life-enhancing either, is it?
I listen to Peter Allen regularly and he does have that flippant almost sarcastic tone in some of his responses, particularly in situations where he does have a view but editorial policy dictates he has to remain impartial.
However, it must be said that the Beeb is, or has become, something of a political football. The recent announcements on the reduction of output and cost cutting is nothing more than a sop to the conservatives, who they believe will be in power soon. So, it would not be a great leap of imagination to assume that the AGW line is a nod in the direction of Milliband and co.
It's a mistake to see the "seesaw/wagon wheel" report as a prelude to action. No - these bureaucratic reports are a substitute for action.
"mistakes were made ... lessons will be learned ... [continued for 100s of pages]"