Three mints in one!
Finally, a little wholesome red meat (with extra schadenfreude sauce!). You may be aware that the BBC (the EEEEEEVILLLLLL BBC) has had several (three, in fact) very nasty boo-boos lately. I will outline them briefly, and point you to further reading.
Jimmy Savile died a year ago. He had been a BBC presenter for decades. He was also, it turns out, a sexual monster, with a taste for children (and possibly worse things). It was not exactly secret. Six decades, 400 lines of inquiry, 300 potential victims, fourteen police forces. The BBC program Newsnight had an exposé set to run on the scandal last year, which was axed. Instead, they ran a Christmas tribute to Jimmy Savile!
And inside the BBC, who knew? Well, the words “paedophile ring” are being bandied about.
In the middle of this brouhaha, someone stepped forward claiming to have been abused by a very senior Tory; one of Maggie’s staunchest. The BBC was so delighted to push the narrative into this happy territory, they ran the story without any of the proper checks. Turns out, it was demonstrably false. Then the accuser said “my bad” and, libel laws being what they are in the UK, dropped the Beeb nose deep in the shit. This is the issue that’s caused all those resignations lately.
The third is my favorite, though, and you might not have seen it. About six years ago, the BBC assembled a blue ribbon panel of scientific experts — top. men. — who declared the science of Climate Change was so gosh-darned settled, it would be wrong to give equal time to skeptics any more. And so they didn’t (pff! like they ever had).
Skeptics, naturally, asked, “…and these experts are…?” Then the BBC spent several years and hundreds of thousands of pounds (successfully!) fighting a Freedom of Information action in court. To avoid revealing the names of their ultra-qualified, ever-so-impressive scientific team.
Then a blogger named Maurizio Morabito (blog: Omnologos) dug around and found the entire guest list online. Just sitting there. (Aside: I am convinced absolutely everything is online somewhere. Keep digging!).
Yup. It was exactly what you think. Greenpeace. Media people. Church of England types (!). Warmenist hacks, the lot. Oh, this one is fun. This is going to leave a mark.
Good blogs to follow on this: Omnologos, Bishop Hill, Autonomous Mind, Biased BBC, Tall Bloke. Good articles: Delingpole, Melanie Phillips, the Spectator.
Oh, and the kitten got better.
November 14, 2012 — 11:56 pm
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