Warming up Obama - The BBC's Complaints Procedure Revealed: Part 2

Posted by TonyN on 20/02/2009 at 2:21 pm BBC and Freedom of Information 8 Responses »
Feb 202009

As I said in Part 1 of this post, by the time that Dave of the BBC Trust had confirmed that my complaint had been forwarded to BBC Management I had received an initial response from them. Given that they had received the documentation on 9th February and they replied on the 11th February, this was pretty quick. But as I have said previously, their attempt to justify what was broadcast in Susan Watts’ report for Newsnight on 20th January was totally implausible:Thank you for your email regarding ‘Newsnight’ which was broadcast on 20th January.

Your correspondence has been forwarded by the Trust Unit to BBC Information for a reply on behalf of the BBC’s Executive as it concerns matters which are the responsibility of the Executive, rather than the Trust, in the first instance. This department, BBC Information, has a wealth of knowledge about BBC programmes and policies and is experienced in the workings of the Corporation and so is authorised to reply on behalf of the BBC’s Executive.

I understand you felt that Susan Watts’ report on Barack Obama’s plans for the environment edited clips of his inauguration address in a way that was misleading.

This was one part of a 50 minute programme exploring the start of the Obama presidency from various angles. ‘Newsnight’ edited sections of the speech to reflect the elements in it that referred to science as a way to give people an impression or montage of what President Obama said about science in his inauguration speech.

This was signposted to audiences with fades between each point. It in no way altered the meaning or misrepresented what the President was saying. the report then went on to explore the challenges facing the President in this area.

I appreciate that you had serious concerns about the editing of the speech and I have registered your complaint on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for the ‘Newsnight’ production team and all programme makers within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the corporation.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

Barry Graham
BBC Complaints

Even ignoring the complacent and condescending tone, this seemed a pretty low level response so I resigned myself to moving on to a higher level of management where a more objective view might be found, and decisions taken. So I emailed the following response to Mr Graham:

Continue reading »

The BBC's Complaints Procedure Revealed: Part 1

Posted by TonyN on 18/02/2009 at 2:10 pm BBC and Freedom of Information 1 Response »
Feb 182009

On 22nd January 2009 I emailed a complaint to the BBC Trust with the following brief covering note which ended:

I would be grateful if you would acknowledge receipt of this document
without delay.

22/01/2009

As I had heard nothing from them a couple of days later, I thought that I had better just check up. Emailing messages with attachments can be a tricky business:

I emailed a complaint on Thursday 22nd Jan 2009 concerning Susan
Watts’ 20th Jan report on President Obama’s inaugural speech for
Newsnight. This was in the form of an MS Word attachment.

I specifically asked for confirmation that this message, and the
complaint attached, had been received. Will you now  please confirm
that it was received.

26/01/2009

That produced the confirmation that I had originally asked for:

I can confirm that we have received your email, and will respond within
10 working days.

26/01/2009

Rather than asking why it had taken two emails to obtain a one-sentence response, I thought that I had better be diplomatic, so I replied:

Many thanks for letting me know.

26/01/2009

It would seem unkind to personalise the problems that followed, so lets call the person who I was dealing with Dave, with the genuine job title Correspondence Adviser, BBC Trust Unit.

On the 30th January, just eight days after I had sent in my complaint, I received the following email from Dave: Continue reading »

Warming up Obama - response from BBC Newsnight

Posted by TonyN on 12/02/2009 at 8:30 pm BBC and Freedom of Information 5 Responses »
Feb 122009

I have received the following message from BBC Information in response to my complaint about a ‘sound bite’ compiled from president Obama’s inaugural speech. This was used in a Newsnight report by Susan Watts:

Thank you for your email regarding ‘Newsnight’ which was broadcast on 20th January.

Your correspondence has been forwarded by the Trust Unit to BBC Information for a reply on behalf of the BBC’s Executive as it concerns matters which are the responsibility of the Executive, rather than the Trust, in the first instance. This department, BBC Information, has a wealth of knowledge about BBC programmes and policies and is experienced in the workings of the Corporation and so is authorised to reply on behalf of the BBC’s Executive.

I understand you felt that Susan Watts’ report on Barack Obama’s plans for the environment edited clips of his inauguration address in a way that was misleading.

This was one part of a 50 minute programme exploring the start of the Obama presidency from various angles. ‘Newsnight’ edited sections of the speech to reflect the elements in it that referred to science as a way to give people an impression or montage of what President Obama said about science in his inauguration speech.

This was signposted to audiences with fades between each point. It in no way altered the meaning or misrepresented what the President was saying. the report then went on to explore the challenges facing the President in this area.

I appreciate that you had serious concerns about the editing of the speech and I have registered your complaint on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for the ‘Newsnight’ production team and all programme makers within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the corporation.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

The BBC seem to be relying on two assertions: that the ‘montage’ was ‘signposted’ by fades and that their compilation in no way misrepresented what President Obama said in his speech. There is no attempt to substantiate either of these claims.

No fair-minded person listening to the programme could possibly perceive the ‘sound bite’ as anything other than a continuous excerpt from the speech. Continue reading »

Of eternal warming, penguins and seals

Posted by TonyN on 10/02/2009 at 11:38 am The Climate 4 Responses »
Feb 102009

Here are a couple of stories that have been very popular with the media recently.First, there is a sad tale of vanishing ice and an endangered species:

Emperor penguins face extinction

Emperor penguins, whose long treks across Antarctic ice to mate have been immortalised by Hollywood, are heading towards extinction, scientists say.

Based on predictions of sea ice extent from climate change models, the penguins are likely to see their numbers plummet by 95% by 2100.

That level of decline could wreak havoc on the delicate Antarctic food chain.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7851276.stm

So we have a heart-wrenching story, based entirely on the predictions of computer models, which was published in one of the most prestigious America science journals, PNAS. (The National Academy of Sciences is the American equivalent of the Royal Society.)

Then there is this thoroughly scary offering:

Global warming is ‘irreversible’

A team of environmental researchers in the US has warned many effects of climate change are irreversible.

The scientists concluded global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted.

The report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Colorado comes as President Obama announces a review of vehicle emission standards.

It appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7852628.stm

The authors relied on measurements as well as many different models to support the understanding of their results.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090126_climate.html

Now we have two eye-catching papers published recently in PNAS that rely on what computer models tell us about the future, in this case not just a century ahead, but over a whole millennium.

At a time when global warming seems to have been on hold for nearly a decade, it is hardly surprising that climate scientists are having to rely on predictive models that tell them about the future, rather than on empiric evidence of climate change at the present time, to keep their research in the news. Vanishing glaciers, melting sea ice, rising sea levels and violent hurricanes are becoming harder to find. Worse still, most of North America and Europe are experiencing an unusually cold and snowy winter. The general public can hardly be expected to take climate change scare stories too seriously at the moment, as they only have to step outside the door to realise that it is pretty cold. To them, that is clear evidence that global warming is not happening, for the moment at least, even if this carries little weight scientifically.

For climate scientists, long range predictions have great advantages: Continue reading »

Climate change secrets and the Aarhus Convention

Posted by David Holland on 04/02/2009 at 10:14 am The Climate No Responses »
Feb 042009

[As most Harmless Sky readers will know, climate science can be a pretty secretive business. David Holland has spent much time attempting to bring important information about research that underpins global warming alarmism into the public domain. He has written an excellent critique of Michael Mann’s Hockey Stick graph and the IPCC processes which allowed a shoddy piece of research to become a political  icon. He has also co-authored an analysis of  the Stern Review with Ross McKitrick, Bob Carter, Richard Lintzen Nigel Lawson and others. ]

From time to time Brits have complained that only we bother to implement EU Directives properly, and then with some vigour and occasional gold plating. We note, sometimes admiringly, the apparent lack of their enforcement the further south one goes in Europe.   Directive 2003/4/EC, on the other hand, is an exception because it is almost universally honoured in its breach. In a preamble it refers to a little known convention, to which the EU is a signatory, and states that provisions of Community Law must be consistent with it. To understand the importance of the convention and the directive you have to consider the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – the EIR.

The EIR came to public attention when Mr Justice Sullivan, on a judicial review request from Greenpeace, required the British Government to redo its consultation over nuclear energy.   An important part of his judgement was:

Whatever the position may be in other policy areas, in the development of policy in the environmental field consultation is no longer a privilege to be granted or withheld at will by the executive. The United Kingdom Government is a signatory to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (“the Aarhus Convention”).

Ultimately, it is the Aarhus Convention that has primacy and to which those interested in “Justice in Environmental Matters” should look. There is, incidentally, a Compliance Committee to which anyone may report breaches of the convention.  Article 1 states the objectives of the convention to be: Continue reading »

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