Thursday
Dec102015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill The amazing Sarah Montague
Dec 10, 2015 BBC Climate: WG2 ;)
Quite astonishingly bad journalism from Sarah Montague on the Today programme this morning, inviting the president of Kiribati to hold forth about how his country was about to disappear beneath the waves. Not even a hint of a challenge to anything he said, and certainly not a mention of the fact that Kiribati is growing.
The BBC's tsunami of disinformation shows no signs of abating.
Audio below.
Update on Dec 10, 2015 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
We should not forget Montague's earlier triumphs on the journalistic integrity front.
Reader Comments (69)
@JamesG: Oh that brought wonderful hilarious memories flooding back of one of the great BBC tv series, sadly of which they are incapable of producing today!
No surprise here. There's hardly a programme on the so-called BBC that doesn't mention climate change and the need to save the planet.
Dec 10, 2015 at 9:55 AM | Phillip Bratby
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And if it is not climate change, it's transgendering or Trump. Relentless crap. Not a word about Corbyn who is far more extreme than Trump - this is a guy who thinks it cool to hang out with terrorists and praise them. Not a word about that from the BBC.
Athelstan
I think you are a tad generous. Remember that an essential part of "The Narrative" is that sea levels are rising and that this will impact adversely on the underprivileged people in places like Kiribati and Tuvalu. The only way that they can possibly be saved (though the SJWs don't really give a stuff if they are saved or not) is if the rich west does penance for its past sins and impoverishes itself.
This is dogma and anyone who disputes it is a liar or evil or both. The BBC (which at middle management level is almost certainly awash with SJWs) is not about to give any credence, still less uninterrupted air time to anyone who challenges the Narrative.
Simples.
IIRC, after the scuba stunt, this same Kiribati president was trying to bring in huge investments in a resort complex, at which time the "sinking beneath the waves" problem was waved (heh) away as not relevant.
This is also a good example of why one should never have an official government owned/run news service.
Aila is clever, but don't expect it to be a 'he'.
Montague looks like a decent date who would not multiply or sum.
Jeremy Poynton, it won't be long before the BBC is seen as a safe place to claim 'Sanctuary' and 'Diplomatic Immunity' from arrest, by all manner of political and environmental terrorists.
As they have predetermined the consensus view on climate change, without asking anybody whether they might disagree, I find it very difficult to regard BBC views, without suspicion.
Born in the early 60s, I now regard sticky backed plastic and washing up liquid bottles with nervous trepidation, in case there is a lurking subliminal message.
Craig Loehle , The scuba parliament stunt was the MALDIVES not Kiribati.
Truth be told, even if Sarah Montague knew better she would also know that it might put her career at risk if she came over
tooslightly skeptical.As Aila suggests, it is indeed about the best that can currently be expected from the BBC, even if they did contradict what they published on their website. There is a planet to save. And after they've saved this one they'll probably go and save Venus and Mars too, only finishing with the Planet Zog.
A complaint should be sent to the Head of News at the BBC and the Head of R4, copied to Tony Hall and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee demanding that Sarah Montague is ordered to retract, correct and apologise and making clear that if this not done this matter will be pursued with the BBC Trust. The complaint should reserve the right to pursue legal action if the complaint is not properly dealt with either by the BBC or the BBC Trust.
The other Today email address is today.complaints@bbc.co.uk
I've hardly ever had a response to the other one, so this may be worth a try...
Kiribati's population increase from 30,000 in 1960 to 105,000 today (half of whom have migrated to 10 km/sq around the capital) with depletion of freshwater supply, pollution and housing spillover, would not have been mentioned, I am sure.
A rising tide of money may simply worsen their situation.
Jeremy Poynton says ......
"And if it is not climate change, it's transgendering or Trump. Relentless crap. Not a word about Corbyn who is far more extreme than Trump - this is a guy who thinks it cool to hang out with terrorists and praise them. Not a word about that from the BBC."
Give an example of one BBC presenter who is a Corbyn fan .....you cant!
People once described as terrorists - often by the BBC
Nelson Mandela
Jomo Kenyatta
Archbishop Makarios
Michael Collins
....... and even Martin McGuinness who finally gets to meet the Queen
The bias in the media towards Corbyn is pretty similar to that dished out to Corbyn .....maybe eventually the media will find out both were correct!
Andais/jamesp - a complaint is always worthwhile, as it is dutifully logged for no one to read, at least within the BBC. But it is logged, and one day they will be read.
The only time one will stagger as far as the Trust is when they are fast-tracked by being from those the BBC actually agrees with, having let something slip past the filter and seen twitter erupt. Then they are used to sneak the 'got it about right' rate below the usual 103%.
Another avenue of inquiry is via FOI, but again the BBC has a very special way of treating these. I thought this from today summed it up rather well:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/content_request
In this It age, one imagines a spreadsheet of simple outcomes to present to department heads is not unlikely,
This one is not even controversial.
Yet one of the two inevitable exemptions is as usual trotted out; the other being the catch all 'for the purposes of journalism, art and literature', which means the BBC can publish or broadcast what it likes and again never explain why.
"Give an example of one BBC presenter who is a Corbyn fan .....you cant!
Dec 10, 2015 at 4:53 PM | Unregistered CommenterBryan"
Few, now, true, but then he is not really helping himself, or the organisation whose support he ensured for Labour by guaranteeing funding now matter what, with various words and deeds making the planned next government look a bit iffy.
As I recall the BBC was once quite the cheerleader for Mr. Pachauri, too. Maybe they liked his style? Until he became less of an asset to their greater belief sets.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/23/bbc-questions-if-pachauri-continued-presence-is-still-serving-the-best-interests-of-the-ipcc/
Correction
My post above
The bias in the media towards Corbyn is pretty similar to that dished out to Corbyn .....maybe eventually the media will find out both were correct!
should be
The bias in the media towards Corbyn is pretty similar to that dished out to Climate Skeptics .....maybe eventually the media will find out both were correct!
Well said Mike Jackson.
I grow weary Mike, the weevils who have eaten away at the fabric of the total of the western tradition of inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, these self anointed experts, so sure in their perceived wisdom, shining eyes and the vapid void behind the smiling facades.
Indeed it may have seen that I was a tad too polite, my sarcasm veiled and maybe the cloak was heavily overlaid.
This political elite of wet boys, the north London champagne Socialistas, of luvviedom, their gigolos and media whores dripping tongues, licking lips and wagging nauseous day and night, the preening gaggle of academia its modernist wrecking ball trashes a civilization but imposes in its place something so insignificant and forgettable, so inferior that, in its insults to my intelligence are an assault on all of my senses.
Goddamn them all, for their sea of woe betides us................... and we are so few.
Later PM actually did it's job of challenging instead of being a doormat, according to a commenter on the Bishes flood storyin the Spectator
A commentator pointed out that the BBC have a deliberate trick : allow the odd skeptic line to come in after a week of alarmist propaganda, cos that will provoke complaint tweets from green groups. And then the BBC can unleash its killer line , "see we are getting complaints from both sides, so we are getting it about right !"A bit off topic for BBC story, but on topic for Paris navel gazing is the admittance by the IPCC panel,that the 2C business is a political number not backed by science.
http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/climate/ipcc-2-degrees-warming-04323/
Its Schnellenhuber's number but i expect not many in Paris understood it was a fabrication..
Add to that John Kerry's admission that . . ."If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions –- remember what I just said, all the industrial emissions went down to zero emissions -– it wouldn’t be enough, not when more than 65% of the world’s carbon pollution comes from the developing world."
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/09/why-bother-john-kerry-admits-american-co2-cuts-would-be-pointless/
So remind me then how there's any rational action left, that could possibly be taken that accomplishes anything useful whatsoever.