BBC to investigate its own coverage of global warming
January 7, 2010 12:05 pm Climate Science, Political CorrectnessIt cannot be long now before the trials begin.
BBC Trust to investigate science coverage
6 January, 2010 | By Jasmine Phillips
The BBC Trust is to launch a review of the “accuracy and impartiality” of the corporation’s science reporting.
The review, expected to launch this spring, will assess any science-related news and factual output on the BBC, with a particular focus on public policy and politically controversial subjects such as climate change.
It will be published in 2011 to aide the BBC Executive’s plans to boost the profile of science output from the corporation, with an increased emphasis on the genre across television, radio and online.
Richard Tait, chair of the Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee, said: “Science is an area of great importance to licence fee payers, which provokes strong reaction and covers some of the most sensitive editorial issues the BBC faces.
“Heated debate in recent years around topics like climate change, GM crops and the MMR vaccine reflects this, and BBC reporting has to steer a course through these controversial issues while remaining impartial.”
As well as natural sciences, the Trust’s evaluation will look at areas of technology, medicine and the environment that involve scientific statements, study findings or other assertions made by scientists.
This is the only the third review of this kind in the history of the BBC Trust, with previous impartiality assessments of business and devolved nations reporting.
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Dalwhinnie
dmorris :
Date: January 7, 2010 @ 3:38 PM
God, would I ever love to be the guy appointed to head one of these investigations!
From experience with these commissions in Canada, the chief investigator is usually paid in the neighbourhood of a thousand bucks a day plus expenses. He hires a bunch of assistants to do all the real work,and HE takes all the photo-ops and glory.
At the end of several weeks, he issues a report,which usually absolves anyone in government from any responsibility,and retires to await the next taxpayer funded windfall.
We should all be so lucky.