Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A neat asymmetry


One cannot help but be amused at the coincidence of the BBC transmitting its Horizon Programme, as an ill-concealed (and poorly constructed) defence of warmist orthodoxy, at the same time Peter Sissons is serialising his book in The Daily Mail, today arguing that the BBC has become a "propaganda machine for climate change".

In the media generally, this is definitely the sort of issue that separates the men from the boys. It thus comes as no surprise to find The Independent running interference on behalf of the BBC. Its so-called science editor, Steve Connor, has been rushing in to tell  us that, "Scientists are being subjected to shocking levels of personal vilification and distrust" - this according to the distinctly low-grade former East Anglia University student, Paul Nurse, who fronted the Horizon effort.

With its daily circulation of 175,002 (down 6.39 percent, year-on-year), this national newspaper now takes in considerably less readers in a day than we get in a month, the other difference being that, while its readership is declining, ours is increasing. That is unlikely to be a coincidence.

Of course, the other cheek of the BBC's arse, The Guardian, has been in full flow, with not one but two pieces on the programme. That tells you exactly where it is coming from, as if anyone needed any reminders. For a more considered comment, you may have to wait for The Sunday Telegraph this weekend.

Comments on the Dellersblog, meanwhile, are in full flow. One of the commentators refers to a Daily Mail poll asking whether the BBC is biased in its reporting on climate change? Some 85 percent say "yes" and 15 percent say "no". And this is a paper with a circulation 2,030,968. Dellers has it, methinks. The Guardianistas and Independenistas are talking to themselves.

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