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Katashi_itto

(10,175 posts)
Sun Jul 6, 2014, 03:11 PM Jul 2014

BBC staff instructed to stop giving time to science cranks for the sake of editorial balance


Journalists at the British Broadcasting Corp. have been receiving instructions from the BBC Trust to stop inviting unqualified ‘experts’ on their shows in an effort to provide ‘editorial balance’ on contentious subjects.

According to The Telegraph, the BBC Trust released a report card on its efforts to curtail what it called giving “undue attention to marginal opinion,” on topics where the contrarian viewpoints have been widely dismissed.

“The Trust wishes to emphasize the importance of attempting to establish where the weight of scientific agreement may be found and make that clear to audiences,” the report states. “Science coverage does not simply lie in reflecting a wide range of views but depends on the varying degree of prominence such views should be given.”


In April the BBC was accused of misleading viewers about climate change and creating a ‘false balance’ by allowing unqualified skeptics to have too much air-time.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/04/bbc-staff-instructed-to-quit-giving-time-to-science-cranks-for-the-sake-of-editorial-balance/
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BBC staff instructed to stop giving time to science cranks for the sake of editorial balance (Original Post) Katashi_itto Jul 2014 OP
Scientists use facts. Experts have opinions. tecelote Jul 2014 #1
Don't like censorship... Science was once settled but john newton and others changed their minds 4139 Jul 2014 #2
Weird links to Christian websites? That have nothing to do with science? Katashi_itto Jul 2014 #3
What connection does an obscure, 18th century sea-captain cheapdate Jul 2014 #4
Science has never been, is not, and will never be "settled." NuclearDem Jul 2014 #5
DU should do the same thing...nt SidDithers Jul 2014 #6

tecelote

(5,122 posts)
1. Scientists use facts. Experts have opinions.
Sun Jul 6, 2014, 03:15 PM
Jul 2014

The use of experts is why Fox News has 8 out of every 6 viewers convinced that climate change does not exist.

cheapdate

(3,811 posts)
4. What connection does an obscure, 18th century sea-captain
Mon Jul 7, 2014, 04:41 PM
Jul 2014

turned hymn writer have to do the OP? Are you trying to say that since all God-less scientists might some day have a religious conversion experience, as the eighteenth-century former slaver turned hymn writer John Newton did, that therefore the BBC science editors should accept crackpot, pseudoscience in their pages?

 

NuclearDem

(16,184 posts)
5. Science has never been, is not, and will never be "settled."
Mon Jul 7, 2014, 07:11 PM
Jul 2014

Evidence is tentative, not final and absolute.

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