Bolton, the Beeb, Portugal, California and that Elephant in the Room called 'Climate Change'

Friday afternoon's edition of 'Feedback' on BBC Radio 4 aired details of an interesting corporate reaction to complaints that had been submitted by listeners following a landmark interview with Climate Change denier Lord Lawson on the 'Today' program back in August. The feature was broadcast just six days after mass protests in Lisbon over the Portuguese government's failure to deal with the devastating forest fires that have ravaged much of the country throughout the Summer. A phenomenon that is being attributed to rising global temperatures on news websites elsewhere in Europe.

For those interested in listening to the program, it is available for download, and is in many ways a turning point, for environmental campaigners at least, in that it exposes the level to which Public Sector Broadcasting has sunk under the present and Coalition governments; especially when it comes to key issues directly related to the continued over use and over exploitation of Fossil Fuels. Time was when BBC presenters would challenge government ministers, civil servants and the like in the interests of public scrutiny. However, as the recent general election coverage of Jeremy Corbyn in particular has demonstrated fully, the BBC has developed what the Media Reform Coalition (MRC) have referred to as a 'clear and consistent bias' in a number of key areas; of which Climate Change is just one. A fact which some of their own presenters have since been forced to acknowledge.

Roger Bolton's coverage of an edition of Radio 4's prime time early morning news and current affairs program, in which former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, denied that there had been any growing increase in extreme weather events, clearly demonstrated that the organization had breached its own guidelines. Indeed, as Mr. Bolton's dialogue with listener Matt Watson revealed in depth, the BBC Complaints Unit's judgement that 'controversial and inaccurate' comments had been left unchallenged by BBC presenter Justin Webb, showed conclusively that the Corporation had failed to comply with its own guidelines on accuracy and impartiality.

Yesterday's broadcast follows hot on the heels of some earlier coverage of the BBC's apology to its listeners, in the Guardian in particular, in which it was revealed that the Corporation had been taking its lead from the 'current US administration', when it had earlier defended its position in connection with what it saw as 'an important aspect of impartiality.' Interestingly enough, at the very time that the BBC was attempting to defend itself on this matter, the role of US Secretary of State Tillerson, in what amounts to wholesale Climate Science suppression by the Fossil Fuel Multinational ExxonMobil, a corporation with which he had previously enjoyed a career spanning more than forty years, was itself coming under scrutiny thanks to a still on going investigation by the Office of the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Taking these facts into consideration, it is perhaps of interest that one of the most vitriolic attacks on the BBC ruling has not come from Global Warming Policy Foundation, who were forced to admit that the data that Lord Lawson had been referring to was 'erroneous' to say the least, but from the Pro-Trump, Pro-Brexit 'Libertarian' on-line magazine 'Spiked', which formerly published under the title 'Living Marxism'. An imprint which its critics might well describe as a former 'loony left' publication that has taken a sharp turn to the 'loony Alt-Right'. Facts which appear to reflect the complete lack of scientific basis inherent in any of the denialist arguments currently being put forward by many media outlets in the US when it comes to Climate Change.

However, thanks to a situation in the United States in which Global Warming is very much the 'Elephant in the Room' when it comes to attributing recent Extreme Weather events in North America directly to Climate Change, in spite of the wholesale devastation wrought upon the East Coast and the Caribbean by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, politicians such as Scott Pruitt have been able to evade questions relating to the possible role of Global Warming in the Hurricane Harvey Disaster in particular. The blame for much of this problem has been firmly laid at the door of the powerful Koch Brothers by the independent news website TRNN, which has also looked into the role of Climate Change in what have been described as the 'deadliest wildfires in California's history', which were to claim forty two lives, and lead to the displacement of some 75,000 people between June and October. 

On this side of the Atlantic, the investigative media outlet DeSmog UK, which prides itself on being 'dedicated to cutting through the spin clouding the debate on energy and environment in Britain', has made similar allegations about the elusive Barclay Brothers; ever since it was first launched in September 2014. So, it is perhaps unsurprising that coverage of the recent Forest Fires in Portugal received comparatively little attention in the Mainstream Media here in the UK. Indeed, what little coverage there was ended up being largely obscured by the arrival along the West Coast of Ireland of Storm Ophelia. Taking all this into consideration, last week's judgement by the BBC Complaints Unit was a landmark decision indeed, and the fact that it led to some interesting satirical comment in the Guardian, in which it was declared that 'The BBC needs to accept that Nigel Lawson doesn’t exist', makes it an all the more remarkable event.