Source: BBC Radio 4: Feedback
URL: N/A
Date: 09/10/2015
Event: BBC apologises for "What's the Point of...? The Met Office"
Credit: BBC Radio 4
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Roger Bolton: Now for a BBC apology. It relates to a Radio 4 programme presented by Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts, in August, called "What's the Point of...? The Met Office", and in particular to the way it dealt with climate change. In our last programme before the summer break, we heard from many of you who thought that programme broke all the rules.
Finlay Buchan: There is a huge consensus amongst scientists, and yet the programme managed to pick three different people who are all what I would call climate change deniers...
Thomas Clarke: ...it was not challenging the science with more science, just providing soundbites which were more like propaganda than anything else.
Roger Bolton: Well, this week the BBC agreed with at least one listener, climate scientist Andy Smedley, who sent his complaint to them and received a response which said that there had indeed been an unfortunate lapse of editorial policy, and that the programme did not meet their required standards of accuracy or impartiality in the coverage of climate change science. The corporation said that the programme did not make clear that climate sceptics are - I quote - "a minority voice, out of step with scientific consensus". And they reassured Andy that they remain committed to covering all aspects of the subject in the most accurate and responsible way possible.