Britannia Radio

	John Humphreys sent for re-education?
Date:	Fri, 13 Aug 2010

 

Isn't it amazing - you can complain to the BBC until the cows come home about incorrect reporting and get precisely no where. Yet when the issue of Global Warming (aka Climate Change) is concerned, if the BBC gets it wrong, then they cannot stoop low enough to undo the 'damage'. Who controls the BBC?

 

This week the Mail on Sunday gave prominence to a grovelling apology by BBC's Corporation Chiefs to East Anglia University's Pro-Vice Chancellor, Trevor Davies for upsetting Professor Jones over 'disparaging' remarks made by John Humpreys in December last year, describing his (John Humphreys) remarks as 'misconceived assertions'.

 

Of course the establishment had no option but to give the BBC and Humphreys a public bollicking as so many trillions are riding on global warming theories (I will not stoop to use the word 'conspiracy theories') not to mention Al Gore's CO2 trading business.

 

Of course they have gone through the usual motions of suspending Prof Jones, investigating him, clearing and exonerating him, and finally re-instating him - so everything's ok then. But all traces of adverse publicity must be swept away and allow business to continue as usual even if John Humpreys has to be sent away for re-education.

 

BTW: It's interesting to look at the credentials of  Sir Muir Russell, the former civil servant responsible for whitewashing ....whoops, sorry, clearing the CRU and Phil Jones. Wikepedia states: 

 

He [Sir Muir] was widely believed to be primarily responsible for the massive overspend on the new Scottish Parliament Building and was criticised by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie's enquiry for failing to keep the politicians informed that the expenditure was far in excess of the budget.

 

 

 

Here's the Mail report:

 

BBC says sorry to Climategate unit for grilling by Humphrys

(Daily Mail 8^th August 2010 written by Martin Delgado)

 

The BBC has apologised for 'ill-judged' remarks made by Today presenter John Humphrys during the Climategate scandal last year.

 

Corporation chiefs said the host of the Radlo 4 flagship programme should not have accused researchers [Why not?] at the University of East Anglia of ‘distorting the debate about global warming to make the threat seem even more serious than they believed it to be' [well they did, didn't they].

 

Mr Humphrys made the remark in December after thousands of emails sent by scientists at the university' Climate Change Research Unit (CRU) were leaked and put online.

 

The material was seen as being particularly significant because the United Nations uses CRU dada in its official reports on climate change.

 

The stolen [pejorative use of words] emails appeared [did – see Climategate – The CRUtape letters by Steven Mosher and Thomas W. Fuller ISBN 9781901546347] to show that the Unit’s head, Professor Phil Jones, and some colleagues had manipulated data and blocked Freedom of Information requests].

 

One message sent by Prof Jones in 1999 referred to a ‘trick’ to ‘hide’ a decline in the global temperatures. He was suspended but reinstated after a six month inquiry cleared him of wrongdoing.

 

Following the inquiry, a complaint  was made to the BBC by the university’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, Trevor davies.

 

In response, the Corporation’s Head of News Programmes, Stephen Mitchell, told Prof Davies that Mr Humphrey’s ‘misconceived assertion that facts had been distorted was incorrect'. Mr Mitchell added: 'I apologise wholeheartedly - on behalf of the Today Programme. We were dealing with a matter that hadn’t at that stage been fully investigated and which was the subject of widespread comment and conjecture.

 

'Having spoken to John Humphrys and his editor about it, I can assure you that they too regret that his script was not more precise.'

 

He adds the remark was 'an isolated but significant lapse'. Three inquiries cleared the scientists of wrongdoing, although Prof Jones was criticized for being secretive and unhelpful when dealing with critics opposing views. Prof Davies praised the BBC for acknowledging its mistake.