Not controversial, apparently

 

There was a revealing comment, in passing, from BBC presenter Martine Croxall to Dateline London Canadian regular Jeffrey Kofman this weekend:

What Extinction Rebellion are saying, Jeffrey, isn't exactly controversial, is it? 

Hm. 

Some - at the very least - of what they're saying is certainly controversial - e.g. their claims, and their targets, and the possible economic impact of their proposals.

Is this rosy view of XR common at the BBC?

Radio 4 listeners I

The main story on tonight's Feedback was the BBC''s coverage of Extinction Rebellion. 

If the range of voices chosen by Feedback was representative then Feedback's complaint bag is bulging with pro-XR people griping that the BBC isn't covering their rebellion anywhere near enough. 

I did rather admire the listener who complained that Radio 4 had ignored the Met's clearing of the protests on Monday evening. She'd obviously monitored the stations output during Monday night and through most of Tuesday. She said The World Tonight hadn't reported it, the following morning's Today hadn't reported it, nor had The World at One. PM reported it in its headlines, and Radio 4's Six O'Clock News reported it 20 minutes in. I checked TV Eyes to see if she was faking it, but she wasn't. She was right in every respect.

Such complainants could, of course, be activists writing in as part of a campaign or just your average Radio 4 listener. We'll probably never know for sure.

Anyhow, Roger talked to an ex-BBC journalist turned academic, who was largely sympathetic to the XR-friendly listeners' complaints - as, indeed, sounded Roger himself.

It's an odd programme at times. I still think Newswatch does it better. 

XR very much alive on the BBC

XR's Zion Lights (whose date with Andrew Neil didn't go too well. Maybe she should have tried Andrew Marr?)

Though complaining the other day that they were being excluded from the BBC's airwaves - despite prominent members appearing on Question Time, Politics Live and The Andrew Neil Show within the space of just one week (last week) - I'm still seeing supporters of the supposedly-silenced Extinction Rebellion on the BBC. 

There were two of them, for example, on this morning's Victoria Derbyshire show, discussing whether the Met police were right to ban them from the streets of London.

Both being supporters, they both agreed the police were wrong.

The other side of the argument was supplied by...er...no one. 

Oddly, using TV Eyes to further check on the BBC's coverage of this story, I see that, though it has been a major headline throughout much of the day, the BBC News Channel hasn't actually interviewed many people about it.

In fact, the only non-VD Show interview today (so far at least) has been with Green MEP Ellie Chowns [Alexander, from the previous post, will approve!]. She supports XR and was arrested last night during the police clear-out while questioning the police's actions. 

Surely even St. George Monbiot wouldn't think that this provides evidence of anti-XR BBC bias, would he?

A devoted sister

Is it important to know that Cordelia Rowlatt, the sister of the BBC's new Chief Environment Correspondent Justin Rowlatt, is an active campaigner with Extinction Rebellion or that she faces trial in January for "a public offence" during climate protests in April? Or does this have no bearing on him or his work for the BBC?

ALK on XR and the BBC

A.L. Kennedy, award-winning novelist and regular speaker on Radio 4's A Point of View, has had a pop at the BBC, but her echo chamber has been broken into. Will she listen?

Here's a glimpse on the action:

A.L.Kennedy: If you are - like many of us - deeply disappointed by BBC coverage (what coverage?) of XR and examination (what examination?) of climate change issues then you may wish to complain. It's easy, there's a website.

Rob Burley: This tweet makes me feel I must have hallucinated the past seven days. We covered XR on the news and on programmes too. Politics Live did it two days in a row and The Andrew Neil Show gave a big chunk of the show to an interview with XR. Was it all a dream?

David Banks (to ALK): You haven’t been watching the bulletins I have then. They were all over the news. Andrew Neil had them on to his prime time show to discuss the issue.

A.L.Kennedy (to DB): I'd have preferred an even handed journalist. I love the BBC with all my heart but News & Current Affairs have done them so much harm and alarm so many within the corporation. It's another national tragedy.

Will Leader (to ALK): Andrew Neil is probably the most respected and impartial interviewer on TV. He's famous for his research and forensic questioning. XR were exposed for making claims not supported by science.

Duncan Hess (to ALK): The key here, I think, is to maybe watch, or listen to, the output. Break out of
that bubble, the air’s remarkably fresh.

A.L.Kennedy (to DH): Oddly, that's the way I came to my conclusions... And I've lived long enough and traveled far enough to have seen much better.
A.L.Kennedy (to Rob Burley: I wish it had been a dream. But instead it was superficial, mildly to very misleading and less coverage than an average day's celebrity gossip. Media coverage of Brexit is simply gossip pre-spun by No 10. Coverage of a world changing cascade of calamities..? Same old same old.
Rob Burley (to ALK): Your original tweet (“what coverage?”) implied a lack of coverage rather than unhappiness with the nature of it. We can argue that point but it’s a different one.
BlackhandMedia Trust (to ALK and Rob Burley): I finish work at 10am. The BBC News Channel covered XR every hour. I should know I have it on in the background. Tired of ppl posting they do not cover when they bloody did. I am neutral. I dont usually care. But stop lying. They covered it loads.
Brian Toller: You will never cover subjects like this enough for obsessives unless it's the lead on every news, regular one hour specials and a plot line in every drama and soap. Then they'll still ask why it's not on the cake and dancing shows.

I think that last point is spot-on. Despite the BBC bending over backwards to please climate change campaigners over the past decade and more, it's still not enough. Despite XR campaigners being invited onto Question Time, The Andrew Neil Show and Politics Live, it's still not enough. I suspect XR want exactly what Brian says they want and when the BBC gives in they will go on asking for more and more.

The BBC and XR

Gail Bradbrook

Here's something I've not heard before, courtesy of Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times:

In July, the BBC actually invited one of the founder of Extinction Rebellion, Gail Bradbrook, to "advise" its editorial team on how to report on climate change. This is the woman who attributes her insight into the imminent end of life on the planet to the "rewiring" of her brain after consumption of prodigious amounts of psychedelic drugs. 

Wonder how it went?

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Zion Lights (l) and friends

The Daily Telegraph (online) has the breaking news today:

Extinction Rebellion activists have set up a barricade outside the BBC's New Broadcasting House as the protest group accused the broadcaster of "deadly silence" over climate change.  

One journalist said the protesters were not letting anyone in or out of the building and a BBC reporter said the building was "locked down".

If Extinction Rebellion think the BBC has been "silent" over climate change they urgently need to get their ears syringed.

Update: No wonder no one can get in. The ER crowd looks massive. I'm guessing 2 million people from this image:

The scene at our front door pic.twitter.com/3PfNTmNwHq

— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) October 11, 2019

Nocturnal Twitterings VI

(Unexpected, this one:)

Hugh Sykes, BBC: Hey Extinction Rebellion! Aviation accounts for 2 to 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cement manufacture produces four times as much CO2: 8%. Why are you targetting minor offender London City Airport instead of cement factories?...And annoyance in anyone who knows the facts instead of being seduced into this messianic new religion without doing a bit of (easy) research first.

Clapping along?

On the theme of the BBC's coverage of Extinction Rebellion's protests in London today, The Conservative Woman's magnificent Margaret Ashworth has written a brilliant piece today. 

(Margaret's incapable of writing otherwise). 

On the one hand, there's must of the rest of the media also reporting the disruption and the irritation provoked by the protests while, on the other hand, there's the BBC being overwhelmingly happy-clappy about it.