BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes | Hacker News Reader

BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes

telegraph.co.uk

10 pointsedmccard3 comments

I really hope this works. I am glad we have the BBC here in the UK. I am also glad that they have these guidelines. Not because they necessarily result in optimal news coverage, but because it helps to keep the private broadcasters in line. It's shame there isn't an equivalent for print publications really, given the state of the UK press.

However, their coverage of climate change is frequently ridiculous, giving equal airtime to views "on both sides of the debate". In reality, when 99% of scientists in the field would say that the "opposing view" is just BS, there is no debate.

Just because science has to revise its facts now and then doesn't mean any random, baseless opposing view has merit. However this is the fallacy a lot of anti-science types seem to cling to. Up to now, the BBC has only been exacerbating that problem.

I wasn't aware there were any science programmes on the BBC. It all started to go downhill once Tomorrow's World got the axe.

They still do Horizon every now and again, but it's not as hard core as it used to be, scientific subjects are covered in a wishy washy way that makes me feel they dumbed the programme down.

Also don't forget Brian Cox [0] who's presented some good physics/astronomy science programmes that can be watched by all the family. He does a great out-take where he vents his frustration at being told to dumb down programme content [1].

Then there's also Jim Al-Khalili [2] who presented a great series called "Chemistry: A Volatile History".

The BBC still commission science programmes, their biggest problem is that they're often hiding away on BBC2/BBC4 and many of them are produced in such a way that they don't do the science justice, viewers are assumed to have little or no attention span.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCIRkD71do4

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Al-Khalili

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