The only debate, according to them, is how quickly we’re all going to die because you left your cellphone charger plugged in.
Emily Atkin of “Think” “Progress” wins today’s Orwell Award (or this hour’s, if it ends up being a typical Monday) with this delightful bit of doublethink:
To improve accuracy and balance, the BBC is directing its reporters to stop giving air time to climate deniers http://t.co/1E7NiwA5C2
— Emily Atkin (@emorwee) July 7, 2014
Did you catch that? To improve accuracy and balance about science, the BBC is only going to air the views of those who share their religious beliefs. Because what’s less scientific than debate? If you have an unapproved opinion, that’s “denial.”
The BBC Trust’s report was designed to assess the network’s impartiality in science coverage, in other words, whether it is staying neutral on critical issues. In order to be neutral when covering science, however, the BBC noted it needs to avoid “false balance,” a fallacy that occurs when two sides of an argument are assumed to have equal value.
If “false balance” reminds you of “false consciousness,” Karl Marx’s term for everyone’s opinions that differed from those of Karl Marx, I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
In completely unrelated news, Nick Hallett at Breitbart.com reports:
More than half the British public think the television licence fee should be scrapped, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) forced to find new ways to subsidise itself.
According to a poll by ComRes, 51 of the British public would support the idea of abolishing the licence fee, even if it meant programmes having advertisement breaks as they do on other channels, and a cut in the number of original programmes the corporation produces.
Shut it, you ungrateful rabble. You’ll pay for your state-run media’s globalwarmingclimatechange propaganda, and you’ll like it. How else are you going to learn the Truth, if a lot of heretics are allowed to clutter up your mind with a bunch of confusing information?
Leftists hate monopolies, except the ones run by leftists. The ones their citizens are required by law to fund. This is also known as government.
Update: Progressive thought leader Emily Atkin has more.
BBC’s policy doesn’t “silence differing thought.” It softly mutes blatant misinformation. Personally, that’s what I’d want news to do.
— Emily Atkin (@emorwee) July 7, 2014
BBC also specifically said it would include criticisms of climate science that are “properly scrutinized,” meaning scientifically legit.
— Emily Atkin (@emorwee) July 7, 2014
Fact is, most criticisms of climate science are not scientifically legit — Therefore, they don’t belong in the news.
— Emily Atkin (@emorwee) July 7, 2014
Circular logic is circular logic is circular logic is circular logic is