UPDATES ARE CONTINUOUSLY BEING ADDED at the end of this story. Check below.
WUWT readers may recall this post last week:
The Secret 28 Who Made BBC ‘Green’ Will Not Be Named
The BBC pits six lawyers against one questioning blogger, Tony Newbery of Harmless Sky, who was making an FOI request for the 28 names. In the process, the judge demonstrates he has partisan views on climate change.
Now, thanks to the Wayback machine and Maurizio Morabito (omnologos) we can now read the list that the BBC fought to keep secret. [Damn those mischevious bloggers 😉 ]
This list has been obtained legally. (link to Wayback document.) My heartiest congratulations to Maurizo for his excellent sleuthing!
Maurizo writes: This is for Tony, Andrew, Benny, Barry and for all of us Harmless Davids.
The list from: January 26th 2006, BBC Television Centre, London
Specialists:
Robert May, Oxford University and Imperial College London
Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre, UEA
Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant
Trevor Evans, US Embassy
Colin Challen MP, Chair, All Party Group on Climate Change
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation
Claire Foster, Church of England
Saleemul Huq, IIED
Poshendra Satyal Pravat, Open University
Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund Ethiopia
Iain Wright, CO2 Project Manager, BP International
Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
Matthew Farrow, CBI
Rafael Hidalgo, TV/multimedia producer
Cheryl Campbell, Executive Director, Television for the Environment
Kevin McCullough, Director, Npower Renewables
Richard D North, Institute of Economic Affairs
Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Labs
Joe Smith, The Open University
Mark Galloway, Director, IBT
Anita Neville, E3G
Eleni Andreadis, Harvard University
Jos Wheatley, Global Environment Assets Team, DFID
Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia
BBC attendees:
Jana Bennett, Director of Television
Sacha Baveystock, Executive Producer, Science
Helen Boaden, Director of News
Andrew Lane, Manager, Weather, TV News
Anne Gilchrist, Executive Editor Indies & Events, CBBC
Dominic Vallely, Executive Editor, Entertainment
Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
Elizabeth McKay, Project Executive, Education
Emma Swain, Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual
Fergal Keane, (Chair), Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Fran Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering
George Entwistle, Head of TV Current Affairs
Glenwyn Benson, Controller, Factual TV
John Lynch, Creative Director, Specialist Factual
Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
Jon Williams, TV Editor Newsgathering
Karen O’Connor, Editor, This World, Current Affairs
Catriona McKenzie, Tightrope Pictures catriona@tightropepictures.com
BBC Television Centre, London (cont)
Liz Molyneux, Editorial Executive, Factual Commissioning
Matt Morris, Head of News, Radio Five Live
Neil Nightingale, Head of Natural History Unit
Paul Brannan, Deputy Head of News Interactive
Peter Horrocks, Head of Television News
Peter Rippon, Duty Editor, World at One/PM/The World this Weekend
Phil Harding, Director, English Networks & Nations
Steve Mitchell, Head Of Radio News
Sue Inglish, Head Of Political Programmes
Frances Weil, Editor of News Special Events
For those who don’t know what this is about, read the back story here.
Here is the backup link to the original document just in case the original disappears:
Real World Brainstorm Sep 2007 background (PDF)
============================================================
UPDATE: Now this Climategate 2.0 email makes more sense, as they’ve just been carrying water for CRU and the eco-NGO’s all along. The meeting with the 28 was just a pep rally. From: this WUWT post:
BBC’s Kirby admission to Phil Jones on “impartiality”
Alex Kirby in email #4894 writing about the BBC’s “neutrality”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
date: Wed Dec 8 08:25:30 2004
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.xx.xx>
subject: RE: something on new online.
to: “Alex Kirby” <alex.kirby@bbc.xxx.xx>
At 17:27 07/12/2004, you wrote:
Yes, glad you stopped this — I was sent it too, and decided to
spike it without more ado as pure stream-of-consciousness rubbish. I can well understand your unhappiness at our running the other piece. But we are constantly being savaged by the loonies for not giving them any coverage at all, especially as you say with the COP in the offing, and being the objective impartial (ho ho) BBC that we are, there is an expectation in some quarters that we will every now and then let them
say something. I hope though that the weight of our coverage makes it clear that we think they are talking through their hats.
—–Original Message—–
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit
BBC and “impartiality”…”ho, ho” indeed.
UPDATE: ‘TwentyEightGate’ was coined by RoyFOMR in comments. I liked it enough to put in the title.
UPDATE3 – Barry Woods writes in an email to me:
Don’t forget Mike Hulme Climategate email. why he funded CMEP, to keep sceptics OFF BBC airwaves… (below)
Mike Hulme:
“Did anyone hear Stott vs. Houghton on Today, radio 4 this morning? Woeful stuff really.
This is one reason why Tyndall is sponsoring the Cambridge Media/Environment Programme to starve this type of reporting at source.” (email 2496)
let us also not forget, that Roger Harrabin BBC & CMEP – (and Greenpeace Bill Hare) were also on the Tyndall board from 2002 to at least Nov 2005.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/27/climategate-2-impartiality-at-the-bbc/
When did Roger Harrabin step down from Tyndall advisory board?
(and he no made no mention, when reporting Climategate, of connections)
Tyndall were funding CMEP seminars for years to persuade the BBC, so not just that seminar, but years worth of lobbying
UPDATE4: Bishop Hill makes this excerpt from correspondence the “quote of the day”:
We now know that the BBC decided to abandon balance in its coverage of climate on the advice of a small coterie of green activists, including the campaign director of Greenpeace. This shows that the “shoddy journalism” of Newsnight’s recent smear was no “lapse” of standards at all. BBC news programs have for years been poorly checked recitations of the work of activists.
UPDATE5: Maurizo has added some analysis.
Summary for those without much time to read it all: Why the List of Participants to the BBC CMEP Jan 2006 Seminar is important
http://omnologos.com/why-the-list-of-participants-to-the-bbc-cmep-jan-2006-seminar-is-important/
UPDATE 6: Maurizo asked to add this –
I have not “given” the 28Gate list any importance. In fact, not one of the bloggers and journalists and commenters has “given” the 28Gate list any importance. It has been the BBC that GAVE IMPORTANCE TO 28GATE by spending so much money on lawyers. Therefore, 28Gate is important.
Joe Smith of the Open University is on the list and appears to (possibly) be one of the organizers, since his bio note below says he and Roger Harrabin organized a “programme of seminars that have helped BBC and other senior media decision-makers to respond to environmental change.”
He and another “expert” participant, Eleni Andreadis, co-authored an article which appeared one year later in the British Journalism Review, where they celebrated the triumph of alarmism in UK media:
“Beyond the Oozone Layer”
Vol 18, No 1, 2007
So why was Iain Wright of BP there?
‘cuz he’s a shill trying to get governments to pony up for BP’s carbon capture and sequestration technology. Even lobbying for government regulation to support it.
The corruption is sickening.
“The point about smart meters is that they do not only enable us consumers to keep tabs on our electricity use: they also (though our Government does not like to spell this out) enable suppliers to exercise remote control over how much electricity we use. The EU knows that the windmills it wants to see covering Europe are unpredictably intermittent, and cannot guarantee sufficient power when it is needed. The answer the EU’s technocrats dream of, as we see from the Bornholm pilot project for a “European supergrid”, is that they can use smart meters to micro-manage the power we receive, right down to their ability to switch off whole categories of electricity use in our homes when there is insufficient power in the grid (what they call “ ‘intelligent’ control of household appliances” , such as dishwashers or televisions).” ~Christopher Booker
The aroma of Agenda 21 (Smart growth for those in the US) is unmistakable.
A lifelong Anglophile, i had the wonderful fortune to spend six extended holidays in the UK over a three year period. Yanks get a candy coating of BBC through our PBS filter that seems “enlightened” and only slightly biased. In country, the multi-channel bilge is unsufferable, but knowing little else, the Brits accept this with the associated tenant that they are somehow superior and need not argue or defend “national” positions. As Bernard Shaw said “America and Britian are two great nations, divided by a common language”. We are now united by a common enemy, rule by neo-feudalists and their government funded, faux media spokesmouths. It is time for the “BBC Heads on Pikes” special….and a New Magna Carta.
It seems that the BBC’s leading scientific minds for this seminar were almost entirely non-scientists from various areas of media, activism, and/or policy entrepreneurship.
Yes, the great “scientific” conclave which the BBC has tried so mightily to keep under wraps turns out to be another “climate communications” propaganda exercise, not a “science” session with leading scientists.
An article from Joe Smith of the Open University precedes the BBC’s Jan. 2006 seminar, but seems to describe the approach from other BBC/media seminars 1997 – 2004:
How about the BP guy?
“REPLY: The ball is in your court – Anthony”
I don’t have that much time on my hands, but lots of people here do. You’d think with all the big brains inhabiting this site that someone could be more original than tacking “gate” onto something. That’s been old for 30 years. You’re the media guy, is that the best you can do?
tallbloke says:
November 12, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Jackpot.
http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/capstone/mediaclimatechange.pdf
====================================================================
You did some great sleuthing yourself, tallbloke. (although by now you are probably asleep and won’t see this for eight hours or so.)
What a find! As you say “jackpot.” Everyone does indeed need to read this.
Boaden and Mitchell both gone now.
Quote Anticlimactic ……
“Richard North of EUReferendum was an attendee and I recall reading his recollection of the event but I can not find it on his website [after a brief search]. My recollection is that he thought it was a hatchet job and he was a lone voice.” End quote
Wrong – it was a different Richard North. This Richard North calls himself a skeptic and did complain about the bias. But he is NOT the same Richard North of EUREferendum who exposed Pachauri and Africagate.
anticlimactic wrote:
Richard North of EuReferendum was an attendee and I recall reading his recollection of the event but I can not find it on his website [after a brief search]. My recollection is that he thought it was a hatchet job and he was a lone voice.
Different Richard North:
http://richarddnorth.com/rdn-bio/
Latimer Alder said: “Immense kudos to omnologos for outwitting the best ‘minds’ of both the BBC and their expensive lawyers.”
Due to the unique way in which the BBC is funded those are *our* expensive lawyers.
anticlimactic,
It’s a different Richard North who attended – Richard D North whereas EUreferendum.com is Richard A E North.
Interesting. John Humphrys wasn’t there.
So leaving aside the long list of non-expert specialists, why are the drama and comedy departments represented?
* Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
* Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
Is it really all that important to make sure that BBC comedies and dramas include the right amount of AGW indoctrination?
Just to add to what Julian Williams in Wales and PJF have said the EURefendum.com ace blog is run by Dr Richard A E North. (Please note his initials.)
In view of the presence of someone from the U.S. Embassy, it should be noticed that this was in the administration of the younger Bush.
Hello Jimmy Haigh, and anyone else who believes that, in the UK, the choice is between paying the licence fee, or dumping the TV:
* you don’t have to pay;
* they can’t “detect” what channel you are watching;
* they have no right to enter your home.
I have read that c. 3000 people are currently being prosecuted. I suspect that most of these believed one or more of the myths. How would they cope with 30,000? 300,000?
Would be good to have comment from those (i.e. most) who know more than me on this “TV detector van” issue.
Maurizio Morabito,
Great stuff! Well done. I hope the pain, anguish and damage this causes al beeb in interminable. Better yet, make that terminal. My cup runneth over with hate for them. You’ve made me very happy. Joy, oh joy! Thank you.
Anthony-
If I read correctly the article tallbloke referenced above, this is a much bigger story than who attended a single seminar. Apparently a group of alarmists waged an approximately 10 year effort (beginning in 1997) to convince the BBC, through a SERIES of workshop/seminars that the risk of CAGW was so great that the BBC needed to abandon the traditional journalistic even handed approach and take an advocacy role.
Apparently they were successful.
An addendum to my post about Rafael Hidalgo:
True he is now “Media Project Manager” and “Studio Manager” for The Open University but he wasn’t even that in 2006.
Before the seminar there was a just over 2 year gap – not filled in on his Linkedin page – since he had been “Business Consultant, Television Trust for the Enviroment (sic)” for a massive months in 2003. No indication of even that kind of tangential climate involvement before or after that. (I say tangential because Business Consultant to a TV Trust doesn’t necessarily mean any expertise in the subject matter they deal with)
Why on earth was he invited?
Jolly farmer says:
November 12, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Thanks for the info. Of course the myth has always been that they can see what you are watching… (Big Brother Corporation is watching you…)
In my brother’s case he had just had enough of bloody “Reality TV”. They’ve got another “I’m a Celebrity: Get me out of Here” going on at the moment. i have never watched any pf that garbage but the popularity of all that crap says it all about the UK at the moment.
Celebrities? Dump them all there – and leave them there. That’s what i would do…
There. I feel much better now.
A splendid piece of back-research, – very well done Maurizio!
The actual list reveals almost no one that you could call a scientist but plenty of advocates, urgers and the like as well as a few stooges to make up the numbers. Having people like that on your committee makes the outcome so much easier to achieve. The egg is on the BBC face yet again.
Well done all involved in exposing this BBC coverup.
This confirms what we all suspected: the taxpayer funded BBC is an advocate for government policy and UN Agenda 21 at the expense of openness and to the detriment of science. Government abuse of taxpayer funding in an attempt to steal more taxes from taxpayers and to controls people’s lives based on corruption and perversion of science.
Your site is much appreciated Anthony. Again and again.
A beacon for freedom and an ally in restoring scientific integrity.
Thanks, mate.
It cannot be true
Its not on the BBC news at all.