Harrabin Complaint Resubmitted
By Paul Homewood
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55923731
Having had the same reply from the BBC as others to my original complaint, I have resubmitted my complaint. As ever, the BBC have tried to fob us off with their first reply, which does not actually address the points raised.
Here is my second complaint:
Your response utterly fails to address my original complaint.
Hansen’s views are not scientific, but political. As such, the views of one American are hardly newsworthy, nor should they influence UK industrial policy. And as they are political, the article should have included balancing pro-mine opinions.
You say“ending the use of coal for electricity by 2025 “. This is absurd, as the mine will produce coking coal for steelworks, not electricity.
This article is one of 5 by Harrabin, all of which have been heavily biased against the mine:
6th Jan – Whitehaven coal mine: Govt refuses to call in plans
Harrabin provides his analysis, which is wholly anti mine.
14th Jan – Govt defends Cumbria coal mine green light
This quotes at length Greenpeace and CPRE, both heavily critical of the mine. The only pro mine comment is one solitary unattributed sentence at the end.
23rd Jan – Six questions about the Cumbria coal controversy
Virtually all of this article is devoted to anti mine comments by Islands at Risk, the Fiji ambassador, Oxfam, Greenpeace, the Labour, Lib Dems and Green parties and the Committee on Climate Change.
The only pro mine comment comes from the local MP
30th Jan – Minister rapped for allowing Cumbria coal mine
This article is wholly anti mine, quoting at length Lord Deben and Greenpeace . There is not one pro mine comment.
Throughout this series, I can find no mention by Harrabin at all of the economic benefits of the mine, eg number of jobs created, boost to the local /national economy, increased government revenue, balance of payments, or by how much emissions will be reduced by avoiding imported coke.
Nor have there been any comments at all by the local council (who approved the mine unanimously), the mining company, the local community, steel companies or economists.
This is a gross dereliction of the BBC’s Charter, which requires impartial news coverage and the need to provide audiences with the full facts.
Please treat this as a complaint against all 5 articles.
If anybody wants to follow their complaints up, simply complain online again here.
Remember to include your Complaint Ref No.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
I used to run my govt. office’s formal complaints section. If we’d replied as the BBC did to you, we’d have been hauled over the coals by the Cabinet Office when they checked up on us.
Got the same fob-off. Completely missed the point. I too will be resubmitting my complaint.
The BBC is arrogant, beyond belief.
Wow, that was a stern letter Paul but you absolutely nailed it.
I complained to the BBC about a statement on BBC1 about zero emissions. They replied eventually naming Covid as the reason for the delay. saying they were right. I replied showing they were wrong. I am still awaiting a response after two months, But whom am I but an ignorant viewer.
I complained to them about an article “Oceans running out of oxygen” or similar, back in December 2019. I heard nothing until I followed up with a letter in January 2020. In February 2020 I had two letters apologising for not having responded to the complaint. Since then, nothing. (I kinda forgot to follow up, what with one thing and another.)
I have recently written again and am looking forwards to them finally admitting that the article was pure scaremongering.
Well done, Paul.
KBO!!
Rebuttal already in. I mentioned the fact that Tim Davie the new DG had stated that “if you cannot leave your politics at home then you do not belong in the BBC.” This will be interesting how they extract Harrabin from that noose.
I have just noticed that the proposal has been taken back by the council. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-56001458 I have a horrible feeling that the fix is in. These bastards never give up but somehow this article is more balanced and even lets go of the reason for the review being to defend themselves from a judicial review. My petition has 647 supporters at the present. https://www.change.org/Petition_of_support_for_coal_mining_in_Cumbria
The greens are grumbling, as expected, trying to make political capital out of this modest scheme, while supporting the biomass industry and the felling of the world’s forests, which should be left alone to continue their role as a living sink/store for CO2….part of the global balance of nature. The usual hypocrisy.
@ Ian, I estimate that to feed Drax alone over one forest rotation takes more than 11,000 square kilometres of forest.
120 train loads per week the Drax train guy said on local radio last week.
He mentioned the trains from Liverpool and Immingham (thru Scunthorpe steelworks)
but also mentioned Hull and Newcastle (sus about Newcastle but that’s what I heard)
Complained today.
Dear Paul,
Congratulations on nailing the BBC and Roger Harrabin.
You may be interested in my complaint this morning about Harrabin and Mann being on R4 Today. I will forward the exchange under separate cover.
No need to reply as you are a busy man. I write as a BBC Pensioner who has a PhD in agricultural engineering on the subject of pollution.]
All the best,
Ken Pollock,
49 Gratton Road,
Cheltenham,
GL50 2BZ
01242 582025
0789 979 4858
Good Luck Paul. I won’t hold my breath as its the bbc
Dear Paul,
The exchange with Roger Harrabin, as promised.
He wriggles, but does not escape. We are old adversaries, but I rarely get any satisfaction…
All the best,
Ken Pollock
Does he?
Submit a complaint in respect of each article. Refer to the other articles in each complaint, but offer a paragraph or two of detail on the article complained of. It is of course the repeated campaigning action that is the real issue here.
Beware of the BBC cutoff for complaints.
Had the same reply Paul. Have to see what angle I can take on my reply
Also the same reply.
I have gone with:
I feel that you do not address the point that Dr Hansen is not merely a ‘leading’ climate scientist but is also a climate activist, who has used his eminence in ‘climate science’ as a springboard to make forays into the political sphere. Mr Harrabin seems to share the same approach to the issue of climate change. As the father of climate alarmism Dr Hansen’s views on coal have bordered on hate speech, with its use of language referencing the Holocaust. Failure to mention this dimension to his intervention shows a marked lack of balance in reporting.
It is also worth noting that this ‘leading’ climate scientist, whose fames stems from his 1988 Congress presentation on Global Warming and his 1988 paper, made the prediction in 1988 that ‘almost everywhere would warm, consistently above 3 standard deviations of the 1950s climatology’. This prediction is now 25 years overdue and counting as Nature continues to falsify the hypotheses of such ‘leading’ climate scientists.
Paul, the BBC has learned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They know they can ignore any dissent because they feel like Gods. They don’t to compete: they want to be part of the rulers of the universe. Year zero cannot be far away for these idiots.
Your response was wonderful. I do hope they respond, but they will be more inclined to protect Harrabin.
I must be stupid but I can’t find the text of The BBC original reply. Where is it? My special interest is that I make similar complaints to The Australian Broadcasting Commission, via its in-house “independent” complaints panel. I sometimes win on inaccuracies but never on “bias”. In a recent complaint about ABC broadcasting pornography to schoolchildren (no kidding), I was fobbed off, then appealed to The Australian Communications and Media Authority in vain, then appealed to the Commonwealth Ombudsman in vain. My losses were because the ABC Code, strangely, permits such material. See
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/thier-abc/2021/02/its-official-im-the-one-with-the-problem/
You can find the reply here
Can understand your frustrations about the ABC complaint process, but these people arent highly skilled wordsmiths for nothing, way beyond just saying ‘black is white’ but able to make it a checkerboard as well.
Good to see the media in the dock over their shenanigans over the Cardinal Pell trial, that too they denied, indeed vehemently as they do, before pleading guilty.
I have a lot of sympathy for the BBC complaints staff
that have to wade through long letters.
It’s up the managers to design better processes.
Online complaints are of limited length. 5,000 chars max IIRC. Might even be 1,000.
It’s 2000
After many complaints ( maybe a dozen) I have a feeling that there is a disconnect between the Complaints department and higher management although the boilerplate always says it’s been ‘circulated’. Recently (2 years) I’ve been emphasising how Harrabin makes the BBC a blogosphere laughing stock which can’t be good for licence paying.
I think this line of complaint is really important. There’s no point arguing about the science with the BBC any more but attempting to split science and politics might be possible. Stopping the BBC using “the science” as a cover for Green political opinions and thus requiring them to have alternative and opposing political opinions would be a huge win. Getting politicians and the general public to understand the difference would entirely change the game.
Oh dreary me, the Beeb being proven wrong, Paul, “goodness gracious me”, after all these years, it’s an institution, where really, they all should be in?
You are playing poker against a card-counting bank, I’m afraid, Mr Homewood.
There needs to be far more direct action taken against people like Harrabin.
First off, if he ever steps into a car again, he should be violently assaulted. He cannot use any product ever again that uses oil or gas. If he lives in a house with cement in it, he must be evicted. If he owns a car, he must be imprisoned. If he uses either electricity or gas generated by any one of coal, nuclear, oil or gas, he must be enslaved.
And if he even contemplates eating food grown using chemical fertilisers, he should be turned into compost.
Come on Harrabin, live the life of a green purist monk.
Otherwise, face the consequences…..
Harrabin’s still niggling at it. This is on today’s Cumbria section of the BBC England coverage:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56109690
Resubmitted my complaint too. Quoted the new Director-General’s public statement that “BBC journalists must not report with a campaigning, opinionated lens”.