The UK Daily Mail has a big story about how the BBC "spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary 'eco' conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming." Basically, a British blogger named Tony Newbery found out about this little confab while combing through some official documents and asked for more information about it. The Beeb responded by blowing a gigantic amount of taxpayer money to keep taxpayers in the dark. I mean that figuratively, although the attendees of the green propaganda training session are cheered by rather more literal images of taxpayers sitting around in the dark - consuming nothing, emitting nothing, and exercising a less troubling degree of independence from their rightful rulers.
The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC???s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ???line??? on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting.
At the event, in 2006, green activists and scientists ??? one of whom believes climate change is a bigger danger than global nuclear war ??? lectured 28 of the Corporation???s most senior executives.
Then director of television Jana Bennett opened the seminar by telling the executives to ask themselves: ???How do you plan and run a city that is going to be submerged???? And she asked them to consider if climate change laboratories might offer material for a thriller.
A lobby group with close links to green campaigners, the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT), helped to arrange government funding for both the climate seminar and other BBC seminars run by Mr Harrabin ??? one of which was attended by then Labour Cabinet Minister Hilary Benn.
Applying for money from Mr Benn???s Department for International Development (DFID), the IBT promised Ministers the seminars would influence programme content for years to come.
I'll just bet it will. The people behind this meeting understood the need to keep it secret. The chief of news at the BBC happily declared that the seminar "had an impact on a broad range of BBC output spanning science programmes and News reports. Some editors and executives who attended were inspired to be more ambitious and creative in their editorial coverage of this complex issue." That's why she thought "the list of attendees should not be released to third parties." It's very important for the public to think its media executives are brimming with ambition, creativity, and pants-wetting fear of global warming on their own, without brainwashing by a pack of madcap activists.
Incidentally, the nutter who thinks climate change is a bigger danger than nuclear war doesn't even pretend to be a "climate expert." The global warming scam is all about beating people into submission with manufactured consensus. You're supposed to be afraid to ask questions, because formidable people with fancy credentials will think you're a fool - a dangerous fool - if you speak up. I'm old enough to remember when scientists were strongly against formidable people with fancy credentials intimidating those who asked dangerous questions about whether the Earth was the center of the universe.
So the government of Britain was contributing public money to propagandists whose objective was to terrorize the public into accepting the very expensive "climate change" policies of that government, and when someone found them out, they spent even more public money to keep the public from knowing about it. There are plenty of words to describe that arrangement, but "science" is not one of them.
As the Daily Mail describes it, this cabal of activists was keenly interested in suppressing both inconvenient data and dissenting analysis - not much room on the UK airwaves for climate change skeptics these days! - as well as forcing green propaganda to migrate into popular culture. The article includes a few saucy examples of "experts" pushing blatantly, objectively false information to viewers.
Another sure sign that you're dealing with politicians, rather than scientists, is when they applaud over-the-top entertainment programming that pushes blatantly ridiculous superstitions because it makes for arresting programming that "raises awareness." At this point, the phrase "raise awareness" has become almost entirely synonymous with "eliminate skepticism."
This is a story of more than just passing interest for Americans, because the BBC's host of media organs are widely quoted here. The press likes to think of itself as international, after all. It's also an article of faith among American greens that all global-warming skepticism is invalid because sinister special interest money lies behind it - of course the carbon-spewing corporate villains of the world pay big bucks to discredit environmentalism! But the environmentalists and their government cronies are hardly disinterested observers, pure of heart and selflessly noble of intent. They've got big money on the line too.
The Ruling Class loves radical environmentalism because it expands their power and subdues the independent population, as they are effectively talked into hating themselves for holding greedy planet-smashing ambitions. People who hate themselves are much easier to dominate. They beg for the discipline the Ruling Class is eager to impose upon them; they'll fork over billions to pay for the thumbscrews and iron maidens. The BBC scandal is a fine illustration of how Big Government is a special interest, endlessly lobbying the public on its own behalf, in partnership with ideological groups that desire a smaller private sector. In fact, Big Government is the worst special interest of all, because they use your money to finance their self-lobbying spree.
