5 February 2008
Human-induced accuracy is biggest problem for the Press
More than 70 per cent of the complaints made to the Press Complaints Commission concern a lack of accuracy. That is according to the most recent figures. There are no figures for lack of balance, or failure to give both sides of an issue. Maybe we don’t expect it. Certainly we don’t expect it when it comes to climate change issues. Most national and many regional papers, including the Eastern Daily Press, have environmental correspondents, and most of them do not seem to think it important to give both sides of a story. Indeed, some of them might be described as propagandists rather than journalists. It is becoming increasingly evident to those who research such issues elsewhere that more and more scientists are dubious about the sweeping politicised pronouncements coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Those who have discovered the methods employed by the IPCC in producing its summaries will not be reassured. My namesake at the University of East Anglia has just published new researched about “tipping points” – critical thresholds of changes in human activity that “can have long-term consequences for the planet”. The EDP reports this at some length without giving any indication as to how many scientists support or oppose it. Of course the paper does not have enough reporters to research stuff like this in detail, but why not report opposing political views, like the “chilling stars” theory of imminent cooling, and the rarely mentioned fact that any CO2-induced warming is logarithmic and not linear? I have written now and again about these things – without anything I have written being refuted - and I do not propose to go over the same old ground. Thanks to the Internet, there are many websites that do give the information not supplied by newspapers. One that has recently been recommended to me, and seems quite thorough as well as easy to understand, concerns the accuracy of the press on this issue and can be found at http://www.aim.org/special-report/will-media-expose-global-warming-con-job/ Worth a look, surely?
Hang on a minute, let's not be too hasty
The Roman town at Caistor, south-east of Norwich, has been buried since archaeologists decided that exposing it to the elements would risk swift deterioration. Arguing against total excavation, an EDP reader from Nottingham (clearly circulation is improving) who happens to be a lecturer in Roman Archaeology explained: “Archaeologists are getting better, so sites are better left untouched for future generations.” This is an interesting viewpoint, rather out of kilter with the politically correct mantra for all occasions: “The status quo is not an option.” Clearly for Roman towns it is an option, and I wonder where else it is being secretly applied. It might explain, for instance, why the road system in Norfolk is so poor: road-builders might improve, so the present system is better left untouched. In fact this is a really good argument for not doing anything that we might get better at. Norwich City should not try to score, because they might get better at it in future. We should not operate on seriously ill patients, because a better operation might come along – maybe two or three. I should not be writing this, because my writing might improve soon. That would put me out of work – and I would be joined by quite a few other people, archaeologists among them. But being out of work might improve soon, so perhaps we had better not act hastily.
The first shall be last, possibly
I was glad to see that the EDP has been promoting the exciting food available in one of my favourite spots, the Autonomous Republic of Hingham. I should add that the town has very good public conveniences, and if my old friend Professor V A R Scheinlich is to be believed, the best wormholes in the United Kingdom. Prof Scheinlich’s groundbreaking work on time-space distortions in the Hingham area is well known, and many American tourists seeking their ancestors go to him first. Or last, depending on time-space distortions.