More bad times at the BBC. The Corporation is in hot water yet again following last week’s episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. During a discussion on whether extreme weather events are caused by carbon emissions, TV eco-warrior Chris Packham launched into one of his patented rants when asked by businessman Luke Johnson to provide some evidence. Packham sneered:

It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic], which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry. It comes from actually something called science.

But in his haste to put down Johnson, Packham appears to have blundered. For Young, a longtime Spectator contributor, has now submitted a complaint to the Beeb over the ‘false and defamatory’ claim. Writing on Twitter/X, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Sceptic said that:

Neither I nor any of the other people who put it together have any affiliations to the fossil fuel industry, close or otherwise. I have never been paid money by any fossil fuel companies, nor has the editor, Dr Will Jones, and we’ve never run an ad on the site from any fossil fuel companies. Chris Packham was not challenged by anyone on the programme about this false allegation.

He pointed out that the clip of Packham making this allegation had been posted by the official BBC Politics X account on Sunday, despite Young tweeting that same day that the clip was false. Four days on, that video has now been viewed more than 850,000 times, but, at the time of writing, the BBC are still yet to remove it.

Will an apology to Toby now be forthcoming? Steerpike has contacted the Beeb to ask.

Chris Packham says at the end of this clip that the Daily Sceptic is put together by people with close connections to the oil industry. A flat out lie. None of the editors have any such connections. You'd think someone so quick to sue others for libel would be more cautious. https://t.co/K2gkh6p128

QOSHE - When will the BBC apologise to Toby Young? - Steerpike
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When will the BBC apologise to Toby Young?

39 1
25.04.2024

More bad times at the BBC. The Corporation is in hot water yet again following last week’s episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. During a discussion on whether extreme weather events are caused by carbon emissions, TV eco-warrior Chris Packham launched into one of his patented rants when asked by businessman Luke Johnson to provide some evidence. Packham sneered:

It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic], which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with........

© The Spectator


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