‘Soft censorship’ of global warming film
Martin Durkin, director of The Great Global Warming Swindle (video, 211 MB), is interviewed at Spiked and talks about the intolerance of environmentalists for any dissent and their attempts to attack the messenger and force this and similar programmes off the air.
On Wednesday, before the film even aired, a left-leaning website provided readers with a link to Ofcom’s website and the instruction: ‘Please do complain [about The Great Global Warming Swindle], and please do publicise this link and ask others to complain.’ It gave a link to the Channel 4 complaints website, too, saying that if Channel 4 ‘get a number of complaints then they will find it harder to commission future programmes from Durkin’. This represents a new low in the discussion of environmentalism. Instead of having an upfront, open debate about the science, and the social and political courses of action that might be required to alleviate pollution while still meeting people’s needs and desires, some try to have a film written off by the suited and booted powers-that-be at Ofcom and a director excommunicated from the world of TV.
‘It is soft censorship’, Durkin insists. ‘If there is a huge response to a programme, then the ITC and now Ofcom feel the need to do something. So they end up censuring seriously controversial work. I mean, Channel 4 shows a lot of rubbish, like “wank week”. But because hardly anyone complains about that, Ofcom doesn’t say anything. And then people complain about my work, which is serious, and these bodies take action. It might not be formal censorship, but it is a kind of invisible censorship. The end result is phoney controversialism on TV but not much real controversialism. Ofcom is supposed to uphold standards but it does the opposite.’
He believes that such official chastisement – which was widely celebrated by some greens in relation to Against Nature and which is being demanded again for The Great Global Warming Swindle – has a ‘chilling effect’ on TV output. The big broadcasters, desperate to avoid being ticked off by Ofcom, will avoid showing anything liable to invite large numbers of complaints. So they stick with the wankers of ‘wank week’ instead. A far safer bet.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:59 am
‘Soft censorship’ of global warming film
Martin Durkin, director of The Great Global Warming Swindle (video, 211 MB), is interviewed at Spiked and talks about the intolerance of environmentalists for any dissent and their attempts to attack the messenger and force this and similar programmes …
March 13th, 2007 at 2:13 am
[…] What is most interesting about the documentary is the reaction of journalists and environmentalists to it. Climate change is now a sensitive political symbol of environmentalism. Bernard points out the best summary of their reaction in the consistently excellent Spiked-online. This piece in the Guardian seems typical of the reaction to Swindle. Sneering, cynical, personally disparaging, and, most importantly, completely devoid of scientific criticism. It seems like Zoe Williams is genuinely surprised that anyone is willing to stand up and say that this global warming stuff is a bit bullshit, and she has to cover her surprise with layers of ad hominem and carefully crafted bemusement, rather than looking up any facts. And that’s what is so amazing about the issue of climate change. It should be a scientific question, with hypotheses, data, experiments and models … and reasoned scientific debate, with camps on different sides talking and comparing ideas. But with environmentalists, socialists, feminists, governments, the UN and bloody Al Gore all signed up, global warming is and always will be a political issue. […]
May 25th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Thanks for this wonderful post.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Really very well written and presented.