I see that Greta Thunberg edited the BBC's fading flagship radio news programme, Today, on December 30th. I didn't tune in as I abandoned listening to Today long before it became fashionable to do so, preferring my own prejudices in the morning to the BBC's. The usual editor of Today has gone on at some length about the awful dilemma the organisation faced in going to visit Thunberg in order to facilitate her editing, explaining that boats 'n' trains would have taken too long for busy folk such as themselves. So they (I'm not sure how many 'they' were) flew. But that was ok the editor said because Thunberg doesn't expect everyone to live up to her own standards. Phew! Let off the hook by a 16 year old.
The question I have is why they had to go to Sweden at all, given the top quality international IT connectivity the BBC has. Thunberg could surely just have popped into a Stockholm TV studio and had a long chat by seriously good video link. Perhaps it was the romance of travel, an overnight in a nice hotel, air miles, duty free, ... . Who knows, but what is clear is that the BBC missed a good opportunity to make a point, had they been serious about making it.
All this was an exercise in two things: the BBC's desperation to appeal to young people, and its determination to be ahead of the pack on climate change – and maybe to atone for when it used to be accused of giving too much time to climate sceptics 'n' deniers to argue their case.
Good luck with the youth audience. As a long piece in the Economist Seize the memes argued over Christmas, they get their news from other sources, many of which I'd not heard of.
Mind you, if Today ever invites Bjorn Lomborg to edit the programme I might listen as that would be an unusual departure. Lomborg is awkward for the BBC as he thinks climate change is real but says we are wasting both money and time on our approach to it. There are no easy answers from Lomborg, the sceptical environmentalist. Here's a taster from his website: Empty Gestures on Climate Change which I'll write some more about in a few days.
Respond