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The Telegraph reports:
BBC journalists are being sent on courses to stop them inviting so many cranks onto programmes to air 'marginal views'.
The BBC Trust on Thursday published a progress report into the corporation's science coverage which was criticised in 2012 for giving too much air-time to critics who oppose non-contentious issues.
The report found that there was still an 'over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality' which sought to give the 'other side' of the argument, even if that viewpoint was widely dismissed.
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BBC to Stop Inviting Guests with Marginal Views to Discuss Non-Contentious Scientific Issues
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by elgrantrolo on Sunday July 06 2014, @12:02PM
The idea is to give less air time to media pundits who disagree with non-contentious scientific issues. So the hope, obviously, is we will not waste air-time with people telling us that Wifi causes cancer or that evolution is a myth.
With Airtime being scarce and internet TV being apparently limitless, maybe the BBC could stop their existing work from being wasted. They can't prevent people from having weird ideas (no matter if good or stupid) and probably end up interviewing people whose contribution to any debate may not be that great. Instead of deleting stuff, they might as well use this kind of editorial criteria and store the X-file kind of stuff where it can be used later on. It is the respectful thing to do and would probably inspire new generations of comedians.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by umafuckitt on Sunday July 06 2014, @01:49PM
I don't know that it's an either/or scenario. I do, however, know that when an authority figure or expert enters into a debate with crackpots, the crackpot position is given legitimacy and this strengths it in the eyes of public. I'm pretty sure there have even been studies on the effect. Thus, it seems pretty important that obviously stupid ideas are not given air time. Look what happened with the MMR/autism bullshit: kids actually died of preventable diseases as a consequence of scientifically illiterate reporters believing whatever they read and reporting it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday July 06 2014, @09:18PM
"internet TV being apparently limitless"
Unfortunately cameraman, editor, producer, stagehand, interviewer, and stage time is highly limited, unless they just start syndicating freely posted youtube rants as their own.
"would probably inspire new generations of comedians."
We have CSPAN and FOX News for that.