[cma-l] Climate Radio programmes available!

Fri Jan 30 11:42:22 GMT 2015

Alan has virtually taken the words out of my mouth, and sadly it is yet
another (yes another) one of my bug bares !      I wake up every morning
desperately hoping that one day in life people will start implementing the
best rule of all rules       ----      it's called = COMMON SENSE !

I have to say that there are quite a number of rules that can be placed
where the Sun doesn't shine and '''undue bias''' or '''undue prominence'''
is one of them.

Seeing as Politics are mentioned, let me give you a classic example which
does dovetail into Alans observations.

We have about 12 major Councillors round here plus a couple of Cheshire East
Councillors, we also have 6 parties regularly contesting the seat for the
MP. This seat has been Tory since the First World War so quite clearly if a
Chimpanzee put a blue scarf on and knocked on a few doors including a couple
of jumps up and down on his hustin''' with Banana in hand he would probably
get in !   :-)    however, that is by the by ... The point is there a 50% of
these chaps and ladies who are very active and do come knocking on our door
quite regularly (UKIP) are VERY pro-active ... the other 50% are as rare at
times as the proverbial Rocking Horse manure and you would probably have
more success getting Lord Lucan into the Studios.

The point I make is as long as the bias doesn't come FROM YOU/US then surely
there has to be some leeeeee-way ???    and plenty of it !     Quite frankly
I am far far too busy a chappy than to spend my whole day chasing a member
of the Lib Dems or Labour or Tory or whoever around and surely the question
that needs to be asked is ''who is doing who the favour''

I couldn't give a flying cactus anymore and we simply [ get on with it ]
I never give the bias a thought. If we have an issue then the rule of thumb
is THEY CONTACT ME and I open the airwaves for them, if they don't contact
us then tough cookie.

What tends to happen is you get a couple in to stir things up . someone
reports back to someone else who later in the week contacts us and makes an
observation / or complaint as to why the Labour / Raving Looney Party
spokesperson hasn't been on ... I merely say     ''get in touch''

What we do implement though is in case of a no show we do give the person
from that Party the opposite approach thus levelling things up to a certain
degree.

As I have said, the days or ringing up and chasing people are consigned to
the bin, and if the end result of the topic is bias in favour of the Tories
or Labour or UKIP or whoever ... then I couldn't careless ??   rules or no
rules, I will argue the toss with whoever. Obviously what we could do is if
you can't get them all, just don't do it .. is that what we are about ?
doing nothing ?     I think not

There you go .. Another three-pennith                       

as for the Chimpanzee, I have just run all this by him and he agrees 100%.
He's wearing three blue scarves at the moment due to the Weather  :-)

All the best

Nick

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Alan Coote
Sent: 30 January 2015 10:53
To: tlr at gairloch.co.uk; 'The Community Media Association Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Climate Radio programmes available!

I haven't listen to the Climate Radio programmes yet so this is a general
comment. 

There is bias of one form or another in all media - even broadcasting. Take
the disproportionate airtime given to Nigel Farage - (I make not political
point here). For a while last year UKIP managed to make sure he was
available for comment on practically every subject going.   

As long as one doesn't fall outside the Ofcom broadcast codes then, the acid
test I think is to be content that there isn't "undue bias" given to a
single point of view across the programme. That goes for politics as much as
it does for local campaign groups or climate change.

Kind Regards

Alan

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From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of
tlr at gairloch.co.uk
Sent: 29 January 2015 21:37
To: The Community Media Association Discussion List
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Climate Radio programmes available!

Even though it would be hard to regard climate change as controversial in
itself any more, the question of what to do about it, which is what I think
the programmes (sensibly) focus on, is still well within the very broad
definition of public controversy. Indeed a recurrent theme in Phil England's
curren tpodcasts is that "this is a political issue". Even without that, it
would definitely contravene the legal ban on radio stations seeking to
influence the decisions of statutory bodies (the only exception being where
those decisions directly affect the radio station's interests). 

We ran across the breadth of the definition of 'political ends' when asked
to advertise a public meeting taking place that was seeking to persuade the
National Trust for Scotland to modify some local policies. We referred the
question to the RAB who said it could definitely not be advertised. 

I am no fan of the general concept of 'balance', but presenting them as
authored pieces that are debated after might be a solution. However, it
would probably also reduce the number of stations able/willin gto give them
airing. 

I think the public as a whole is relatively unaware of the fact that
newspapers are free to be as politically partisan as they wish, and under no
general duty to publich the truth and 'blanced opinions', when radio
stations are very strictly constrained to do so. 

Alex 

On 29 January 2015 at 20:42 Phil Korbel <phil at radioregen.org> wrote: 

very interesting point Alex 

I dont know the programmes, but it is my understanding that climate change
and the role of humankind in causing it is not deemed to be controversial
with Ofcom demanding 'balance' on the issue (such is the overwhelming
scientific consensus on the issue) 

That said there is ample room for such controversy in what to do about it.
If Phil England's pieces, on their own, might be seen as biased and thus not
Ofcom compliant, could a station remedy it by presenting them as 'authored
pieces' that are debated afterwards? 

None of this is intended to dissuade you from covering this vital topic... 

bests 

Phil 

Phil Korbel FRSA - Director, Radio Regen, charity no. 1077763 

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