EnviroSpin Watch

Spoiling Science

The attempts to discredit the science of the UK GM field trials before it is even published (on October 16: see my October 4 and 5 blogs below) have resulted in some of the worst examples of science reporting I have seen in the British media. They are nothing short of a national disgrace, and newspapers like the Independent on Sunday have sunk to levels which even I thought unlikely.

I am, however, especially worried by the following report on BBC News Online (Science/Nature, October 12), which should know better: 'Flawed GM tests must start over' - this comes out, in essence, as pure propaganda and envirospin for certain political organisations. I don't even have to do my usual deconstruction, except to mention that the only balancing comment (from Defra) is placed, all too typically, right at the end of the piece. The BBC should not be a conduit for such propaganda. The hope of these folk is to kill off the real science before it can be published and placed in the public domain. Do not be deceived.

I would add: if these people are so worried about the 'science' being "flawed", then what is their opinion of the physical attacks on the field trials when important experimental crops were destroyed? There is no 'science' in such actions - only Luddite politics of the most self-indulgent kind.

Mr. Blair must stand firm against such disgraceful spinning. And Lord Sainsbury is an immensely honourable man - the personal attacks on him, as in The Sunday Times, are just appalling. My! How our society is in deep moral trouble! Philip.