Thursday, October 10, 2019

False Equivalence

'Equivalence' is a decidedly dubious concept when applied to things like news reporting.  The BBC, for instance, insists on 'equivalence' in the way it reports contentious issues, in order to maintain its hallowed reputation for 'balanced' news reporting.  Their interpretation of 'equivalence' is having someone on to represent the 'other' view or put forward the 'other' argument.  Which is all well and good when it comes to political issues, where, more often than not, it does all come down to a matter of opinion.  It falters, however, when you come down to things which are a matter of fact.  Like climate change, which, the overwhelming majority of the scientific community will tell you, is accepted as scientific fact.  Only cranks argue with it.  So the BBC wheels on the cranks and gives them airtime in the name of 'equivalence'.  Thereby giving the impression that their uninformed views have some sort of 'equivalence' to actual fact-based science.  The reality is that there is no meaningful debate within the scientific community on the issue of climate change, so there is no need for this false 'equivalence' when reporting it.  I'm only surprised that every time the BBC reports on a space launch or the International Space Station they don't have a flat-earther on in order to give the 'other' view so as to maintain 'balance'.

Anyway, to get to the point, I was reminded of this 'false equivalence' the other day when I read an article on the BBC News website. It presented the results of an investigation into the prevalence of violent language and even death threats toward 'Remain' politicians on private Facebook pro-leave groups.  Now, it should come as no surprise, bearing in mind the tone set by Boris Johnson and hi cronies in the Commons, that there is lots of talk online about hanging anyone pro EU, especially MPs.  But the article's author then decided (or was told by the editorial team) that some 'equivalence' was required, lest the impression be given that same 'leavers' are fanatical thugs with murder in mind.  So, it went on to claim that it had also uncovered similar violent talk in pro-Remain private groups.  Except that what they then published was in no way equivalent to the actual death threats being made in the ;leave' groups.  Instead, it all focused on Johnson's own declaration that he'd 'rather be dead in a ditch' than not leave the EU on 31 October, with the usual sort 'OK, I'll dig the ditch for him' sort of comments.  None of which actually constituted a death threat.  So, come on BBC, stop trying to present both sides of the debate as being 'bad as each other' when your own facts patently don't support such a onclusion.  This isn't balance, it is just bad, not mention dishonest, reporting.

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