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BBC denies reports that it is blocking appearance of new nature program from David Attenborough [1]
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Date: 2023-03-10
As The Guardian reports, the Wild Isles series consists of five episodes that begin airing this Sunday. Only in the last week the BBC has decided to ditch a full 20% of this series in order to prevent a “backlash” from Tories who might see mourning the destruction of the natural environment as somehow offensive.
They’re not even being coy about it.
Senior sources at the BBC told the Guardian that the decision was made to fend off potential critique from the political right. … One source at the broadcaster, who asked not to be named, said “lobbying groups that are desperately hanging on to their dinosaurian ways” such as the farming and game industry would “kick off” if the show had too political a message.
Reportedly, the episode shows a balanced approach to agriculture. It features descriptions of how monoculture farms heavily dependent on chemical pesticides and fertilizers cause damage to the environment, resulting in huge environmental rifts. However, it also features farms that are using practices including the use of native plants for native pest control and that preserve both the farm and the surrounding natural habitat.
A similar approach was applied to gaming, which in this case isn’t video games or casinos. It’s largely staged hunting events that sacrifice land and natural diversity to maintain artificial crops of animals to be hunted for sport. The impact of these practices can be reduced, but too often hunters want open, parklike land for “traditional” hunts that are little more than ritualized slaughter of tamed animals.
But this balanced approach was not enough to satisfy the concerns of the BBC. They’re not even responding to an actual issue, they’re running away from a potential backlash that they admit is being generated by lobbyists. The whole decision smacks of an almost unfathomable level of cowardice.
“For the BBC to censor of one of the nation’s most informed and trusted voices on the nature and climate emergencies is nothing short of an unforgivable dereliction of its duty to public service broadcasting, “ said Caroline Lucas, a member of Parliament for the Green Party.
As in the United States, conservatives in the U.K. have regularly run on the idea that environmental laws are counter to economic growth. Since the Conservative Party gained power in 2010, hundreds of such laws, some of which had been in place for decades, have been effectively eliminated. Another 1,700 environmental regulations are reportedly under attack.
Three years ago, Attenborough made a documentary he calls “his witness statement” to a life lived in a world where nature has been in steady decline. Originally running on Netflix, the program is available there as well as on a number of other streaming services.
More so than any of his better known documentaries, the program illustrates the enormous change that has taken place over the space of one lifetime, as well as the measures that must be taken if what small amount of wilderness that remains is going to survive.
Wild Isles, like other programs Attenborough has produced for the BBC, will be available to U.S. audiences starting this week on BBC One. However, it appears that the international service will not include the banned episode.
The full series may be made available when it appears on another service, likely later this year.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/10/2157329/-BBC-refuses-to-air-new-David-Attenborough-nature-program-because-of-possible-right-wing-backlash
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