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Contributors
Sherrie Gossett - Contributor
Sherrie Gossett is Associate Editor of the Accuracy
in Media (AIM) Report. [go to Gossett index]
 The
ABC’s Of Fooling The BBC
Reporting what they want to hear…
[Sherrie Gossett] 12/20/04
It’s easy to fool the press. Just ask the BBC. On Friday,
the BBC’s international TV news channel apologized after
being duped into airing an interview with a phony Dow Chemical
spokesman who said the firm would pay billions of dollars in
compensation for India’s 1984 Bhopal disaster. The BBC
had been set up by left-wing environmental activists who wanted
to bash the “killer companies” in the corporate world.
The phony interview was broadcast on the twentieth anniversary
of the gas-leak disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal,
India, which killed thousands. Union Carbide is now a subsidiary
of Dow Chemical.
In the interview the phony spokesman for Dow Chemical, Jude
Finisterra, told the BBC that Dow Chemical would pay $12 billion
to victims. Union Carbide paid $407 million in damages in 1989.
A couple of hours
later the BBC announced it had been the victim of "an elaborate deception" and added they were “investigating
how the deception happened.” The BBC explained “the
individual was contacted by the BBC, and during a series of phone
calls, claimed that there would be a significant announcement
to be made on behalf of the Dow Chemical company.”
The
BBC added: “The BBC also immediately contacted Dow
Chemicals and apologized to them. The BBC is looking into the
incident to establish the background and how the interview got
to air. A report will be made to the BBC’s deputy director-general,
Mark Byford.”
“Elaborate
hoax” is just the BBC’s
way of trying to salvage some of its pride - in other words,
they want
you to believe it took a devilishly clever and unbelievably sophisticated
effort to dupe the broadcast giant.
In reality, the truth
is the BBC set itself up from start to finish in this hoax.
Media reports carried the BBC explanation
that it got Jude Finisterra’s name from the Dow site which
must have been “hacked” or “mirrored.” The
Telegraph newspaper of India reported one BBC insider breathlessly
suggested that if hackers could capture the official websites
of leading organizations and companies, journalists would need
to rethink their whole news-gathering strategy.
It now appears that
the BBC was looking at the wrong website all along. According
to the imposter, whose real name is Andy
Bichlbaum, the BBC contacted dowethics.com requesting an interview
with an official. The www.dowethics.com site is a satirical site
set up by a group of activists, “The Yes Men,” that
mocks Dow and was only too happy to set up the interview with
the phony corporate spokesman. The BBC apparently made no effort
to confirm his identity. So much for the “elaborate hoax” theory
or the need for an “investigation.”
Jude (patron
saint of lost causes) Finisterra (the end of the earth) went
live
on BBC in his rumpled suit at 9:00 am GMT from
the BBC’s studios in Paris, complete with Eiffel Tower
dialed into the background. The interviews were broadcast live
on the BBC channels, BBC World and BBC News 24, and BBC Radio
4 also led its 10 a.m. news with him. The story then was picked
up by Reuters, which dropped the story when they realized it
was fake - a couple of hours later.
Dow Chemical also
finally chimed in and said the story was not true and "Finisterra" was
not its employee.
Dow shares fell 0.6 percent in morning trading on the New York
Stock Exchange, after the hoax had been revealed. They had earlier
fallen in Frankfurt after the report by more than three percent-but
recovered just 20 cents down.
Meanwhile, media reported
that the BBC was tonight going ahead with its plans to broadcast
a documentary titled “Bhopal:
An Accident Waiting to Happen.” Indian media quipped that
so far, the BBC has no plans to do a drama documentary on “How
the BBC fell for a hoax: an accident waiting to happen.”
The mistake comes
as the publicly funded broadcaster is in the middle of a once-a-decade
review by the government and faces
huge personnel cuts. Earlier this year, two BBC executives were
forced out when an inquiry lambasted the BBC’s reporting
on the lead-up to the Iraq war.
Drawing lessons from
the hoax, the Seattle Times editorialized that the incident
shows the “downside of the Internet” which
can carry “lies.”
Well, it helps if
you’re looking at the right site, Seattle.
Some elementary fact-checking would have saved the BBC from this
embarrassment. tRO
copyright
2004 Accuracy in Media
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