Comments on: BBC Radio 5 lets Scott Quinnell plug Dore, uncritically

By: BBC response to complaint about Quinnell and Dore on Radio 5: it’s all about the balance. « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:06:23 +0000

[...] the balance. Jump to Comments The BBC have now responded to a complaint I submitted about howScott Quinnell was allowed to plug Dore for dyslexia on Radio 5. The substantive parts of the BBC’s response are below: It’s not always possible or [...]

By: jonhw

jonhw — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:52:54 +0000

I’ve now had a response to my complaint from the BBC – talking about ‘balance’. Even if the BBC’s coverage of non-evidence-based interventions for Specific Learning Difficulties does provide balance between these and more evidence-based approaches (not convinced it does) this is not a good outcome. The evidence is not balanced, so neither should the coverage be.

By: Andy Lewis

Andy Lewis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:58:53 +0000

It would appear that PHA media were behind this -

http://twitter.com/PHAMedia/statuses/5452339307

- they are PR agents for Dore.

http://tinyurl.com/y8jd4qd

By: jonhw

jonhw — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:21:42 +0000

It definitely is a shame, and hard to tackle. I think they were making scientific claims here – just not terribly well-evidenced ones :(

By: brainduck

brainduck — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:13:17 +0000

Thanks, I’d been wondering where to find that.
The ‘get anecdotes into the news’ approach is harder to tackle than their previous ‘scienceyness’.

By: jdc325

jdc325 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:20:59 +0000

Well done. It is a shame that the media continues to allow such unchallenged plugs for Dore. I wonder if there is an element of fear, given that Dore have previously instructed their lawyers to correspond with a number of people.* I also wonder why, if this is the case, the media don't simply avoid the subject rather than continue to print and broadcast uncritical plugs. *As noted by Ben Goldacre here: link.

An academic has received a letter threatening legal action, delivered in person to her home, for daring to speak about her concerns over the evidence for Dore when asked by journalists. Dore’s lawyers have sent multiple extensive letters and faxes to this newspaper, warning us against all kinds of things. I get paid the same for this column whether it takes me two hours or a week. This may go some small way to explaining why you will hear only praise heaped upon Dore in the media.