Media matters – Forest on TV and radio
Monday, December 2, 2013 at 10:36 Here are some TV interviews Forest did last week.
First up is a clip of me on BBC Breakfast discussing smoking on hospital grounds with Andrea Crossfield, CEO of Tobacco Free Futures.
The following day (Thursday) we were hit by the plain packaging story.
In chronological order there's the interview I did on ITV's Daybreak. This is followed by Angela Harbutt's soundbite on the BBC's Six O'Clock News and her head-to-head 'discussion' with Deborah Arnott of ASH on Channel 5's Newstalk Live.
If you don't have time to watch them all I recommend Angela's feisty appearance on Channel 5.
Forest was also in demand on the radio. Click here to listen to Angela on BBC Radio 4's World At One.
As for the hospital story, I've lost count of the number of interviews we did that day.
Angela alone did around 20 local radio interviews and I pitched in with LBC and a handful of local stations including BBC Radio Manchester, BBC WM, BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Leeds.
Click here to listen to me on the Jeremy Vine Show (BBC Radio 2).
Reader Comments (16)
Forest on the up!
There was a time when Forest would never have been given the time of day in any studio or on any radio station in the country, now however, it's a different story altogether. The tables have been turning in our favour in this respect for quite some time.
I enjoyed all the interviews with excellent points being made, with Deborah Arnott seeming less relevant as time goes by.
I'm looking forward to many more appearances by all concerned in the long fight for freedom of choice.
How has all this come about? Quite simply because of the painstaking efforts made over a long period of time. No broadcaster will ask for interviews if they weren't already aware of what Forest has been doing and who the people concerned in making various efforts on our behalf were.
It also goes without saying that broadcasters will also visit this site and get an understanding of the anger that there is, and how deep it goes. This message has finally got through at last, and you must make no mistake about this...the antis will be gnashing their teeth at this kind of publicity which goes against their agenda. No more than we deserve – eh?
The Americans have a saying for this don't they? You know, 'What goes around comes around'.
Thanks for the comments, Dennis, but it's not really true to say there was a time when Forest would never have been given the time of day in any studio etc.
We've been doing this for 30 years and we've always had our share of media coverage. The difference is that Twitter and blogs such as this allow us to share clips and information like this so more people can be made aware of these interviews even if they didn't see or hear them when they were broadcast.
We still need your help though to forward these clips to friends, family and anyone who might be interested so they in turn will forward them to other interested parties.
Having heard all the garbage, gunge and downright lies many occasions, previously, the only thing I remember from the above was Arnott's comment " A 100,000 people a year die from smoking and they HAVE TO BE REPLACED"!!! Ha,Ha! Brilliant! She's a bean counters dream. A future awaits in the Ministry of Population Control, computer modelled, of course.
As if you could replace a loved one with any old herbert. Sums up the Woman's view of life perfectly.
Just watched the C5 interview with Angela and Arnott. I really, really, really wish an interviewer would grill Arnott on the "evidence" from Australia - she gets away with it (the so-called evidence for any given proposal) every time and distracts by smearing any opponent as a stooge for Big T.
Is,nt it particularly annoying when Forest is always ' dubbed ' as being promoted / financed by the Tobacco industry. sic!
Perhaps Debs should be asked if Ash has any involvement with any pharmaceutical companies. Does Ash receive any funds from any pharmaceutical companies?
Is big Pharma promoting all this anti smoking rubbish in order to maximise their profits?
In 2012, NRT smoking cessation aids saw healthy current value growth of 6% to reach £128 million.
What's good for the goose ------------
I never felt the hatred that I do prior to 2007, which put smoker victimisation into top gear. My feelings about Miss Piggy aka Andrea Crossfield are similar to the feelings I have had of extreme nausea. Hey, Miss Piggy, your statistics say that 2 out of 3 smokers want to quit. Well, going on what you vomit out, 1 in 3 do not, so leave us alone!
My local bookmaker has stopped taking bets on how long it would be before Arnott mentions the opposition's funding, it was loosing them too much money.
Somon. Next time you have a face to face debate regarding smoking in hospital grounds and the anti is saying how the ban saves lives, can you please mention that deaths have occurred as a direct result of smoking bans in healthcare settings. Not just in the UK but worldwide.
I find it immensely difficult to even listen to the Zealots. They give me both physical and mental pain. Propaganda and lies, over and over again. "100,000 per an die from smoking" said whoever, and yet, in the McTear Case on 2005, TC had every opportunity to prove (only on the basis of the balance of probabilities) that McTear got LC as a result of smoking. The Judge castigated them for producing no evidence. "One in two smokers die from smoking" said another? Evidence? Zero. It was something that Doll conjectured at the end of the 'Doctors Study". Lies upon lies.
Angela was great. She refuted Arnott's blather at every turn.
To make things worse, we have politicians using the subject merely as a political ploy.
Disgraceful is the only word to describe it.
My estimation of Luciana Berger plummeted when she used the word "compelling" in relation to "evidence" (though it didn't have far to fall anyway). Yet another ex-smoker who was lured by those shiny packets - why would anyone vote for such a silly person? Was she asked what was so compelling about the evidence? Nope. She also didn't deny that the endgame is prohibition. And nobody picks up on the perfectly reasonable point that Simon made about The Doors behind which the evil packets lurk waiting to turn young heads: the point being that if you introduce two initiatives within too short a space of time then you can't discern which, if either, is having an impact, if any. But then that's just an old chestnut of scientific enquiry in our post-scientific method age where 'potentiality' replaces 'actuality' (if they're not real words, they should be:)).
NuLabour haven't changed a bit. Heard the always reasonable-sounding Yvette Cooper on telly waffling about immigration and two words came to mind: Gillian Duffy; on the same programme heard another Labour MP (who was barely articulate) defending mediocrity in education in our region. Same old authoritarian, inept, earnest Labour. At least the Tories give the impression of being too insincere to believe the nonsense they come up with.
The lies, propaganda, and manipulation are too depressing for words but on the upside, we have both Simon and Angela trying to rein in the hysteria. The majority know the antis spout crap and, as Simon pointed out, information can travel further today than at the time of the ban which would never have happened had we fought then as we do now.
And yet I'm still distressed, to put it mildly, at the indifference of the law-abiding, safe and comfortable middle classes, to the cruelties being inflicted in the name of health, especially, at the moment, in hospitals. Look out, middle classes, one day someone might come for people who mow their immaculate lawns in stripes.
Hi - seriously.... IF (and this is a huge IF) the NHS and the anti-tobacco lobbyists were SO CONCERNED about nicotine addiction, why not: REMOVE tobacco farming from the planet?
SHUT DOWN every single outlet that sells cigarettes? In fact, remove cigarettes from the planet, altogether? NO, THEY WON'T because cigarette smokers contribute so much in taxes!! I have found that nicotine is a scapegoat for incompetent doctors.
These anti smoking zealots are lacking something in life probably a good drag on a fag
Reports on neglect in NHS hospitals are worrying enough for old people (and I am one). During my sixties and much of my seventies I did not smoke. Even then the aggression and contempt heaped on people who smoke, evidenced in the ferocious propaganda directed against them and, more recently, the notices at hospital entrances ('All hope abandon, ye who enter here'), were depressing and frightening. For people like me the thought of being at the mercy of these 'caring' folk induces a sense of dread.
Angela Harbutt argued her points really well. Arnott did harp on about a campaign being funded by the tobacco industry, this is all she ever says and then goes on about children.
Adult smokers should have the right to be fully and fairly represented perhaps independently of Forest because it represents the tobacco industry.
With regards to plain packaging wouldn't it be good if for once, we the majority were in fact listened to ?
Note Arnott's lame comment saying banning proxy purchasing won't work.
My translation. "If it doesn't demonise smokers we don't want to know".