Burning desire for a balanced programme bound to end in disappointment

The second part of Peter Taylor's documentary on smoking is on BBC2 at 9.30 tonight.

Part one was reviewed by Chris Snowdon who pretty much summed up my recollection of the programme - see Burning Desire: A viewer's guide.

Some might argue that because there were interviews with representatives of tobacco control and the tobacco industry it was well balanced.

Watch the programme carefully however and you can't help notice that anti-smoking campaigners like Linda Bauld and Professor John Britton were allowed to have their say without comment.

In contrast, contributions by tobacco company spokesmen were invariably dismissed with some snide or derogatory remark.

Thus JTI's initiative to tackle illicit trade (or was it underage smoking?) was dismissed as a PR stunt, and BAT's attempt to highlight the problem of illicit trade in Australia was immediately undermined by Taylor who was filmed jumping out of a vehicle to reveal that the footage we had just seen was no random test. The shops BAT had taken him to were already known to be selling smuggled cigarettes. The implication, uncontested, was that illicit trade was not as big a problem as BAT was suggesting.

In contrast John Britton was able to call for an increase in the cost of cigarettes to £20 per pack without a single voice pointing out the negative or unintended consequences of such a policy.

(Oddly enough this proposal – which merited no more than a couple of seconds on the programme – was hyped up by the BBC ahead of transmission and featured on several local radio stations.)

Meanwhile – and I am going on memory – the interviews with consumers were either with elderly people suffering from serious smoking-related diseases, or giggling teenagers discussing their 'addiction'.

There wasn't a single comment from a healthy adult smoker explaining why they smoke or why they enjoy smoking despite the fact – and here I must declare an interest – that I suggested it to the producers several months ago.

For the record, I was contacted by the programme's producer in January. We spoke on the phone and I expressed the hope that over a two-hour documentary they would find at least a few minutes to feature people who like smoking.

I suggested they might conduct some interviews at a Forest event which I offered to organise for the purpose.

I intended to send the producer links to videos of previous Forest events (there are a number on YouTube) but following our initial conversation and a subsequent email (from me to him) I did some research and discovered more about Peter Taylor's work in this field.

It didn't encourage me to get Forest involved and I heard nothing more anyway.

Signs are that part two (tonight at 9.30) will be more of the same in terms of balance although there may be greater emphasis on e-cigarettes and a more global perspective. See The country where nearly two-thirds of men smoke by, er, Peter Taylor (BBC News).

You have to hand it to him. With a lot of help from the BBC he's been pretty good at promoting what is, at best, a fairly niche documentary.

See also: Can the tobacco industry shed its 'toxic brand'? (BBC News)

Comments

[Joyce]

Didn't watch the first part and won't be watching the second - I, along with other regular readers here, could write the script.

As for finding an adult smoker who admits to enjoying smoking, forget it - they (the Beeb) didn't manage to find a smoker who objected to the smoking ban when it was introduced - they couldn't have or bound, by their oft self-trumpeted principles of impartiality and balance, they would have been obliged to broadcast that view. Since no such smoker could be found, then or now, then the public must conclude that no such smoker exists.

Wonder how the Newark by election's getting on...

[Misty]

Ditto, Joyce. I simply have better things to do with my life than sit there and get preached at by a moralistic, finger-wagging publicity machine for which I am obliged to pay! Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. I know there are many on here and elsewhere who feel that smokers should force themselves to sit through this drivel so as to keep an eye on what the “enemy” are up to, and although I can understand that view, to be honest, it’s pretty self-evident what they’re up to most of the time – keeping their racket going through misinformation, biased reporting, hysteria and preaching to the smug, self-satisfied converted. If it keeps the masses convinced that they’ll never get old, ill or disabled simply because they lead the life they’ve been told to, then fine. They’ll learn – probably too late – that they’ve been lied to right the way down the line as they lay, in their dotage, in their nursing home beds wondering why they are dying of nothing! Just don’t expect those of us who are still capable of making independent decisions without the assistance of the authorities “guiding” us in the “right” direction every five minutes to waste our time, thanks.