More on that Smokefree South West story
Monday, February 8, 2016 at 17:00
Above: Friday's report on BBC Points West included a short clip of me head-to-head with Kate Knight of Smokefree South West in February 2015 but ignored Forest's response to the questionable claim that "thousands will die" if the taxpayer-funded anti-smoking group is allowed to close.
Update on the Smokefree South West story that broke on Friday.
As the BBC reported the anti-smoking group (renamed Public Health Action in November) is to close in June following the withdrawal of funding by eleven local councils.
Although I was interviewed on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Cornwall, I was anxious to be quoted by BBC News online because that's what people will be directed to when they search 'Smokefree South West' in the days, months and years to come.
I was supremely cheesed off therefore when BBC Bristol published a report online and there wasn't a squeak from me or anyone else in favour of the councils' sane and sensible decision.
If I was a councillor or an uninformed member of the public reading that I might have questioned the decision to withdraw financial support because there was no-one supporting it.
The reason I was particularly cross was because two days earlier the BBC's regional health correspondent had invited me to send him a comment that would be forwarded, he said, to the online newsdesk.
Twenty-four hours later I had the same conversation with a BBC radio producer who assured me she too would pass on Forest's response to the appropriate newsdesk.
To cap it all I even sent a copy direct to BBC Bristol's online newsdesk myself. And they still didn't use it!
Significantly however they did include – as the caption to the main photograph – the tendentious claim that 'The group, formerly known as Smokefree South West, has helped thousands of people to give up smoking.'
To cut a long story short, I spent the best part of an hour emailing, phoning and texting my various BBC Bristol contacts and eventually – some two hours later – the report was amended.
To be fair, the BBC wasn't alone. The ITV News website reported the story in much the same way until I had a word with the West Country newsdesk and they agreed to update their report as well.
(Visit the itv.com report, Smokefree South West to close this summer after cuts to funding. Read it without Forest's contribution – which was added several hours later – and tell me it isn't one-sided. They even included a Smokefree South West campaign video!)
So we got there in the end but it was harder work than it should have been. Impartiality comes at a price - my health!
Reader Comments (7)
Thanks, Simon. Excellent but trying work fighting years of prejudice and the ill-informed.
Simon, Your efforts are appreciated and important. In addition, documenting the anecdote that you recount here is as important--if not more important than getting your initial rebuttal out. You demonstrate the corrupt lock on information that the so-called 'public health' mafia has created. They use public funds to fuel their quest for power and plunder. When challenged, they rise up to quell all dissent. It is interesting to see that rather than being the individual charities they claim to be that they are a single publicly funded entity with multiple front organizations. That is they are organized like a subversive political front rather than a charity. I suspect if the funds diverted to their theft and misuse of public funds was dedicated to actual heath care and research rather than political action that the state of health would actually improve. VG
Congratulations, Simon. Hard, uphill work.
Thanks Simon. We moan a lot but few fight as hard for us as you do. It is appreciated.
" struggling to cope with rising demand caused by unhealthy behaviours like smoking and drinking alcohol."
Seems quite odd they should claim a rising demand when unhealthy behaviours are at an all time low. Could it be they who are creating the new demands trying to justify their existence or are they simply misrepresenting the facts (again)?
If they are struggling with rising demands from unhealthy smokers, drinkers and fatties (the latter two only interest them because of the money that comes with the scaremongering) then it is clear that all the money thrown at these anti-smoker orgs over several decades has been money thrown into a black hole. They can't have it both ways and say what they do has no effect, and is clearly not working as it leads to rising demand, but then say they need more money for what they do because it is working.
Public Health has always been a farce and an expense that the country can't afford.
People aren't thick and know what PH preach so why are tax payers paying for lavish lifestyles?
Nanny state has to go and Common Sense should prevail