BBC Says Dow Interview an 'Elaborate Deception'
Reuters
Dec. 3, 2004 - BBC World said on Friday that an interview it ran with a man it identified as a spokesman for Dow Chemical Co, in which he said the U.S. company accepted responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster, was wrong and part of an "elaborate deception."
A spokeswoman for Dow Chemical in Switzerland also confirmed that the report was wrong.
The BBC had earlier twice run an interview with a man it identified as Dow Chemical spokesman Jude Finisterra, who said the company accepted full responsibility for the disaster 20 years ago in the central Indian city of Bhopal.
This would have represented a major policy reversal for Dow Chemical which has said it has no responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.
"This morning at 9 GMT, (and at) 10 GMT, BBC World ran an interview with someone purporting to be from the Dow Chemical Company about Bhopal," the BBC said on its latest news bulletin.
"This information was inaccurate, part of an elaborate deception. The person did not represent the company. We want to make it clear the information he gave was entirely inaccurate."
BBC World had earlier said the interview took place in Paris. It was aired on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, when more than 3,500 died after lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant in Bhopal.
The factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.
A Dow spokeswoman, speaking from Switzerland, told BBC World that Finisterra was not a Dow employee.
"Dow confirms there was no basis whatsoever for this report," Marina Ashanin said. "We also confirm Jude Finisterra is neither an employee nor a spokesperson for Dow."
"The bottom-line is this is not true," a spokesman for Dow Chemical in Zurich told Reuters.
A spokesman for Union Carbide also told Reuters the report was false.
The BBC gave no further details.
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
When we turn away from the darkness of
our past to take comfort in our peaceful lives, we
sometimes forget how dearly that peace was bought. But
there is much worth remembering in the darkness..."
So let me get this straight; the BBC intentionally ran a story they knew was false? The fact that they used the word "deception" as opposed to "mistake" seems to imply that.
Or was this a Blair-type fiasco, with some individual guy trying to pass off a bogus story as true and the superiors at the BBC accepting it not realizing it was a fake?
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Joe wrote:So let me get this straight; the BBC intentionally ran a story they knew was false? The fact that they used the word "deception" as opposed to "mistake" seems to imply that.
Or was this a Blair-type fiasco, with some individual guy trying to pass off a bogus story as true and the superiors at the BBC accepting it not realizing it was a fake?
It seems to be a case of the deception happening, the story running and then almost as soon as it happened, discovering they'd been had and issuing a retraction and distributing it as widely as possible.
"Prodesse Non Nocere." "It's all about popularity really, if your invisible friend that tells you to invade places is called Napoleon, you're a loony, if he's called Jesus then you're the president." "I'd drive more people insane, but I'd have to double back and pick them up first..." "All it takes for bullshit to thrive is for rational men to do nothing." - Kevin Farrell, B.A. Journalism. BOTM - EBC - Horseman - G&C - Vampire
Joe wrote:So let me get this straight; the BBC intentionally ran a story they knew was false? The fact that they used the word "deception" as opposed to "mistake" seems to imply that.
Or was this a Blair-type fiasco, with some individual guy trying to pass off a bogus story as true and the superiors at the BBC accepting it not realizing it was a fake?
What it was was BBC being lazy and incompetent and not checking the credentials of the person they were talking to.
Cock Up Theory on their part not Conspiracy Theory, as it were.
Via money Europe could become political in five years" "... the current communities should be completed by a Finance Common Market which would lead us to European economic unity. Only then would ... the mutual commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal"
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
How incompetent do you have to be to pull something like this off? No one chedcked out this guy's story beforehand?!
