Thursday, December 04, 2008

Corked

A small piece on BBC Breakfast which typifies why I feel the whole sorry news, and especially science & tech.. er... environment* aspects are now less than worthless.

It was on.. corks.

In the (lightly nutty with a hint of spice) red corner we have a luvvie oenophile, for whom no bottle should cost less than £100 and be 'tainted'.

In the green corner, we have some bloke on about some bit of fauna being eradicated if the cork tree orchards are converted to other uses.

Now, I will leave out the majority of the 'debate', and my feelings on the matter, because my concern was with the conduct of the moderators.

Even when the two 'experts' were accusing each other of being plain wrong and/or being strangers to the truth, the response was 'oh, well, we're running out of time, you two sort it out later'.

No.... I was trying to arrive at a view and was left with an unresolved petty spat. This is supposed to be a news programme; not Jerry Springer.

* (there's been a name change, apparently. Why? While there are cross-overs they are distinct topics)

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