A blow to the solar plexus
So climate doomsayer Dr. Tim Flannery has been reduced to spruiking for a solar panel company. He fell foul of the agency which licenses commercial television advertising over his claim that "global warming is the greatest threat facing humanity", and that you should therefore rush out and buy Horatio Huffnagel's fantabulous solar panels. Commercials Advice refused to allow the ad to go out with Flannery's puff, leading to predictable howls of "censorship" from the usual quarters.
As usual, the real question here is a Journalism 101 no-brainer. Look at the ABC's report and ask, what's the question the journalist is avoiding? Anyone...anyone...Bueller? Of course, it's why the ad was pulled. The answer, presumably, is that while hysterical claims of climate doom might be all very well to fill the op-ed pages of quality broadsheet newspapers, (and to sequestrate untold oceans of public money) they are, being highly debatable, inadmissable as an inducement in the more rigorous arena of commerce. Dr. Tim should stick to proven, tested science, like the Ab-blaster.
Update: the ad has now gone to air, as originally scripted. Miranda Devine has a good piece on this story. The solar panel company brags that they're "doing Kyoto anyway". Well good news, kiddies, so is the Australian Government.
So climate doomsayer Dr. Tim Flannery has been reduced to spruiking for a solar panel company. He fell foul of the agency which licenses commercial television advertising over his claim that "global warming is the greatest threat facing humanity", and that you should therefore rush out and buy Horatio Huffnagel's fantabulous solar panels. Commercials Advice refused to allow the ad to go out with Flannery's puff, leading to predictable howls of "censorship" from the usual quarters.
As usual, the real question here is a Journalism 101 no-brainer. Look at the ABC's report and ask, what's the question the journalist is avoiding? Anyone...anyone...Bueller? Of course, it's why the ad was pulled. The answer, presumably, is that while hysterical claims of climate doom might be all very well to fill the op-ed pages of quality broadsheet newspapers, (and to sequestrate untold oceans of public money) they are, being highly debatable, inadmissable as an inducement in the more rigorous arena of commerce. Dr. Tim should stick to proven, tested science, like the Ab-blaster.
Update: the ad has now gone to air, as originally scripted. Miranda Devine has a good piece on this story. The solar panel company brags that they're "doing Kyoto anyway". Well good news, kiddies, so is the Australian Government.
posted by cuckoo at
10:28 AM
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