THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE Wins a Round for Advocacy Docs (and Claire Fox Weighs In from BritDoc)

Less than a month after EXPELLED struck an important legal blow for Fair Use, a British television watchdog agency ruled that a conservative documentary, THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE, "did not materially mislead the audience so as to cause harm or offense".   

The film, which aired on Britain's Channel 4 last year, had caused an uproar in the UK, with hundreds voicing complaints that the film exaggerated dissent to the prevailing theories on global warming.  In SWINDLE, filmmaker Martin Durkin profiles several scientists that hold varying views on the causes and existence of global warming.  According to the International Herald Tribune:  "Criticism has been particularly sharp over the film's assertions that the depiction of consensus on human-caused warming is a willful deception.  One particularly jarring line of narration is: 'Everywhere you are told that manmade climate change is proved beyond doubt.  But you are being told lies.'" 

The Office of Communication ruled that such statements were "intemperate" but said the film was "adequately framed as a polemic", adding that the film had a place on television, particularly considering the number of films that accept the dominant scientific opinion.  SWINDLE, meanwhile, has become widely circulated in conservative circles.    Channel 4's new head of documentary Hamish Mykura told IFT that the agency's ruling "explicitly recognizes Channel 4's right to show the program and the paramount importance of broadcasters being able to challenge orthodoxies and explore controversial subject matter."

The topic came up at BritDoc last month during the Sheffield Doc/Fest Oxford Debate, which centered around the question of whether docs were "too serious".  During the debate, Claire Fox - a noted media figure in the UK who runs the Institute of Ideas - referenced the decision by the Office of Communication as well as the uproar by those opposed to SWINDLE's advocacy of contrarian ideas, whether they be based in fact or opinion. Further she wonders whether today's vaunted idea of filmocracy is nothing more than propaganda.

Comments

[Winston]

I'd just like to share an article about global warming :

http://www.siakoi.com/business/ethics-and-responsibility/global-warming-is-it-too-late.html

Great show BTW! Kudos to the producers.