When the BMJ blamed Tory austerity for the deaths of 120 000 people, the BBC would not report it claiming its ‘independent’ scientific advisers, the ‘Science Media Centre’ had rejected the BMJ’s figures.
So who is this mysterious ‘Science Media Centre’, which is so influential on the BBC that when it comes to science, its opinion trumps the British Medical Journal and both Oxford and Cambridge Universities? Shockingly, it turns out the SMC is not independent at all. It is an organisation with a history of pushing corporate interests as well as anti-environmentalism, funded by industry and headed by a controversial genocide-denying journalist, Fiona Fox, who has no background in science and who was awarded an OBE by the Tories in 2013. Remarkably, apart from industry giants such as BP, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, the SMC’s biggest funders include the UK government:
Fox was previously a press officer for Cafod, the Catholic Church’s relief agency in England and Wales, visited Rwanda and cast doubt on whether there was a genocide or rather a civil war with massacres on both sides as the regime insisted.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,181819,00.html
Even more bizarre, given the above, Fox was identified, only last year as one of the editors of Irish Freedom which published an article defending ‘the rights of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom’ after the Warrington bombing, which killed two young boys:
BBC Scotland’s fake news spotters will no doubt be onto this. The Disclosure Scotland team will be heard running for the hills when they hear mention of terrorism.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The only ones who succeed in making it onto the media are those whose backgrounds have a less than salubrious edge!
Plus, gaining an award for downplaying issues with GM takes sinister to new levels.
Well played you Foxes, the only ones NOT hunted by Tories…
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Hi John,
It seems this is a very bitter ex SNP person.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/opinion/columnists/alex-bell/2180929/alex-bell-virus-response-shows-sturgeons-more-a-follower-of-england-than-scottish-leader/
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Yes, very bitter, indeed, and has been since Mr Salmond dismissed him. He is very much an exSNP John McTernan.
A friend of mine who worked in media for many years knew him fairly well, but knew his father, Mr Colin Bell, better. He described Mr Bell Senior as a loathsome character, who probably did want an independent Scotland, but his own ego was even more important to him. I think, as a result, that Mr Bell Junior might well have had a fairly unhappy childhood and, as is often the case, such people often come to emulate the very models whom they hated.
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Fiona Fox’s sister, Clare, who has a similar political background and viewpoint (and who is also a diehard Celtic fan) has been a regular on BBC Radio 4’s “The Moral Maze” for as long as I can remember. She is always introduced as from the ‘independent’ Institute of Ideas.
Another regular is Melanie Phillips, who is fiercely Zionist and anti-Palestinian, as well has having very strong ‘libertarian’ views.
The Foxes did, indeed, have a strong attachment to the Communist Party, and would probably still claim that they are espousing ‘true communist’ principles. Ms Phillips also started on the left of the political spectrum and wrote for various leftwing publications such as the New Statesman. I actually once had a brief and courteous chat with her as we waited for taxis at Waterloo Station having just come off the Eurostar. I had no idea who she was other than a wumman with weans coming back fro holiday (as we were with ours). Later that day, on buying some magazines for the trip back to Glasgow from Euston, I saw a little photo of her at the top of an article.
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It’s a common drift from left to right with age – Kingsley Amis, Tony Blair, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brewer.
I will admit to a wee drift that way midlife to earn enough for 4 bairns but have since drifted back left, a more free man! 🙂
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I bet it delighted the BBC to report this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-52481628/scottish-government-has-called-it-right-on-face-covering
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Through gritted teeth I suspect!
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But not on their sister prog RepScot.
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