Skip to content
Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered. Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered.
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Values
    • Team
    • Jobs at OCI
    • Ways to Give
  • Program Areas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • North Sea
    • United States
    • Global Industry
    • Global Public Finance
    • Global Policy
  • Blog
  • Press Releases
  • Publications
Donate
  • Get Updates
    • Share on Bluesky Share on Bluesky Bluesky (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Twitter Share on Twitter Twitter (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Instagram Share on Instagram Instagram (opens in a new window)
    • Share on LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Facebook (opens in a new window)
Donate
  • About
    • Our Work
    • Values
    • Team
    • Jobs at OCI
    • Ways to Give
  • Program Areas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • North Sea
    • United States
    • Global Industry
    • Global Public Finance
    • Global Policy
  • Blog
  • Press Releases
  • Publications
    • Get Updates
    • Share on Bluesky Bluesky
    • Share on Twitter Twitter
    • Share on Instagram Instagram
    • Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn
    • Share on Facebook Facebook
Go to OCI Homepage
Current Affairs
Published: October 12, 2007

BBC Messes Up Again On Gore Story

  • Latest from OCI
  • Blogs listing
  • BBC Messes Up Again On Gore Story
    • Blog Post Climate change climate sceptics Current Affairs extreme energy
Andy Rowell

When not blogging for OCI, Andy is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in environmental issues.

[email protected]

The BBC is making a real hash of the Al Gore story. Today on Radio Four’s flagship lunch-time news programme, it invited Martin Livermore from the Scientific Alliance, to give an interview on Gore winning the Nobel Prize.

As we have blogged on the site, the Scientific Alliance was set up by Scottish quarryman Robert Durward in 2001 to fight environmental regulations and take the sceptical line on climate change.

It was one of the first “corporate front groups” to be set up in the UK. It has consistently tried to undermine climate science and networked with Exxon-funded groups in the US and UK.

However rather than saying the Alliance undermines the debate on climate science, the BBC’s presenter Shaun Ley described the Alliance as “campaigning to improve the quality of debate about science”.

Asked about the Nobel award to Gore, Martin Livermore the ex-Dupont front man said that it was “not healthy” to give awards to “fashionable causes”. He also warned Gore’s award would “close down the scientific debate”.

When asked about the recent legal case against Gore’s film in the UK, which had been objected to by “a parent”, Livermore said the Judge who had criticised Gore had made a “sensible decision” on a “political film” that represented “just one point of view”. What the BBC failed to do again is actually tell the listener what was going on here.

To an uninformed listener it seems that the Scientific Alliance and legal action “by the parent” are completely separate. The problem is they are not. They are funded by the same person: Robert Durward, a Scottish Quarryman and chair of the New Party – which his political opponents have described as fascist.

The so-called parent is Stewart Dimmock, who is a member of the New Party, and who has admitted being backed by the New Party in taking the legal action.

So, unbeknown to the public, on the radio at lunch-time the BBC interviewed an ex-chemical industry spokesman who works for a front group set up by a quarryman who was talking about a legal case that the quarryman has funded.

But that’s obviously too complicated for the BBC or too insignificant a fact to tell their listeners.

Oil Change International | Data Driven, People Powered.
Donate Get Updates
Back to the top
  • Keep in touch

  • Oil Change International
    714 G St. SE, #202
    Washington, DC 20003
    United States

    +1.202.518.9029

    [email protected]

    • Share on Bluesky Bluesky (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Twitter Twitter (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Instagram Instagram (opens in a new window)
    • Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn (opens in a new window)
    • Share on Facebook Facebook (opens in a new window)
  • Quick links

  • About OCI
  • Our Values
  • Jobs at OCI
  • Ways to Give
  • Media Centre

  • Publications
  • Press
  • Associated websites

  • Big Oil Reality Check
  • Energy Finance Database
  • Permian Climate Bomb
  • Site map
  • Privacy policy

Copyright © 2025 Oil Change International. Web design by Fat Beehive