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Another media regulator is the Advertising Standards Authority. Four years ago I worked we M+C Saatchi to create three TV adverts One of them depicted animated HIV virions, the Authority got a complaint that HIV was not the cause of AIDS. The complaint was rejected, Regards, Philip Connolly Philip Connolly Corporate Communications and Community Affairs Glaxo Wellcome House Glaxo Wellcome plc Berkeley Avenue Greenford Middlesex UB6 0NN * [log in to unmask] * +44 (0) 208 966 8185 * +44 (0) 208 966 8827 * +44 (0) 7802 801457 For corporate information go to http://paws.ggr.co.uk/ (Intranet) http://www.glaxowellcome.co.uk (Internet) > -----Original Message----- > From: PUB (E-mail) [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 2:13 PM > To: Psci-Com (E-mail) > Subject: Media regulators strike blow for science? > > In a discussion some time ago, we reviewed Louis Blom-Cooper's call for > the > Press Complaints Commission to act on poor reporting of science. I do not > know of any case where the PCC has ruled on science stories, but there is > one case where the Broadcasting Standards Commission has indeed upheld the > "scientific" case. The article below is from yesterday's Independent. > Perhaps the PCC could be a two-edged sword for those who want a "proper" > view of science in the Media? > > Andy > === > Horizon, the BBC flagship science programme, is to be criticised for the > first time by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for being unfair to > two > authors who believe the world was once dominated by a "lost civilisation". > The BBC has been forced to re-edit the Horizon programme "Atlantis > Reborn", > which questions the maverick theories of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, > authors of the bestsellers Fingerprints of the Gods and The Orion Mystery. > The two men have also challenged the BBC to broadcast a live debate in > which > they can argue their case - but the corporation confirmed yesterday that > no > debate was planned. > Mr Hancock and Mr Bauval believe that an advanced civilisation with > sophisticated technology once inhabited the earth but was destroyed by a > global cataclysm at the end of the ice age, around 10,500BC. Their theory > suggests that the "lost civilisation" was behind the building of the > pyramids - an argument that helped to sell more than four million books, > and > which was questioned in the Horizon programme. > Dr Edwin Krupp, an astronomer, said the authors' assertion that the > pyramids > at Giza represented the constellation of Orion "could be made to work only > by turning upside down either the image of Egypt or that of the sky". > The authors' essential rebuttal of the upside-down argument was left out. > They contest that Dr Krupp's evidence relies on the modern convention that > north is up, and that the ancient Egyptians would have modelled the > pyramids > on Orion "as they saw it". > BBC insiders acknowledged yesterday that the programme was being edited "a > teeny bit" to include Mr Hancock and Mr Bauval's response - in time for a > rebroadcast due on 14 December - just over a year after the original. The > corporation is sticking by the programme's team, and points out that only > one of 10 complaints by the two authors was actually upheld by the > watchdog. > The unsuccessful complaints included Mr Hancock's assertion that the > programme made him out to be an "intellectual fraud", and Mr Bauval's > argument that it made his Giza-Orion Correlation Theory - which also links > the Nile with the Milky Way and the Sphinx with the constellation of Leo - > seem to be a con. > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%