David Mitchell, or David Mitchell Coren as we might call him, wrote an excellent column on telling the truth yesterday.
One of his points, with which I agree, is that the good guys need to be squeaky-clean in this so-called post-truth age. We will only live in a post-truth age if we allow truth to disappear and lies to remain unchallenged. And I mean unchallenged by evidence not by rudeness.
I noticed a couple of examples of where the good guys might have erred last week, and one was used by Mitchell too.
Friends of the Earth got into trouble with the ASA for making claims about the likely effects of fracking on the health of local populations, drinking water, and property prices in the absence of adequate evidence. The other example I saw was of WWF International being investigated (investigated not found guilty, I emphasise) of being part of dark deeds against indigenous people through funding eco-guards in Cameroon.
Charities will make mistakes the same as everyone else does – even me! Even Chris Packham’s team sent out an inaccurate tweet yesterday (now corrected). Even you? But we will often forgive them for erring if it is an honest mistake, and sometimes even if it is due to over-enthusiasm, but rarely if it is a calculated and deliberate error. Charities shouldn’t lie.
If only government were subject to the same standards! Every government pronouncement is arguably for political gain but there is no equivalent of the ASA to which we can report mistruths or statements in the absence of adequate evidence. If only there were, then we could have taken Liz Truss to that body for saying that there was no evidence for a population impact of lead poisoning on wild birds when there most certainly is (and Defra knew that there was! see here and here and here). And then there was Therese Coffey’s poor speech in the grouse moor debate which relies on discredited economic measures of the contribution of grouse shooting to the economy (for starters). And we could have a close look at government pronouncements on Badgers and bovine TB too. If only such a body existed. Such work used to be done by Her Majesty’s Opposition but that hardly seems to exist these days.
Most wildlife NGOs are in little danger of saying anything untrue as they rarely say anything these days.
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I take the general point of your piece, Mark, but please don’t be misled by the way Cuadrilla’s self-serving complaint to the ASA has been reported. There is a mass of evidence about the toxic effects of fracking. See, as a starting point, this article: http://newsnet.scot/archive/call-fraxit-five-stress-tests-fracking-industry-fails/
That the ASA chose to ignore the evidence, possibly because most of it is from the USA and Australia, is worrying. I, for one, have no faith that standards of regulation will be higher in th UK. Note that the ASA did not, however, make a ruling and that Friends of the Earth have not backed down on their claims, just agreed not to reissue an old leaflet. We need to support our friends and not cast doubt on their integrity.
“Charities shouldn’t lie”.
Quite right. But I’m not sure that a “deliberate error” is possible except in the arcane world of HMRC, where it could prove expensive. To the Man on The Street a deliberate error is a Pork Pie. In the Post-truth world the output of Pork Pies has increased exponentially, without any mitigating surge in Long-handled Spoon manufacture.
On the Richter Scale of Dishonesty, Omission scores less than a Pork Pie. Cuadrilla may have complained to the ASA, but so also did a retired vicar and a retired physics teacher, who objected to a begging letter from FoE that fell out of Private Eye.
https://www.asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2016/Opinion-piece-A-fractious-debate-but-a-clear-outcome.aspx
Apparently the Fat Lady hasn’t yet finished and the denial and misdirection continues. But help is at hand – we can sign a petition!!
https://www.change.org/p/rob-wilson-mp-tell-rob-wilson-mp-to-act-on-charities-that-use-questionable-fundraising-tactics
We have the Health Secretary (sorry if i got his job title wrong but i am trying not use the 4 letter word) blatantly lying yesterday and no questioning it so no, advertising by charities is not something that is high up on my list of blood pressure worries.
If only I could complain to someone about my Conservative MP who never replied to my two letters about driven grouse shooting back in the summer, simply regurgitated the standard Defra/party line on their website. I’m shocked but not surprised. There does not seem to be any independent body to complain to – neither the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards seem in a position to help. Drat! http://www.parliament.uk/documents/pcfs/New%20Website%20Documents/PCS-Information-Note.pdf
Good for Mark Avery, and if only the things he points out were attended to.