I never thought I'd be writing to your magazine with my own story...

[pseydtonne]

I thank metahacker for linking to james_nicoll's coverage of the bee-ess factor for the BBC hovercar story. It turns out there is a history of such coverage, previously in their Science section but today in the Business news.

I got annoyed with having my hovercar heart strings plucked so fervently by the BBC that I decided to compile my findings and send a formal complaint through their site:

I am a long-time fan of the BBC and its World Service going back to the days when Americans could only receive you by shortwave radio. Today I am pleased to receive you on WBUR-FM here in Boston several hours of the day, on BBC America and here on your otherwise incomparable web site.

I find it unfortunate that I must complain about the repeated posting of coverage of the Moller International Skycar on your site, as evidenced by these links:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/354129.stm (dated 1999);
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3676694.stm (dated 2004);
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6970031.stm (dated today).

Each time the Skycar is presented as if it were being unveiled in the near future. In reality, there has been an official complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission about Moller International's repeated fundraising practices without tollgated results: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp17987.htm.

My complaint is not that you give Paul Moller coverage but that you give his claims veracity when he has been under investigation for fraud. It would be similar to presenting a lead story that cancer had been cured and finding the details to be about a scam shaman pretending to pull entrails out of a body.

When you have the resources to cover the world's news and have the power to unveil modern atrocities (your excellent research on Mugabe's horrid empire in Zimbabwe, such as today's http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6972393.stm, being a stellar example), why would one give credence to a scam artist? It gives them equal weight.

I would appreciate a public response. I know the English-speaking public is discovering this tale in Slashdot today (see http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/31/0218202), thus your reputation unfolds in front of you as a bastion against legerdemain.

Thank you for your time.

I included my city and state, land phone number and email address. I hope I was formal enough. Was I too snooty?

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

They've amended the story now!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Your letter and my letter must have arrived at the same time :)

Did you get a nice note from them as well?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Your letter was the better written one.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliment!

Indeed I did receive a note from the Beeb. This has been an interesting experience -- knocking on the door of the established media of another nation and getting a fast response.

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

The only thing I would rewrite (if it hadn't already been sent) was the penultimate clause. I had to read it a few times to parse what you were trying to say. Something like, "thus your reputation as a bastion against legerdemain unfolds in front of you" would have been better.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Good point. While I am improving, I still have a problem translating my verbal approach to the written word.

-the next post discusses this, Dante