BBC admits Dow 'interview' was a hoax

[MaineDem]

Man posing as spokesman said firm accepted Bhopal responsibility

Updated: 9:04 a.m. ET Dec. 3, 2004

LONDON - BBC World said on Friday that an interview it ran with a man it identified as a spokesman for Dow Chemical Co, in which he said the U.S. company accepted responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster, was wrong and part of an "elaborate deception".

A spokeswoman for Dow Chemical in Switzerland also confirmed that the report was wrong.

The BBC had earlier twice run an interview with a man it identified as Dow Chemical spokesman Jude Finisterra, who said the company accepted full responsibility for the disaster 20 years ago in the central Indian city of Bhopal.

This would have represented a major policy reversal for Dow Chemical which has said it has no responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6643459/

[Dover]

1. Hmmm......is someone pulling a "Dan Rather" on the BBC?

Undermining their good reputation?

[Vidar]

2. Bhopal was Union Carbide, not Dow.

[MaineDem]

3. You're absolutely right!!!

That makes this all the more interesting.

Just who does the fact checking these days? (Obviously not me. I knew it was Union Carbide and forgot about that point completely.)

[BiggJawn]

6. Dow bought-out U-C.

You think that's bad? Just imagine the crap that will "slip" through once Auntie Beeb cuts those 300-odd jobs out of the news deparment that she's been ordered to.

[Vidar]

10. Didn't know this . Thank you.

[BiggJawn]

12. Yeah, was a shock to me, also...

Bad enough I gotta be a world-class Radio Intercept Operator to even HEAR the World Service anymore...

I picked that tidbit up last week. Seems the UK is enjoying the "Shrub Economic MIRACLE", too, so the BBC has been ordered to trim 300-some-od jobs from its news operations....
And they may cut 6,000 jobs company wide.

I found this at Personelltoday.com:

"BBC director general, Mark Thompson, wants to make the corporation as lean as possible as it faces the debate on the renewal of its 10-year Royal Charter, which is due for renewal at the end of 2006.
By demonstrating that costs are under control, the BBC believes that it can justify the receipt of substantial public money - last year's income from the licence fee was £2.8bn."

[rooboy]

5. Dow owns Union Carbide now. n/t

[flowomo]

7. Dow owns Union Carbide now...

It says that in the article

[Mari333]

4. Union Carbide criminal Warren Anderson still at large

http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/abscond.html



http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1994/170/170cen.htm

[JPace]

8. "Dow Accepted Responsibility"

The words are all incompatible...they will never go together.
Dow...Responsible
Dow...Accepted Responsibility

Nope..I tried them all and they don't go together. It had to be a hoax.

[Make7]

9. Bush admits mistake.

Bush admits that the BBC made a mistake in its research on this story.

:) Make7

[Blue_Tires]

11. how did this happen??

as a memeber of the media, i've had to combat far too often the accusations that we just make stuff up...cases like this don't help

[Just Me]

13. A creative guess would be someone trying to prove,...

,...that the media can and is being used.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. The BBC fell for this spoof website

http://dow-chemical.va.com.au/

(see the story from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org.au/features/features_details.html?site_id=45&news_id=915

If the new site gets taken down now, the spoof looks very like the true Dow site, but with things like "Dowpharma: Supporting a World of Modern Medicine" replace with "Dowkharma: Treating others as we would like to be treated" (sensibly, the people doing the spoof, "The Yes Men", give you an option to download the whole site, so I have it if the new spoof gets taken down too). The BBC then found a 'spokesman' and his phone number o nthe site, and rang it.

[Just Me]

16. Now, THAT is embarassing!!! n/t

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. I love it... From their "Ethics and Corporate Government page

At Dow, protecting people and the environment is part of our image. We try to make it appear to be the motive for everything we do and every decision we make. We like to declare that we have a responsibility to shareholders to ensure that our products and operations meet (where appropriate) applicable government or Dow standards.


This site is pretty over the top, I can't believe anyone fell for it.

[sam sarrha]

14. they have taken no responsibility to clean it up and people are still dyin

drinking polluted water and the chemicals are still laying around washing into the ground water.