<HTML>Hi Garrett,
I presume it's going to be "Atlantis Reborn Again" (i.e. the 'revised' version that takes into account the 'ommissions' of the BBC and the adjudication of the Broadcasting Standards Commission). It brings to mind a quote from The Sunday Leader (June 15, 1997):
"The novelist Sir Henry Wooton , although a contemporary of William Shakespeare, was probably not acquainted with him. Wooton's writings, though overshadowed by the literary giant of Avon, contain a wit and sparkle, which have endured the centuries well enough to have survived into our time. And the frequency with which his line, An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country, is quoted in contemporary prose goes at least some way to demonstrate the currency of his ideas, now four hundred years later.
Had there been a democratic polity in Wooton's day, no doubt he would have added a corollary that Politicians are dishonest people sent to lie at home for the good of their parties And in the case of at least some politicians, Wooton would not have been far wrong.
Political lies come in a variety of flavours, all of them distasteful. Dishonesty, after all, is a many-splendoured thing. Nevertheless, most people are forgiving of political untruths, conditional of course, to the provision that no politician shall be caught telling a lie. "
Sadly, the same can be said for many TV "producers", those 'ambassadors' of the media who supposedly make 'factual' programmes. Except in this case of the BBC Horizon programme, they were caught with their pants down by the BSC watchdogs.
Keep well,
RB</HTML>
