I don't fully buy this c_v. This could easily show how the BBC has to raise counter-arguments to anything its told in press releases: the BBC says this is how it demonstrates its impartiality in any debate, as per its politically neutral public service remit. The BBC might also be accused of always adopting a counter-government position no matter who's in power, for pretty much the same reasoning.
It was observed during and after the EU referendum campaign that although 9 out of 10 qualified economists were against Brexit, the BBC always gave equal air time to the minority.
Herein lies the problem. Instead of the BBC accepting peoples so called professional qualifications and expert status, they should perhaps undertake their own vigorous research and report their findings accordingly.
Qualified economists indeed ! It's all voodoo science across the spectrum. None of them have the foggiest idea what the future holds, in much the same way as we traders have no idea if a price will move up or down in the next time period.
I am minded of the trials in the courts, where expert witnesses have given their expert opinion, where any half decent brief does a demolition job on their evidence. What's even worse is "the experts" then paint themselves into a corner by hardening their opinion, only to see another expert come along who totally contradicts what the other side said.
Getting to the truth is an almost impossible job, so I do have a little sympathy for outfits like the beeb. But not much, as I firmly believe that the reason for not getting to the truth is down to lazy fact checking and reporting thereof.
The BBC is obsessed by this drive for equal-sided debate - remember that for years they have put up climate change deniers expressing unevidenced opinion, when the entire scientific community accepts that this is taking place globally. All in the name of equal sided debate. I think we can safely say that if some more evidence is published that the earth is round, the BBC will find someone to deny this. Oh, wait a minute , they already did -
http://www.newsbbc.net/2016/06/the-flat-earth-conspiracy-is-nasa.html.