"The Greatest Debate On Earth" BBC Responds To Key's 'Displacement'

 It didn't take long for a canny journalist to find out why Key was dropped from BBC World's "Greatest Debate on Earth. See our blog post yesterday "John Key dumped from climate change debate" for background.

A report has appeared on ABC news saying

"The New Zealand media is reporting that Mr Key has been elbowed out by Mr Rudd.
A spokesman for Mr Key admitted the government was very disappointed with the BBC's decision.
"The spokesman said he had an idea why the BBC changed its mind but he "wasn't going to do their explaining for them".

The BBC has apologised to the New Zealand government but have denied the claim Mr Key was dumped from the debate in favour of Mr Rudd.

"When we approached various people to appear we were told by some, including Mr Key, that they were unavailable," a BBC spokesman said.

"This decision was later changed and we were told Mr Key was available. By this time we had already approached other countries, including Australia, and Kevin Rudd had agreed to join the panel.
"We were then in the difficult position of having two leaders from Australasia on a panel designed to represent global opinion. In the end we accepted the offer of the Australian PM and had to turn down Mr Key."

Which rather suggests that it was Mr Key himself that said he was unavailable and he then changed his mind for some reason. If so it all seems rather odd then for such a fuss to have been made yesterday. Perhaps there was a bit of a mix-up between Key and his press staffers over his availability? if so, are 'heads going to roll'?

Where the truth lies in all this we have no idea but the resulting mud slinging has done little to either enhance NZ's reputation at Copenhagen, or improve the way NZ regards Australia.

No doubt good sense will prevail in the end, we're expecting to see an a very cordial (and very public) display of mutual black slapping shortly between the two leaders.

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John Key Dumped From Climate Change Debate

 
 "The Greatest Debate on Earth"

John Key has been bumped from BBC World's Greatest Debate on Earth, however some NZ news outlets are using the word "dumped". Dumped is an emotive word, surely "dropped" would've sounded better?

"Dumped" suggests that someone is deeply embarrassed by the exclusion, there is an element of petulance about it, there is the suggestion of a failed romantic relationship - of a love won and lost. One wonders if the word comes from journalists covering the conference or it it was first used by the PM's press office. Feelings are obviously running high:

"In a move that may stoke trans-Tasman rivalries, Key has been elbowed out of the BBC World (Service) "Greatest Debate on Earth" on Thursday by his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd."

 What was the reason for NZ being dropped from the debate - because it has nothing much to add to the debate perhaps (see 'NZ isolated on key Copenhagen issues: Key') or does Rudd just make for better TV? we may never know.

"The spokesman said Key's office was told why the BBC made the decision but preferred it came from the British state broadcaster."

"state broadcaster"?  we do have the makings of an international incident here.

One does have to wonder if Key's recent U turn on his decision not to attend the Copenhagen conference had anything to do with an offer to appear in the BBC's debate. If so, no wonder people are hopping mad.

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Update:
Other bloggers are also thing along the same lines as us, this is taken from Pacificeyewitness.org
"It was New Zealand  former Prime Minister Helen Clark who was a key player on climate change globally on the leaders’ stage. But sadly Key isn’t, and never has been, despite the PR spin on New Zealand’s news coverage making NZ better than it really is at this year’s Climate Change talks. That should give you a clue about how climate change friendly the government’s so called climate change legislation really is.What his initial inclusion in the BBC debate reveals, however, is how well connected his press secretaries and PR stuff are with the rest of the world’s media..."

For the BBC's response see:
"The Greatest Debate on Earth" BBC responds to Key's 'displacement'

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