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THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland has rejected a complaint against broadcaster George Hook concerning his treatment of a radio segment dealing with the HPV vaccine.
A listener had claimed that Hook had dealt with the subject in an “ill-informed and irresponsible” manner while discussing it with a consultant pediatrician on his show High Noon on Newstalk Radio on 4 October 2016.
The complainant claimed that the presenter, in setting out what the listener deemed to be his ‘plainly wrong views’, caused ‘undue anxiety’ among the listening public.
The complaint was considered by the BAI in its latest list of published decisions.
Newstalk had stated in response to the complaint that the discussion in question was “in the context of a wider exploration of the concerns expressed to the presenter by parents and grandparents of teenage girls over a number of weeks on the programme”.
Hook had, according to the station, in the weeks prior to broadcast “spoken with the grandmother of a teenage girl who suffered from side-effects which she said were related to the HPV vaccine”. Newstalk argued it had been “careful to ensure the public interest was served” by “also hearing from a number of contributors who are strongly supportive of the vaccine”.
It further claimed that Hook “had a right to raise this issue on the programme as a public health issue”.
The BAI’s compliance committee decided to reject the complaint by majority vote.
The committee noted in its decision “the important role of the presenter in ensuring that audiences have access toa awide variety of views” on a subject.
It said that the issue of reported side effects regarding the HPV vaccine is a “legitimate topic to be examined by news and current affairs programmes”.
It said that in its opinion the programme had satisfied its own Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality, but “only in a barely minimal fashion”. It added that the presenter “did not appear to be very familiar with the details of the issue that the programme sought to examine”.
However, the style of Hook himself had to be taken into account, it said:
The presenter style in this instance is often robust in approach and tone and is characterised strongly by an approach to presentation that emphasises the role of the presenter as ‘devil’s advocate’.
The Committee found that “the interviews, as well as critical texts, provided the suitable counter-balance to those of the presenter”.
It concluded that the programme did not infringe the Broadcasting Act 2009 or its own code of fairness, and rejected the complaint.
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Surely ill-informed describes almost everything George says and does?
@Pseud O’Nym: you took the comment right out of my finger…
George Hook move on quickly..
It’s up to the guests to clarify or refute a devil’s advocate.
@Ian Moloney: he doesn’t afford his guests the opportunity. He talks over them.
The public hears one view saying it is safe and George questioning that. Two sides to every story then? No way to really know? Fifty-fifty chance its safe? No, not all all. The media focus on presenting both sides of the story gives no weight to whether one side is backed by a scientific or medical consensus and the other just by anecdote.
@iBob101: it’s the joy of debating anything. If you say a topic is up for debate, you’re saying both sides of the argument have merit. This is not even remotely true. Would it be OK to debate whether gassing the Jews was ok? Or whether paedophilia is a nice hobby? No
What’s with the hard on for the BAI stories lately?
BAI just trying to show what a good Quango it is….Protect us from all media bias
@Eamonn O’Riain:
As mentioned in the story, they’ve just published one of their periodical reports.
Someone I know suffered and died a young woman from cervical cancer.
This sort of news never makes its way into the Irish Media.
In April 2017 researchers in Scotland have found a 90% fall in levels of the human papilloma virus (HPV) in Scottish women since the vaccine was made available in 2008.
Yesterday the chief medical officer for Scotland, said:
“We monitor vaccination programmes extremely carefully. Eight and a half million girls (in the UK) have been given this vaccine since the programme was started almost ten years ago and we have reassurances this is safe.”
In Ireland the Sunday Business Post reported that the parents support group who appear on radio and TV founder member runs a group (and a website) which has been described in the journal.ie as ‘an anti vaccine group’, ‘with no scientific background that know vaccines,( specifically the MMR in the article ) are of no benefit.’
This group provides the parent support group with the 27 known side effects of Gardasil which are in fact 14 side effects used in the US leaflet, to monitor the safety of the Gardasil vaccine in the US taken out of context , with similar information copied and pasted from a European leaflet – repeating the infromation a second time.
On her website she admitted she brought the group together but has nothing to do wth them since December 2015. However only one Irish journalist has ever clarified this fact for parents. The
When you have witnessed a family lose a loved one from cervical cancer its upsetting to read comments like the comment below copied from the Irish Vaccine Awareness website after a ‘successful’ radio programme.
“Well done guys Amazing work, not a dry eye in the country today, well done team REGRET!!”
@Tom B Arrett: 300 cases of cervical cancer in Ireland every year, 90 deaths. 70% of cases attributable to HPV. Yet the TUI conference last week passed a motion to investigate moving vaccinations from schools to medical centres. The proponent was a member of the Gardasil antivax group, and the motion was part of its scaremongering. The motion was passed in a room that presumably contained science teachers. The TUI’s members are supposed to be people that students look up to.
The simple maths of that action using the figures above means that for each 1% drop in uptake due to TUI fear mongering, there would be more than 2 new cervical cancer cases per year.
@Tom B Arrett: There is a huge campaign in the U.K calling for the age for a smear tested to be lowered following the deaths of a number of young women from cervical cancer who were told by the NHS that they were too young for a smear test.
According to the CDC Statement in the U.S for Gardasil HPV vaccine the HPV vaccine is no substitute for having regular pap smears as the vaccine does not cover all HPV viruses!
@Mairead Hilliard:
the CDC advises
Today, there is a strong weapon to prevent several types of cancer in our kids: the HPV vaccine.
HPV vaccination is recommended for preteen girls and boys at age
11 or 12 years. All preteens NEED HPV vaccination so they can be protected from HPV infections that cause cancer.
The HPV vaccine in the US protects against 90% of cervvical cancers, the HPV vaccine in Ireland protects against 70% of the cancers so both vaccines really reduce the risk. You need smears but the risk of getting cancer is greatly reduced. Why would a parent let their daughter get cancer and expect a smear to discover it when the vaccine gives so much protection.
But isn’t looking to elderly men for advice on women’s health the Irish way?
Discussing the whole issue of vaccines we need to keep calm heads and remove the emotion.
Robert Kennedy hits nail on head.
@Tom Burke: “keep calm heads and remove the emotion” eh ? and then links to a Robert Kennedy vid.
Are you drunk?
Boring, clapped out bullshitter!
@Gus Dennis: Next, Hook reads the speeches of Trump at bedtime… lol.
George Hook interviewed Dr. Diane Harper in 2010 before the HPV was rolled out for Irish schoolgirls.
Dr. Harper is a HPV virus expert who was involved in designing the clinical trials for Gardasil HPV vaccine.
In part of the interview Dr.Harper told George that parents should be fully informed about the possible side effects from Gardasil HPV vaccine.
I don’t know of any other Irish broadcaster/ journalist who included this proper research before talking about the HPV vaccine!
Boring ole fart
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