False claims that heatwave is bogus spread online
www.bbc.com
Weather forecasters wrongly accused of using misleading data to "drive fear".

False claims suggesting that the BBC has been misreporting temperatures in southern Europe have been spreading on social media.

A clip of Neil Oliver, a GB News presenter, accusing the BBC “and others” of “driving fear” by using “supposedly terrifying temperatures”, has been viewed more than two million times.

For the past few weeks, an intense heatwave has been sweeping through parts of southern Europe and north Africa, with extensive wildfires breaking out in Greece, Italy and Algeria - leading to more than 40 deaths.

Speaking about the fires on Rhodes on GB News on Monday, Mr Oliver accused the BBC, and other broadcasters, of trying to “make people terrified of the weather”.

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      It’s funny, isn’t it? It’s so “on the nose” and yet perfectly reflects reality.

      “Difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to be believable…” and all that

    • ZombieTheZombieCat@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      The worst was the people who insisted it wasn’t funny enough. I thought it was pretty funny, but was that really the point?

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      74·
      1 year ago

      There is something to be said about subtlety in story-telling. When writers tell their message with a sledgehammer, it comes off as unrealistic.