For new readers and for those following along in my little war with the mighty BBC, this particular situation (collected within my tag category name here) arose from the news that the BBC ECU director Colin Tregear planned back in late June 2025 to take a six month sabbatical in order to learn better how to convey the ‘climate crisis’ to the public. That news prompted me to search for the blatantly false BBC program title for which I’d originally filed a complaint back in 2020, because I wanted to succinctly show how Mr Tregear might be better advised to learn how objective, unbiased journalism was done in comparison to what outright journalism malfeasance looks like. But upon seeing the change to the program title that must have occurred minimally two years after my complaint was officially filed, I filed an all new complaint, and further followed up with a strong suggestion that the BBC / ECU / Colin Tregear revisit my original complaint — fundamentally that BBC conveyed false information to the public by saying a particular set of ‘industry memos’ were proof that the fossil fuel industry ran disinformation campaigns. The evidence behind that is literally worthless.

In an October 24, 2025 email signed by Tregear himself, he attached a PDF file single page response, which is verbatim as follows, where I highlight the critical point in red and in boldface. I’ll follow up with additional input about this overall situation after Tregear’s words.

— 24 October 2025
Dear Mr Cook
Ref: CAS-8152195
How They Made Us Doubt Everything, BBC Sounds

The episode was originally broadcast in August 2020 but remains available on BBC Sounds. I understand you submitted a new complaint in July after noticing the title of the episode had been changed. However, from your correspondence of 15 October 2025 it is clear your concerns remain the same as those you expressed when the series was originally broadcast. In your complaint to this Unit you said “False accusations were conveyed to BBC’s listening audience worldwide, whether the report is titled as it is now or how it was in August 2020.”

I appreciate you continue to believe the programme misrepresented the nature and use of two documents produced by the Global Climate Science Communications Team and the Information Council for the Environment. However, the Executive Complaints Unit investigated your concerns in August 2021 (Reference CAS-6241179) and issued the BBC’s
final decision at that time. The content of the programme has not changed and you have been given a comprehensive explanation for the change to the episode’s title. Accordingly, there is no basis for this Unit to conduct a fresh investigation. As I explained in my original letter of 17 August 2021, there is no right to appeal against this decision within the BBC. The independent regulator, Ofcom, may however consider your complaint if you wish to take the matter further. You can find details of how to contact Ofcom at the following website: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/how-to-report-a-complaint. You can also write to Ofcom at Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA, or telephone either 0300 123 3333 or 020 7981 3040.

Yours sincerely
Colin Tregear
Executive Complaints Unit

There most certainly is basis for the BBC / ECU to conduct a fresh investigation, as I duly noted in my newest complaint level effort sent to the ECU. Rejected / unused memo strategies / directives cannot serve as evidence to prove actions occurred that were guided by those memos. For the love of God, Allah, Common Sense – or choose your own preferred deity – if I write up a memo plan on how to rob a bank and submit it to crime analysts who throw it out, and later my memo plan is leaked to police detectives, my own plan cannot serve as evidence as generic evidence proving bank robberies happened. If a specific pre-planned robbery happened, then only the actual plans which were used can be evidence. It does not get any simpler than that.

But there’s one more thing here concerning my original complaint that I submitted to Ofcom (the UK’s communications regulator agency) in late 2021: I never heard a solitary word on whether that group ever received my Nov 2021 complaint, or took any part of it under consideration.

Personally, I don’t see any possible way for the accusation about ‘industry-orchestrated disinfo campaigns’ to keep going; pull on any loose thread connected to it, doesn’t matter which one or where it is, and the entire accusation can completely unravel. In spectacular fashion. The longer this goes on with nobody in the legacy news media comprehending how this whole situation can topple over and crush their ‘journalism credibility,’ the worse the situation will be when the accusation does ultimately crumble to dust.