Fwd: BBC accused of helping to spread disease virus - Ananova Alerting

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Originally from: Molly Maxwell

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Originally from: "Ananova" <533...>
To: Molly Maxwell <...>
Subject: BBC accused of helping to spread disease virus – Ananova Alerting Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 11:45:12 GMT

Farmers' leader Ben Gill has accused the BBC of helping to spread the foot-and-mouth virus.

Mr Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union, said helicopters carrying camera crews over infected sites early in the outbreak had helped blow the virus into neighbouring areas.

In an outspoken interview with political website www.youGov.com, Mr Gill condemned the Government's handling of foot-and-mouth as "dreadful".

He also accused politicians of using him as a "whipping boy" to divert public criticism away from them.

The impact of foot-and-mouth on Britain's farming community had been far more serious than BSE, said Mr Gill, because it had affected all sectors of the industry.

The foot-and-mouth infection was far more easily spread than BSE because the virus could "blow out like a mushroom cloud" from sick animals, he said.

He added: "Of course, that was one of the problems we had with our dear friends from the BBC very early on, when they went up in helicopters over infected farms, which was exactly the wrong thing to do because it was spreading the virus."

See this story on the web at http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_375210.html

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UK
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Politics
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Farming
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Foot-and-mouth
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Television
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BBC
http://www.ananova.com/news/index.html?keywords=BBC

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