From: David Balding d.balding@ucl.ac.uk
Subject: BBC Complaints - Case number CAS-1641104-V1YH66
Date: 19 August 2012 20:02
To: bbc_complaints_website@bbc.co.uk
Complaint Summary: Falsehoods, poor interviewing, business promotion
Full Complaint: The item is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9736000/9736128.stm I e-mailed Today
and Feedback same day but received no response, even though the issues I raised are very serious. I am a
professor of Statistical Genetics at University College London and this complaint relates to my professional
expertise. Almost everything said by Mr Moffat was false or highly misleading: it may be the most falsehoods within
4 minutes ever in BBC factual programming. The claims he made were extraordinary: scientific evidence for the
existence of Adam and Eve, Britons having the same DNA as the Queen of Sheba, or being a 'grandson' of Eve. A
moment's thought suggests that these claims can't be true, yet Jim Naughtie asked no challenging, sceptical or
probing question. Instead JN commented twice on individuals having "pure" DNA, which is appalling: nobody's
DNA is any purer than anothers; has he not heard of eugenics and the Nazis? Moreover JN gave Moffat two
opportunities to promote a commercial enterprise - the website that he advertised is for a service that costs £170.
Moffat has no qualifications in the field, nor did he claim any. Why wasn't a real scientist without commercial
interests also interviewed? The real research in this area is fascinating, though different. I have written to Moffat
pointing out his errors and asking him for details of his "scientific study" and his (implausible) claim that the £170
fee is massively subsidised. I have received no reply.