Austerity report Sir Michael Marmot - BBC Today programme

As usual the BBC Today Programme reports inaccurately the words of an interviewee.   On a recent broadcast Sir Michael Marmot explained the report he had published relating to the fact that life expectancy has decreased for the first time.  In the past every 10 years life expectancy increased by 1 year.  This report shows that by 2020 this has been reversed.  The interviewer asked was this due to austerity? – The clear response by Sir Michael was there was “a strong suggestion that austerity may have had an impact on life expectancy”.  Note the words “strong suggestion” not “Yes it does.”  Immediately following the interview a news bulletin came on with Sir Michael’s interview being the top story.  The news reader stated “Sir Michael Marmot has identified austerity as being the reason for a reduction in life expectancy".  This is not the case as I have shown above.  Later news bulletins corrected this error.  Unfortunately the majority of us do not have time to listen to multiple news bulletins over the day so the “Today” programme has a moral and legal duty to make sure its reporting is accurate.  Some people would have only heard this report and no others.  Who holds these people to account?  Any written complaints come back with only a cursory response to justify their actions.  As George Orwell wrote, “the people will believe what the media tells them to believe. Without effective regulation, a handful of people are free to promote their own ideals and agendas using the public as pawns, safe in the knowledge the public have no way to fight back.”