But they're correct, all other wombats in Europe are the common species and look quite different, including the ones at Hamerton.
Yes of course they are, but the implication being that the average person will just assume that means no other wombats in Europe.
I'm just watching it and they stated the Hairy nosed wombats as being the FIRST for the park and Europe - which according to zootierliste, they are not?
Longleat has the only southern hairy-nosed wombats in Europe. If the wording had been "the only wombats in Europe," I could understand your problem.
I'm intrigued that you wouldnt realise that the park is participating as a marketing exercise - they're not going to be interested in promoting what other collections may or may not have. Why on earth would they?
The BBC is responsible for the veracity of its broadcasts. They should have checked the script properly - precisely because Longleat stands to gain from such exaggerations (whether accidental or deliberate) whereas the BBC's reputation can only suffer.
'Great Zoos of the World' often promoted species that were unusual to particular zoos. As Zia says, Longleat wants people to promote itself by encouraging visitors to see species they can't easily see elsewhere.
You must remember that the first rule of journalism is to 'never let the truth stand in the way of a good story'. I can assure you (from considerable personal experience) that scruples and principles are pretty similar across the industry, and no organisation stands ahead of any others.
Surprise. Chester, Longleat, Paignton and other zoos stand to gain from television programmes, otherwise they wouldn't agree to filming.
My point was that they are in no way obliged to mention other wombats at other collections. Of course they should be accurate about the claims they are making about their own collection - but that has no bearing on @BeakerUK's suggestion below: "Wouldn't it be nice if, in the interests of education or information, they could have even mentioned the other wombats in the UK right now (and who arrived first) at Hamerton?"
But they are the only Southern Wombats in Europe, so the statement is true and fine for them to use it. I don't see the fuss, to your average joe it might not mean much but then there a probably loads of similar examples from zoo through out European where the zoo is correct but to your average joe they wont know anything else.
It is rather like a shop saying 'we have lots of goods for you to buy here, but other stores are available..' No zoo in its right mind would advertise what another zoo has, unless it was affiliated to it of course. They are competitive businesses after all. As long as the claim is genuine, however calculated or nit-picky it might be- i.e. in this case its the species of wombat they are advertising, not wombats generally, then that's(just about) within the remit of fair advertising I think.
But the BBC's charter does not allow it to broadcast advertising, so it has to be more careful than other broadcasters. It is fine to say that Longleat has the only hairy-nosed wombat in the UK. But it would be wrong to imply that the species has never been seen in Europe before, as @littleRedPanda reported.
Yes, if they've said the 'first for Europe' and the BBC reported that, then it is definately incorrect. I hadn't realised the word 'first' was used...
Having not seen the programme and knowing nothing about the BBC's charter, could I ask a question? Does the Longleat branding feature in the programme? - so that the viewer is made aware that the programme is just featuring Longleat, by means of keeper uniforms, vehicle branding, reference, and the like? If it does, then surely the repeated promotion of one commercial organisation, at the (potential) expense or detriment of its competitors, is actually 'broadcast advertising'. Many of the other series mentioned here which 'promoted' such, were made by commercial broadcasters, not a nationalised one. As gentle lemur says, there should be a difference - or should there?
