Perhaps you have watched or listened to the BBC news recently and thought that there’s a lot of clever presentation but not much substance, altogether too much opinion and ‘interpretation’ in the News.
You may not be alone…even the esteemed Guardian has its doubts about the ‘theatrical’ BBC and I was thinking along similar lines as I heard Jon Pienaar describe Osborne as the ‘craftiest’ of Chancellors and Peston attacking Osbornes’s budget by giving us his emotional interpretation of cuts to welfare…apparently ‘That’ll make the handouts even meaner‘…and he’s eager to use the OBR’s flippant description of the economy post election as a ‘roller coaster’ even though it won’t be….more of a hockey stick…a jolly one perhaps?
Peston says ‘ George Osborne has not given any clue about how which benefits recipients would feel the pain‘ and asks ‘ Can the Chancellor go through a general election without spelling out in more detail precisely which welfare recipients he would make poorer?‘
So Osborne’s policies will be ‘even meaner’ than they are already apparently and full of ‘pain’ for the poor who will be made ‘poorer’.
And let’s not forget Norman Smith and his cry that the economy under the Tories would be ‘utterly terrible’ as it sank into 1930’s like spending levels….or those of the year 2000 when Labour spent at the same rate before going back to their socialist roots and spending all the money and then some.
All too much personal angst and opinion from the BBC employees…not even going to mention Donnison and Bowen!
The Guardian wants more facts and less theatre…the BBC being less careful with the ‘facts’, inclined to spin for an agenda and indulging in theatrics….and tends to use the news to advertise its own upcoming programmes…
The News at Ten: ITV v BBC – how do the channels compare?
You might expect the BBC news to be more analytical and internationalist, and ITV to be more popular and jolly. But, based on Thursday night’s broadcasts, you would be surprised.
Metaphorical flourishes – visually lavish but often simplistic in content – have become a BBC news signature, whereas you feel that, if the prime minister happens to mention Game of Thrones, ITN will still think hard before despatching Brady to a fancy dress shop to choose a costume to wear outside the House of Commons.
The BBC1 news also felt in some ways more populist than its ITN equivalent. While ITN correspondents deliver their reports fairly straight, the BBC’s aim more for operatic notes of tragedy (Keane) and comedy (Peston). The reporter as performer, which you might more logically expect from ITV, is more likely to be found on the other side.
An increasingly familiar aspect of the BBC news brand….A report that appeared to be an impressive exclusive – on a gang smuggling illegal immigrants out of the UK so that they can come back in as asylum seekers – proved to be a trail for a documentary immediately following the news. Like some movie trailers, the best bits had been filleted so efficiently that there seemed little point in watching the full documentary.
On a general point it drives me mad when I hear ‘the BBC has learnt……..’; what they mean is ‘someone at the BBC has read a press release’ but subliminally they are suggesting a BBC exclusive.
I also dislike reporters who could for example be talking about ‘cuts to the economy’ and feel the need to show a person with a pair of scissors slicing a ribbon as though we don’t know what a cut is. This may be a poor example but I am sure people know what I mean,
“The BBC has learned” meaning the BBC has hacked into someone’s phone?
al beeb uses “The BBC has learned” when they have been beaten to an exclusive by sky news or ITN, and even with that multi billion pound extortion racket, they cant admit the competition is better than them for a fraction of the price
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100092177/the-bbc-has-learned-cue-exclusive-news-story-nicked-from-the-papers/
Do you think it is possible “The BBC learned…” through reading the newspapers this morning?”
http://iaindale.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/bbc-has-learned.html
As said elsewhere, the Guardian has said that the 298 000 arrive here every year add 8 billion to the economy .
My back of envelope calculations mean they give over 26 000 every year , which means that each immigrant could adopt a benefits claimant and it wouldn’t take long for it all to equal out .
And that £26k must include their hard-working children, mothers, fathers, granddads, grandmothers etc, otherwise the figure would be much, much higher.
The thing that puzzles me is: where are all the extra hospitals, schools, doctor’s surgeries, railways, roads, houses etc that this huge economic immigrant miracle is obviously paying for – you know, so they can all be accommodated on this tiny island of ours?
Look. Everything at the BBC is confirmed by “experts”. They have access to “experts” all over the world. Indeed, Radio 5 were trumpeting a while back that they would be consulting “social media experts from some of our top universities”.
WTF? We have no TV, nd apart from some carefully selected programs, all I listen to on the radio is sport.