BBC News in the morning- long stories, no other stories at all?

[VinterKvinna]

From 8am to 8.26 (possibly still going) they have been discussing the sad passing of Captain Tom.

I totally agree this is important, but is there nothing else happening in the world at the moment? Whats happening in Myanmar? Whats happening in our hospitals, the vaccine...
Anything..

Yes its sad he has died, and yes he was inspiring, thats not my argument
I want news, not half an hour on a lookback on CT, and interviews with Michael Ball....

I'm really sorry for the pain experienced by the families and friends of everyone who has died from covid. I do not understand why the sad passing of one man means so much more than the deaths of the many, many thousands of others. He seems to have been a lovely man with a good heart, which makes me suspect he wouldn't be too impressed with all this anyway.

@VinylDetective

And wait til the Queen dies. You ain’t seen nothing yet!

That would be the Queen who has been head of state since 1952, right? Yes. So very, very comparable to the death of an old man who shot to fame when his attempt to raise money for charity became big news last year. Real similarities there.

Move to Scotland
I haven't seen the same sort of coverage here.

I get what he did was amazing but it's kind of nauseating the way the British public fawn over him when there are so many others doing volunteer work but going unnoticed

Exactly.
It's wall to wall. Just put on ITV, ditto.

Wonderful wonderful man who maybe deserves a half hour programme about his life at 11pm one night.
But this is total overkill.

I think we ought to remember the 850 plus NHS workers who have died from COVID protecting us. Why can't we have the BBC Breakfast News talking about them?

The Simon and Garfunkel lyric from the song "Only Living Boy In New York " sums it up for me.

"I get the news I need on the weather report
Oh, I can gather all the news I need on the weather report"

Im sick of listening about bloody covid on news...its depressing...its actually nice they can turn their attention to pay tribute to captain tom..it will only last a day or two..then the media will be back to covid coverage with a vengence

BBC in the morning is dismal, I wouldn't even call it news. I think if you want news you need to switch.

I'm frustrated with the BBC, I'm a strong defender of the licence fee - but they don't make it easy for me.

Switch to Euronews....

I think we ought to remember the 850 plus NHS workers who have died from COVID protecting us. Why can't we have the BBC Breakfast News talking about them? They do those sort of tributes on GMB all the time. Maybe you should switch over to Piers and Susannah.

I think if nothing else major has happened today, it wont really do any harm to dedicate large chunks of the news to a inspirational man.
We can go back to the doom and gloom of our news tomorrow, I'm sure not that much will be missed in one day.

I wasn’t comparing the two @unmarkedbythat. My somewhat flippant point was the if anyone’s sick of this coverage in less than 24 hours, the coverage when Her Maj dies will completely do their heads in. This is what the media does - am I the only person who remembers the days of coverage when Prince George was born?

Maybe you should switch over to Piers and Susannah

Can't bear Piers and Susannah I'm afraid.

I switch over to Sky News and online CNN when I'm in the mood

I miss ‘and finally’ on the News at Ten!

@PurpleDaisies

There's only so much misery the human psyche can take imo. We need a pause from time to time.

It’s not misery I want. It’s information. Not a slush fest over a nice old guy who has sadly died.

Spot on!

I dont want 30 minutes on 1 item either, i want the news, i want to know whats happening everywhere

I used to live in Germany and watch their news - they have the ‘tagesschau’ on at 8 and by 8.15 they have covered about 10 topics not including the sports and weather! I felt way more informed watching that than Bbc news at 6 drawling on - every news point (only about 3 or 4) is followed up by some random studio interview that adds no extra information whatsoever.

i want to know whats happening everywhere Impossible. Every country in the world? The bulletin barely covers what is happening in the UK. The national news doesn't cover the shennanigans in the SNP for instance. UK audiences know more about Joe Biden's administration than Nicola Sturgeon's. South America? Africa? Channel 4 make a better fist of it imo.

followed up by some random studio interview that adds no extra information whatsoever. Yes BBC staff talking to each other does my head in.

I switched to Sky News of a morning for this reason last year. I log on at 9am and I want to sit down with a cuppa at 8am and see the news not a quick summary of the headlines for 10 mins followed by 50 minutes of human interest stories and conversations with actors about their new TV show.

BBC breakfast is on for 3hrs 15 mins, no need to abandon proper news with an hour still to go.

Captain Tom's sad passing is a news item today, absolutely but it doesn't mean we can't also cover other key stories like the situation in Myanmar and the good news about the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine.

Well... it's all going to get a helluva lot worse with BBC and terrestrial channels when Paul Dacre is appointed Chair of Ofcom. He's a very right wing Brexiteer, Boris's choice,and he is Editor of all wings of Daily Mail, the BBC will be dumbed down even more.

@Pinkblueberry

I used to live in Germany and watch their news - they have the ‘tagesschau’ on at 8 and by 8.15 they have covered about 10 topics not including the sports and weather! I felt way more informed watching that than Bbc news at 6 drawling on - every news point (only about 3 or 4) is followed up by some random studio interview that adds no extra information whatsoever.

Some of us want depth in our news coverage. If that’s what you want there are news outlets that will give you a quick summary. I personally enjoy seeing politicians (of all colours) being made to defend their ineptitude.

Russia, Myanmar and Brexit effects in N Ireland all extremely critical states. They should not be ignored.

@Vinyl there is no depth though - so much is repetition. The news presenter explains what has happened, then the clip repeats what the news reader has said, then the news reader talks to someone in the studio about what they just mentioned in the clip... that is not depth. You know no more from seeing that than from watching a roundup - it just takes longer to watch.

There’s plenty of depth in some news sources. I listen to the Today programme because that’s where you go for it. You choose the news outlet that’s the best fit for you. God knows there are enough to choose from these days - it’s not the 1950s when it was the BBC and nothing else.

I’m in Scotland and I would rather the news bulletins concentrated on the fact that England has just offered us assistance with our failed vaccination program.
The SNP have missed their own target by half a million doses by the end of Jan and the rollout is slowing down. For my age group, Scotland is 2 months behind England.
I think that’s more newsworthy than the death of a centenarian, whatever his achievements, great though those were.

Agree, OP.

BBC breakfast has long lost its way with the way it gabbles through the headlines then emotes endlessly on the human interest story of the day. The GP appointment slot at 6.30am gives me the rage too. I've switched to Sky news for a more comprehensive headline slot.