News reporting in general but television news in particular, what do you think about it?

[WideWebWitch]

I don't often watch the news or listen to it (I read newspapers online every now and again) but last night I saw the first bit of the 10 O'Clock news and I was perturbed at the way the shooting of the 11 yo boy was covered.

Partly because the parents were dragged on to talk about it - Whyever would we want to see this? Why would they want to give an interview? Why would anyone even ask them? - not only that but the report was cliche ridden and just generally prurient.

It made me realise why I don't watch much tv and certainly why I don't watch the news.

What do you all think? Has it got worse in the last few years? Is it just me?

(This ISN'T about the tragedy of the actual story btw, it is tragic, this is about news reporting)

Slightly OT, but I was astonished to see those pics of Emily Maitlis perched on the frikkin DESK, on NEWSNIGHT, fgs. And there was something in the Grauniad today about how Nick Robinson, if he's doing a report about Brown's rather significant constitutional proposals, will get himself filmed emerging from a pile of parchment rolls (cos hey, kids, constitutional reform is dull, dull, dull!)

Again, reminds me of that Day Today sketch in which Collaterly Sisters does a report about spending cuts in the NHS, and every time she outlines a new cut, she reaches her hand inside a cadaver and pulls out a bloody organ or piece of offal.

The BBC TV news just isn't for grown-ups any more.

I agree with this. One of my jobs is to read the news on the radio and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to do because I'm not quite sure why I'm doing it and why I'm covering certain stories in certain ways.

But Edam, they don't need to report in tabloid style, they just don't. And just because someone wants to tell their story, doesn't mean it's a story worthy of being told.

The news I caught last night was very Chris Morris.

I feel very uncomfortable watching the news because I get the distinct feeling the reporters are really really hoping for death and distruction at every turn.

Take a big car/train/bus crash, for example, they report on it and always sound really disappointed if nobody is dead.

Reporters only care about the story as a story, iyswim. Not as something terrible that is happening to people.

And I'm convinced they carry around a burnt teddy bear and a single red shoe to place at the site of every disaster, ready for the camera to pan round to them.

LOL at Marthamoo's parody, v. apt.

Where the hell did I say anything about 'the noble media' though? MT, I really do get very cross indeed about that sort of low-down debating trick. Don't pretend I said something I didn't. You don't need to misquote me in order to make your point, you are perfectly capable of saying it all by yourself.

And then to have the cheek to talk about emotional bloody journalists! As for reactionary, did you really mean to use that word?

Not really all that relevant I know but DB (reporter for AP in Pakistan, formerly in Afghanistan, not in the UK very often) watched BBC News when on holiday here recently and thought it was crap.

Oh for heaven's sake, just seen your last post. The teddy bear/red shoe is taken from Drop the Dead Donkey, which was SATIRE. As for journalists not caring about people, I don't know if you've noticed but every journalist I've ever met has been a human being too, you know.

One minute we are too emotional, the next we are too detached. Make your mind up.

My only post.

Satire - a literary form in which vices or follies are ridiculed

=

It's funny cos it's true

The police absolutely drive the human interest element of stories. They know that unless people are interested in the story, it will fade and the chances of people coming forward also fades.
I find it amazing that people criticise the papers if they don't cover the story and also if they do.
One of the things said over and over again about Madeleine McCann is that a/she gets 'too much' publicity and other children don't get enough.
It's hard to write/broadcast nothing.
Also, relatives do want to tell their story. Even in grief they want what happened to matter. For people to know how they feel, how bad it was, and to listen to their memories about their dead child/parent/sister whatever.
I've interviewed people who have had horrible things happen in their family - daughter murdered, sister murdered. Nobody has ever complained about my interview or been remotely reluctant. Should we ban them for their own good because they are clearly all too stupid to know what they are doing?
And if it makes no difference at all, why exactly do the police want it to happen?

I agree with silly gimmicks being used to cover political news though!

And I never said anything about emotional. My mind has not been un-made up, based on my only post, where I don't believe I expressed 2 opinions.

Get down off your high horse and come kiss my arse.

Oops, sorry, got my MTs confused... [slopes off shuffling feet awkwardly]

(Can I just say what a delightful arse rather than kissing it?)

Maybe Edam could emerge to make her apology on TV while walking through two enormous butt cheeks made of polystyrene?

PMSL

I've done more embarrassing things in my time, Aloha.

It was Monkeytrousers who misquoted me, not M2P, just got them confused temporarily.

LOL! Ok.

Does this mean we're friends again?

I do agree with www though - just because someone wants to tell their story, doesn't mean that it's necessarily newsworthy. And, FWIW, it's not the job of the BBC to help the police catch criminals either (although if that happens as a by-product, great). The job of the news is to tell us about significant things that have happened. Most people don't need an interview with grievously upset parents to know that an eleven-year-old being killed in the street is unspeakably awful. Meanwhile, extremely significant events across the country and world get no coverage whatsoever.

I agree completely with policywonk re 'The BBC TV news just isn't for grown-ups any more'.

And most TV news channels are just tabloids with moving pictures.

ENORMOUS

et tu Aloha?

The one thing that irritates about television news is the apparent need for sending reporters to the actual place of an incident - why?

The recent foot and mouth is a case in point. Journalist standing outside DEFRA headquarters - and?
Another journalist encamped at the farm and telling us 'and a DEFRA official arrived this morning and walked through this gate ...'

blimey THAT gate? that metal one? the one going across the field?

Also, asking people feel how they feel when they've just been through something horrendous .........

I would really like to see Edam do aloha's polystyrene butt-cheek thing.

LOL can I just mention again how svelte they looked from my POV?

I would say that the effect on relatives IS part of the story. Unless we are saying that victims don't count, which is what a lot of people do feel.

Oh Lord, this being MN I bet someone will crop up who can source some enormous polystyrene butt cheeks...