Is the R4 news dumbing down to amoeba level?

[jodevizes]

I am incredulous at how R4 news and infact all their news outlets are becoming dumb. Not even the Queens speech is sacred. Why do we need to hear what it is going to say then have it then report it again.

For goodness sake they should be reporting the news and leave speculation to the tawdry rags.
Then the cricket, not enough to have the boring ashes, but now. all of a sudden, it has become 'the oldest cricket competition in the world'. Big Deal.

Maybe I am becoming cranky after waking up early seeing Stephen Sakar on BBC1 with Hugo Chavez, turning that off and putting on R4, only to find Stephen Sakar with a senior politico from Slovenia. Ahhhggg.

I couldn't agree more. All that "X will say" stuff, followed by a lengthy but shallow revelation that, yes, they did say it, drives me bonkers.

Listen to the World Service for news- they don't bother with speculative crap.

Agree, WS is fabulous. So pleased it's available on digital.

This morning I turned off Today in disgust as Evan Davies asked some completely predictable questions of a correspondent in the Ivory Coast, getting some completely predictable and unenlightening answers back. They seem to think that the news is a soap opera that writes itself, and if nothing's happened they should just repeat the last episode. Funny how, with three hours at their disposal- longer than any other radio programme, as far as I know- they keep running out of time. It was so much better when they went on strike and we got birdsong instead.

I don't know. There's bugger-all going on in the news at the moment and I think the Today team do well to spin out a few threadbare stories to the full 3 hours without tripping up more than they do.

After the removal of Ed, which I regret, I gave Today a few chances, with both Evan and the guy that was over in the USA for ages, but no, they routinely ran out of time

I caught the end of today's show as I set my alarm for 08:45, no point listening to stopwatch radio more often than necessary) and they had a weather specialist explaining how the jet stream affects our weather, and again sounded like a rushed ending thanking her for talking to him...

So predictable, even though this had no "we're out of time" for a change, and they still managed to nearly crash the pips...

Round here, a well-executed Today Pip Crash gets a cheer. I'd be disappointed if they got to the pips with seconds to spare....

As for The World Tonight's interviewee (yesterday, re VAT), the 'Research Director' of Planet Retail could not work out that the VAT portion of a price is only ONE SIXTH (but claimed it was ONE FIFTH) and claimed that on 1000 pounds the extra VAT would be 25 pounds (actually it is 21.28) so in my view the firm he works for should send him to do remedial maths until he can get his head around such minor details as the TRUTH if he presents 'Research' figures to anyone, for money!

PS was "and the BBC should interview and check such info before airing figures that are wrong".

They have so many 'live' interviews and then struggle to fit people in, where they might better plan if they did the interviews in the hour before air time!

This morning my dh switched off the radio as he wanted to see the eclipse so switched on the bbc breakfast news.

Now, that's dumbed down to amoeba level, I couldn't believe how crap it was, and the presenters were so disorganised, dumb and unprofessional. Truly ghastly. Even Evan Davies sounds intellectual in comparison

Am switching to WS after this thread though (even though I also have a bit of a crush on John Humpheys' voice).

Speaking of bad figures I watched the Xmas RI lectures, or tried to, and in the very first one the prof giving the lecture got his arithmetic wrong (check it out on iPlayer and you'll see what I mean). I was so incensed I threw the TV out of the window, but as he predicted it failed to disintegrate on account of its small size and relatively large surface to mass ratio. I am now going to buy a 60" plasma TV and throw that out of the window while watching a repeat.

Ws and also PM is good - Eddie Mair good at getting the best out of interviewees, plus v funny.

What infuriates me about the 'news' is there's too much of it esp. on radio 2 (every half hour in the morning F.F.S.) and it's never NEW, repetition all the time AAAAAAH.