BBC decision to stop airing the daily briefings

[Srictlybakeoff]

Just as things start to get more worrying again, the BBC have decided to stop showing the First Ministers daily briefings. There is an implication that the decision is political. It seems o me to be a very biased move.

Those Labour and Tory politicians that sought to make it harder for Scots to access information during a global health emergency, simply because they are scared of Nicola Sturgeon’s approval ratings, are proof of that.. Sorry I don't understand this, has there been a media blackout that I'm not aware of? Have the newspapers, radio, news channels, Internet, social media all been telling wrong information? Why is it harder for us to get information, purely because its not coming directly from the mouth of NS? Surely she can do a wee podcast or video on the SNP social media channels for those that want this? Pay the paper for a page in advertising/ a wee space on the radio?

The only way we can get information about Covid is to tune into Sturgeon every day? 😂. Come off it, it’s on every TV news bulletin, radio, newspapers and the internet. I’ve heard some crap in my time but this is off the scale.

You find it weird that people watch tv on their lunch break? And want to get information on the worlds biggest health crisis in a century?
I love Nicola's briefings and Janey Godley's piss takes. 'James from Stirling'

It's a terrible decision by the BBC and is obviously political. It lacks transparency and hinders accessibility. If the other parties didn't want NS delivering the briefing, they could have campaigned for a senior civil servant to provide the update or a cross-party group.
They'd rather cut off almost 20% of the population from timely information during a pandemic.

@derxa

You find it weird that people watch tv on their lunch break? And want to get information on the worlds biggest health crisis in a century? I love Nicola's briefings and Janey Godley's piss takes. 'James from Stirling'

I'm not that big a fan of JG.

I saw her live in Dundee a few years ago and she was ripping the shit out of the city, people were laughing along. But after, like,
40 minutes of slagging the place off she'd lost everyone, and the atmosphere was a bit more 'fuck off mate, you're from Glasgow for fuck's sake'

The fake outrage continues. If people want to learn what’s going on they can watch the news/listen to the radio/read a paper/ go online. We don’t need a daily dose of Sturgeon.

What about a daily briefing not from Sturgeon? You seem very dismissive of accessibility issues. That doesn't reflect well on you.

The briefing is pointless. The Westminster one stopped weeks ago.

If you want people to get a message you have to keep repeating it clearly and unambiguously. Not having rotating tag teams taking it in turns to come up with new 'catchy' slogans every other day.

Keep it clear. Keep it simple. The Westminster briefing failed miserably to do that.

The Scottish ones haven't always been crystal clear but I never felt patronised or insulted by them as I have done with some of the Pseudo-ebullience and 'make up big targets we're never going to reach' bullshit from down south.

The new Director General of the BBC ( Tim Davie) stood as a councillor for the Conservatives and was the deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives Party.
The fact that people at the BBC will decide which of the filmed updates will be released to the public on television is not acceptable.

There were no accessibility issues. Covid is covered every day on the numerous news bulletins on bbc/itv/c4/channel 5. If people could watch sturgeon’s broadcasts then they absolutely could watch the news

This is fake outrage combined with bizarre fan girling. No other world leader is doing daily broadcasts so either the message is Scottish people are particularly stupid and need lectures every day or that Sturgeon hasn’t got anything else to do.

We have never had as many options for getting news. 24 hour rolling news channels - several of them. As many websites as you want to look at, social media.

Even for people who don't have internet, there is radio. Channels like BBC Scotland have extensive news coverage through the day, and it seems that hte discussion point on Kaye Adams' show every morning is Covid-related. Music stations like Clyde/Heart/Capital have bulletins on the hour, every hour. You could go old-school and buy a newspaper each morning.

It's a total piece of nonsense that people are relying on a lunchtime briefing for their news. Most people are at work, and even if you're working from home you can't just stop what you're doing and watch telly.

As this progresses, we are going to see different rules in different areas. We're seeing it already - we have stricter rules in greater Glasgow, there was previously a different set of restrictions in Aberdeen. There's no point in a national briefing talking about rules of 6 in people's houses if you;re in an area which means you're not allowed in anyone's house at all.

It's run its course. It needs to stop. Only necessary when something really, really major is announced like moving into Phase 4. Not a daily churning out of hte numbers and "we've put Portugal on the quarantine list" stuff.

It's a question of proportionality. I would support a weekly or perhaps at a stretch bi-weekly briefing now the numbers are going up again.

Daily briefings in Scotland just kept people worried all the time - but from the increasing numbers - not worried enough to change behaviours, or maybe they weren't the ones watching. Never watched it myself - I quite like to destress from wfh with a walk at lunchtime or hang up the washing - got the non SNP soaked summary from BBC website within minutes of it being discussed.

For those worried about older people not getting the updates, well its only in the last decade or so that we've got used to having our news instantaneously. Newspapers are still available and can be delivered daily. Plus there will be a summary of any salient points in the news bulletins.

Westminster is at the opposite end of the spectrum- absolute disgrace to announce the magic circle 6 or whatever nonsense it is at 10.30pm at night, when those of us with jobs and DC to chivvy to school are already in bed.

I don't care who does the briefing. I think you'll find most people who want it to continue, also don't care about who fronts it. Although the objections have been cloaked in criticism of the SNP, this is starting to look like a deliberate attempt to block transparency instead.
If people didn't want to watch the briefing, they didn't have to. It's an 'interesting' approach to leap from 'I don't think want to watch this' to 'no-one else should get to watch it'.
As for the easy availability of information, good usability testing recommends one click to important information. Even the official website has the latest figures buried five clicks in.

@MeridaTheBold we have no idea what percentage of people want to watch it versus those who don't. The only way to find out is to start emailing the BBC with a complaint that it has been withdrawn.

I would suspect viewing figures have dropped or they would keep it on. Or just perhaps they concur that a daily 30 minute platform for coronavirus updates is disproportionate and demonstrates political bias.

We are coming up to an election in Scotland in May. I cannot believe for a minute that if we were 6+ months from an election that Boris would get an hour a day (or whatever) three times a week fronting a TV prog. People would be up in arms and claiming unfairness.
There is no need for NS to front this. Could easily be a report by a medic person.
The result of this election will, imv, decide whether we get another Indyref - that's pretty important. If London could turn back the clock and rerun Brexit I'm sure they would and they would actually give everyone proper information and discussion before it. Not the likes of biased Nigel F putting forth their views. Letting Nicola have tv coverage several times a week is not giving other parties a fair whack.

The people and politicians who campaigned for it to be dropped didn't ask for NS to be replaced. They called for the briefing to be dropped. I think that is an important difference.

Equally NS could have decided months ago that it wasn't necessary or didn't need fronted by her every day but didn't. I wonder why that was?

If Boris was still doing daily updates no one would be up in arms. Those who blindly support him would continue to support him, those who don't support him would be happy he was exposing himself as incompetent. Those who didn't want to see the broadcasts would simply not tune in.

@WeAllHaveWings I think the key difference is that nobody could argue that seeing Boris waffle and pontificate on a daily basis, would in any way boost the ratings for the Tories

Plus he can't even manage a weekly briefing which would be a reasonable frequency in my opinion.

By the time the 1 o’clock need “reports” the briefing content from 12:20 they’ve already decided what “the story” of the day is and what’s newsworthy. That’s not the same as the public information role that the briefing plays. I’ve found the briefing really useful. Happy for it to leave bbc1 though and stay in bbc Scotland channel which has literally no other content going out at that time of day anyway.

@WaxOnFeckOff

Equally NS could have decided months ago that it wasn't necessary or didn't need fronted by her every day but didn't. I wonder why that was?

I remember reading an article by a previous Comms advisor in Whitehall, at the start of the pandemic.

He said that the best way to instil trust and make advice clear is to present one single person every day, who shows a consistent face and becomes trusted more and more over time. He said that's the biggest thing Westminster got wrong: that it was a round robin so nobody could begin to form a relationship of trust with one leader.

I get that. I also think it doesn't need to be NS now, but I'd still like to see her do it often and consistently. She's a leader, leading.

I agree museumum I don't think news reports present the info as factually or fully as the briefing. I don't just want what they decide to be the highlights.
I often read the transcript of the briefing instead of watching, but that won't be available either now.

But instead of the news deciding the highlights, you have NS and team deciding the highlights.

That's what is political, its not about whether the SNP is actively promoting independence or slagging off Westminster, it's that they are deciding what facts and how they are presented that gives bias in itself.

I think when we had an imminent and serious ongoing crisis then the announcements were needed and an element of continuity was good.

Well that's true.
I still think we're in a time of crisis though and want detailed info on numbers etc.

There is plenty of detail about the numbers, people feel they are in a crisis because of the fear being spread in the briefings and the notion that vivid has a mind and is actively watching for folk to slip up to unleash its evil plan.

I wonder why we still aren't being given the split of hospital cases to show who are positive but in for other reasons and who are I'll with covid. I appreciate that there may be a slight crossover where it may not be clear, but this info will be available but they are choosing not to tell us.