decisions, decisions…
Posted by ewancrawford on April 3, 2009
There were two massive stories for news organisations to cover this week – the G20 and the tragic helicopter crash in the North Sea.
One of these – the G20 summit in London – would have been the subject of massive preparation – particularly by the BBC and other broadcasters.
The other, the helicopter tragedy, was the kind of news event that requires quick and difficult decisions – both in terms of how to cover the story and where to place it in running orders.
Looking back over the week I still find it hard to believe that the BBC Ten o’ Clock News decided to lead on Wednesday night with a long, long preview of the G20 rather than the North Sea disaster.
It seemed a clear case of ”we’ve done the planning and we’re not changing it now, no matter what.” But it revealed once again the metropolitan mind-set that can warp news values.
Nothing of substance had been announced from the G20 – because the actual summit had not even started – and there had been some demonstrations with limited violence in the City of London. But this was indeed happening in London – and that surely can be the only reason why news editors decided that this was a more important story at that point (I’m not belittling the importance of the G20 as a whole) than the terrible events off the coast of Scotland.
I didn’t see it myself but I know that some journalists in Scotland were outraged by the BBC News Channel’s coverage of the First Minister’s statement on the helicopter disaster – essentially, I am told, cutting away from it to discuss among other things Michelle Obama’s dress-sense.
Last night, when admittedly something had actually happened at the summit, the BBC at one stage seemed to use most of its foreign staff to deliver pointless, mini-reports on the reaction in various capitals around the world: “James, can you explain China to us in 20 seconds?”
The tone of the coverage between the BBC Ten and Newsnight was also instructive – cheer-leading on the main news compared with greater scepticism from Paul Mason.
By the way, for a brilliant analysis, try this from The Guardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliot.
I’m not saying the BBC’s coverage of the G20 wasn’t slick or well-presented, but it seemed to lack substance and ultimately, demonstrated that it wasn’t only the Prime Minister who got carried away by over-blown talk of the world coming together.
