The biggest cringe in Scotland

Today’s Sunday Times Scottish edition includes a classic piece of self-loathingfrom columnist Jenny Hjul.  Jenny is horrified at the prospect of a news bulletin produced from Scotland replacing the network six o’clock news. The usual argument from opponents of a Scottish Six is trotted out: the weakness of Reporting Scotland and Newsnight Scotland. But in her enthusiasm Jenny just makes some stuff up. She reports that when Jeremy Paxman says: “Let’s go to Washington to hear the latest from the American elections” viewers in Scotland have to put up with a re-hash of an old Scottish story. Really?  I watch Newsnight nearly every night. I live in Scotland and have watched hours of US election coverage before the 11 pm opt-out. 

But rational argument is not really what Jenny is about. It all boils down to the fact that she thinks we in Scotland are just too rubbish to produce a national news bulletin. A  Scottish Six would be “nationalistic” and parochial apparently. The point is, of course, that it would be anything but. In fact it would completely alter the outlook of BBC Scotland.  Yes, Reporting Scotland is a regional programme with regional values. But that’s because that’s what the producers are told to produce. A Scottish Six would cover Scottish, UK and international stories. In fact what makes Jenny’s argument seem most odd is that she works in Scotland for a newspaper – the Scottish edition of the Sunday Times that aims to cover, er, Scottish, UK and international stories. But I assume she thinks it’s just a load of nationalistic, parochial rubbish. I am waiting for next week’s column when she urges people to write to the editor of The Sunday Times urging an end to the Scottish edition so that readers can get the proper UK agenda with lots of stories about the US elections instead of all these terrible Scottish columnists.  

Update: more of the same from Tom Little of Scotland on Sunday but with a desperate new twist - Jonathan Ross’s obscene salary now appears to be another reason why we should not have a Scottish Six. Yes, he’s serious. 

 

 

BBC response to Trust report

They just don’t get it do they? On the BBC’s Editors blog (a great innovation by the way) Mark Byford, the corporation’s Head of Journalism, reveals how they’re going to deal with the Trust’s finding that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are virtually ignored by network news programmes.

Here are the answers:

 (1) ”better labelling of stories to explain how they may apply differently across the UK to improve overall accuracy”. But the Trust criticised the fact that health and education stories are covered only if they apply just to England. ”Better labelling” – ie  emphasising more often that the stories do not apply at all to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, may improve accuracy but rather misses the point of what the Trust was getting at. The idea, Mark, is to cover more stories in , you know, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

(2) ”more case examples of the differences and devolved decision-making to inform all UK audiences more fully.”  Fine – but why not run a Scottish story and then explain the different situation in England rather than the other way around.

(3) “better planning between the UK-wide news operation and our news teams across the UK.” Er, but you sacked people whose jobs were precisely that (see the letter in today’s Herald from Phil Taylor, ex BBC staffer).

(4) “increased training.” Are you joking? Are you seriously suggesting there are people in senior editorial positions at the BBC unaware of the policy impact of devolution?

Instead of all those, how about trying this: understand that you are broadcasting to the whole of the UK and cover all the nations equally. If you don’t want to do this, please stop taking our licence-fee.  

 

BBC ignores Scotland shock

The conclusions of the investigation by the BBC Trust into the corporation’s coverage, or rather non-coverage, of Scotland and Wales fall into the “no sh** Sherlock” category. Anyone who watches the BBC network news will not be surprised that in the words of Sir Michael Lyons, the Trust chairman:    “the resounding message from this review is the BBC is falling short of its own high standards and is not meeting properly its core purpose of helping to inform democracy.”

But the sheer scale of the London-centric news agenda, revealed by the report,  is still staggering. One statistic in particular should mean an instant rebate on the licence fee for everyone living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: ”the study found that of 136 stories about health and education, all 136 dealt with England alone. ” Not one, single story about health and education outside England was broadcast to a UK audience – totally unacceptable from news editors whose wage packets are paid for by people across the UK.