Japan: Quake, Tsunami and Nuclear Coverage

Oooh - The news at Six O Clock, with Tim Willcox and Sophie Raworth - Tim's first 6 I believe!

I do wonder what has happened to George Alagiah though.

Seems Tim is the 'go to' man for major news events at the BBC. He's bagged Chile, Egypt and now Japan.

Channel 4 now have Sarah Smith in Tokyo (in addition to Jon Snow and Alex Thomson, who is further north.)

I don't really see what is so good about George Alagiah. As a presenter, he's mediocre, but as a correspondent, he just seems hesitant and quite dull. He is, like some others, a little overrated.

Tim Willcox, as he proved in Chile, shows great professionality and authority with reporting. I'm glad to see him covering this story for his spin on things.

So that brings ITN's known personnel up to around 10, just to feed traditional bulletins on two channels. That makes the BBC having around the same number look quite conservative.


And back to the earlier complaint about lower thirds blurring a two way graphic. They are really getting on my nerves now and just putting me off watching coverage on rolling news channels - they've just gone from being informative to incredibly distracting and intrusive now, and I'm finding myself waiting for the regular terrestrial bulletins instead.

It's not about how good he is or isn't.....I will say though that he IS good, and then some. He was a senior foreign correspondent long before he took to the desk. My question was to ask: where is he, as he hasn't been seen for days yet was the 1st senior/presenter to be sent out there.

Back to the plate tectonics ... seems that there's been an aftershock storm of three within twelve minutes just after 2200GMT. I had hopes that things were improving on that side of the tragedy, seems not.

Suggestion on Twitter that NBC are pulling there news crews out of Tokyo.



http://twitter.com/#!/LoriMatsukawa

Sky's Ian Woods saying he and his team are as yet undecided on leaving.



http://twitter.com/#!/jonsnowC4

Perhaps worth noting that Matt Frei was live at the 2am GMT TOTH, and at around 02:10 handed back direct to Adnan in London, and then answered one of his questions.

Off topic, I can't help but feel for the heroic 50 workers at the Fukushima plant.

Julie Etchingham is on her way back to London.

Did anyone catch that low-key, flat and somewhat "depressed" headline bed that just played under Tim Willcox and Peter Dobbie a few moments ago? Very sombre indeed, and had a very "slight" oriental feel to it. However, it was followed by the normal opening theme music after the intro headlines from both Tokyo and London were read out.

I have never heard that bed before.

The 1500 News Channel TOTH had the regular bed, but it made it on air briefly at 1600 - only for Tim's bit, then back to normal for the headlines from N6. (I'll try to get a clip online, but don't hold your breath)

Nothing to get excited about... the bed used was the one from 'The Hub'.

Interestingly, The Hub was on air on BBC World at the time, who used the same into as the News Channel but the bed carried on with Nik Gowing carrying on after the News Channel had opted out to do the rest of their headlines.

Think it was a simulcast, but just for the stuff from Tokyo with Tim both joining him at the same time on both channels.