An edition of the six o'clock news last week featured a story regarding complaints about a BBC show. I can't even remember what the show in question was. Why not? Because it wasn't news. Nobody apart from BBC News deemed it newsworthy. Using a national news bulletin as a vehicle for defending your organisation against complaints, especially when no other news network is reporting on the complaints, just isn't news. It's like watching somebody talk about themselves in the third person - toe-curling.
Celebrity gossip needs purging from our culture all together. The outcomes of the Leveson Inquiry may generate the necessary impetus towards achieving this goal. We can but hope.
An edition of the six o'clock news last week featured a story regarding complaints about a BBC show. I can't even remember what the show in question was. Why not? Because it wasn't news. Nobody apart from BBC News deemed it newsworthy. Using a national news bulletin as a vehicle for defending your organisation against complaints, especially when no other news network is reporting on the complaints, just isn't news. It's like watching somebody talk about themselves in the third person - toe-curling.
Think you're about right there - I think the BBC would call it being impartial by covering bad points of their organisation but the fact is, it is not newsworthy.
It annoyed me slightly that the Strictly Come Dancing final was included in the BBC News Channel coverage today and yesterday, with Lizo Mzimba reporting and including a discussion on the channel with someone involved in betting - when it's closest rival (X-Factor) was barely covered at all.
If I remember right too, a couple of years ago the BBC News at Six had a Strictly Come Dancing story where they had studio lights flashing to give a 'showbiz' look - although a clever effect it's ridiculous for a main news bulletin. I'm a big fan of the BBC but it is far from flawless..
I completely agree with the need to purge national news bulletins of all celebrity gossip. It's totally unnecessary and a waste of valuable time that could be devoted to proper news stories. I think editors should have this as a rule of thumb - if one cannot imagine Alastair Burnet and Sandy Gall reading out a story, it should not be included. Simples
The thing is though, there is a demand for it. Just look to the summer when none of the networks were covering what Ryan giggs was up to, only the debackle with the super injunction. Despite them all saying why they couldn't discuss the story, there was lots of "yeah, but everyone knows anyway, they should be reporting it" comments over the 'net and in real life.
People are nosey. You need to irradicate that before you'll irradicate gossip.
WRT the complaints about a BBC show last week, I assume this was the frozen planet controversy, which was caused by the tabloid press seeing a "how it was made" video and deciding the public had been misled. The video in question was on the BBC frozen planet website.
Goodness me, that reference is so out of date you could call it "olds".
I've just realised that this thread is entitled "Divided We Stand".
Why?
I called it "Divided We Stand" because looking at the old YT clips it seemed to me that a clear division of "hard"and "soft" news would be better as it would allow viewers the greater choice. If they wanted political news etc tune in at 6PM and current affairs at 7PM
Yes there is a space for entertainment news but unsure as to where to put it,
Is "so-and-so wins strictly come dancing" entertainment news or celebrity gossip?
I would argue it is neither. It isn't news, when you break it down in to it's simplest form "A constant in a competition has won the competition in the normal way with no unexpected events occurring" it is not a news story, entertainment or otherwise. It isn't really gossip either, it was something not unexpected that happened in a television programme.
A couple of years ago when they messed up the voting and it transpired that the 3rd place constant could not be saved, THAT was entertainment news. Just like that isn't news, "A film has been released" or "A book has been published" isn't news either.
Also, who does it benefit? Anyone who was interested would already know because they had watched the programme or wouldn't want to know because they haven't yet watched the programme.
Is "so-and-so wins strictly come dancing" entertainment news or celebrity gossip?
I would argue it is neither. It isn't news, when you break it down in to it's simplest form "A constant in a competition has won the competition in the normal way with no unexpected events occurring" it is not a news story, entertainment or otherwise. It isn't really gossip either, it was something not unexpected that happened in a television programme.
How is that different to the hundreds of football results read out daily? OK, some of them might be a major upset, but the majority of the time, they're something not unexpected that happened in a football match.
