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There were two more hopeful news items recently. Gordon Brown inserted the word economic before the Israeli/ Palestinian roadmap. That does make sense. Until the Palestinians are given a chance economically there will never be peace. But we will have to wait and see.
Then I heard that the BBC will be looking to create better balance in all its output. Let’s hope that this means a balanced view of world news, not the present total preoccupation with what really amount to neighbourhood gossip. It would appear that first thing in the morning the newsroom chooses 3 or 4 pieces of tittle tattle and they become the news stories of the day on every BBC news channel. You have in the UK to wait for the World Service at 1.00 am to hear what has happened in the rest of the world.
I have long been unhappy with BBC news output. It is far too parochial and shows symptoms of journalistic laziness such as too many government originated stories.
In particular I find most annoying the Radio 4 Today programme habit of forecasting the days news and announcements. Items that start with “The department of XYZ will announce today…” to my mind is a technical breach of a publication embargo on a press release. They seem to get away with it day after day and I can only assume a too cosey relationship between Today journalists and the government departments concerned.
The BBC 24 News programme often picks every possible grain of interest out of a story, bringing in endless specialists to speculate and pontificate. This is lazy. It is only too easy to pick a few stories and then call on known talking heads to fill out the air time rather than search out many more stories from around the globe. As a recent example, Aljazeera English ran a story about fighting in the capital of Somalia and a further news item on the Arab peace plan for Israel with commentary from both sides while News 24 was going over the Iranian capture of British sailors ad infinitum. I finally heard about Somalia on the BBC World Service later on that night. It appears that they take the lazy way out by running and re-running a very parochial story which is easily got together. It is particularly noticeable when there is a home news story which could be of popular interest. On days when there is no such story, the actual scope of their news widens considerably.
Many people have complained in the past how BBC news is biased towards the South East of England and this has not really changed.
The recent outbreak was obviously a serious news item. However, it could not warrant the endless news coverage in every form of media, the top billing and the never ending stream of experts. It would appear that our UK media is so lacking in energy and vision that it falls with gratitude on any story which can be covered by sending a reporter and cameraman to stand outside a deserted factory in the middle of the night and relay banal platitudes to us.
I was vindicated in this belief when one reporter ventured into a nearby town to drum up indignation and fear, only to be met with a wall of total indfference. Well done the people of Suffolk!
