News blackout
I feel as if I'm living in a country run by a repressive regime with a state media organisation which broadcasts only selective items. I'm referring to the BBC TV's blanket coverage of the Olympics. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a "too much sport on TV" complaint. I love it. I'm thrilled that the BBC has 24 extra channels dedicated to showing as much as possible of the Olympics. I also don't have a problem with them giving BBC One more or less completely over to Olympic coverage. My gripe is with BBC News 24.
The key there is the word NEWS. The Olympics is certainly news, and I'm quite happy for them to report major occurrences (spelling? Looks wrong) from the Olympics. Tell me who's won what, tell me about the scandal of the thousands of empty seats, tell me about the badminton disqualifications. Fine. But don't spent the vast majority of every single news bulletin telling me about who might just possibly get a medal in an obscure event no one has ever heard of, (but probably won't,) and interviewing the man who waters the flowers in the Olympic park, and so on ad nauseam. BBC News 24 is a digital channel, so I expect everyone who has access to it has access to the 500 extra channels showing the games, so just tell me the major headlines on the news channel, and then say "For more / detailed coverage, try BBC One or the multiplicity of digital channels."
I just feel like there's a whole world out there, things are probably happening, so PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT IT. Very occasionally, we get a mention of "Lots of people have been killed in Syria, city X or town Y has been shelled... but now back to the Olympic park where our live reporter will interview some of the visitors to find out whether they prefer ponchos or cagoules when it's raining."
I've started watching CNN and I've learned that the US has dustbowl conditions which are likely to affect food prices for THE WHOLE WORLD, that China has had severe flooding (with more storms on the way), that there's an ebola outbreak in Uganda, that the Euro is still in trouble, and so on and so forth. None of that did I learn from the BBC although I knew there was a bit of a heatwave in the US before the games, but it hasn't been mentioned since.
Before the Games overshadowed everything, the two topics getting constant coverage on the BBC news were the eurozone crisis and the Leveson enquiry. I'm assuming Leveson and that whole media circus has gone on their summer jollies, although I don't know for certain. The eurozone crisis, AFAIK, rumbles on and could bring financial ruin to us all, but nary a mention of it on the BBC. Or if so, very fleetingly. Robert Peston is conspicuous by his absence. Maybe he's been put on Olympic coverage duties. Now that would be worth watching! The Olympics according to Robert Peston.
It also annoys me that the BBC can't call the O2 the O2. It's "the North Greenwich Arena" all the time. I figured that out quite quickly, but when I had a rant about it in the office, everyone else went, "Oh, is THAT what they mean? I couldn't figure out what the North Greenwich Arena is!"
Olympic Games = good. Lack of any other news on a so-called news channel = bad. Very bad. Poor show, BBC.
This entry was originally posted at http://mitzimaybe.dreamwidth.org/27752.html. I can rarely respond to comments on LJ, so if possible, please comment on the Dreamwidth article using OpenID instead; thanks.
The key there is the word NEWS. The Olympics is certainly news, and I'm quite happy for them to report major occurrences (spelling? Looks wrong) from the Olympics. Tell me who's won what, tell me about the scandal of the thousands of empty seats, tell me about the badminton disqualifications. Fine. But don't spent the vast majority of every single news bulletin telling me about who might just possibly get a medal in an obscure event no one has ever heard of, (but probably won't,) and interviewing the man who waters the flowers in the Olympic park, and so on ad nauseam. BBC News 24 is a digital channel, so I expect everyone who has access to it has access to the 500 extra channels showing the games, so just tell me the major headlines on the news channel, and then say "For more / detailed coverage, try BBC One or the multiplicity of digital channels."
I just feel like there's a whole world out there, things are probably happening, so PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT IT. Very occasionally, we get a mention of "Lots of people have been killed in Syria, city X or town Y has been shelled... but now back to the Olympic park where our live reporter will interview some of the visitors to find out whether they prefer ponchos or cagoules when it's raining."
I've started watching CNN and I've learned that the US has dustbowl conditions which are likely to affect food prices for THE WHOLE WORLD, that China has had severe flooding (with more storms on the way), that there's an ebola outbreak in Uganda, that the Euro is still in trouble, and so on and so forth. None of that did I learn from the BBC although I knew there was a bit of a heatwave in the US before the games, but it hasn't been mentioned since.
Before the Games overshadowed everything, the two topics getting constant coverage on the BBC news were the eurozone crisis and the Leveson enquiry. I'm assuming Leveson and that whole media circus has gone on their summer jollies, although I don't know for certain. The eurozone crisis, AFAIK, rumbles on and could bring financial ruin to us all, but nary a mention of it on the BBC. Or if so, very fleetingly. Robert Peston is conspicuous by his absence. Maybe he's been put on Olympic coverage duties. Now that would be worth watching! The Olympics according to Robert Peston.
It also annoys me that the BBC can't call the O2 the O2. It's "the North Greenwich Arena" all the time. I figured that out quite quickly, but when I had a rant about it in the office, everyone else went, "Oh, is THAT what they mean? I couldn't figure out what the North Greenwich Arena is!"
Olympic Games = good. Lack of any other news on a so-called news channel = bad. Very bad. Poor show, BBC.
This entry was originally posted at http://mitzimaybe.dreamwidth.org/27752.html. I can rarely respond to comments on LJ, so if possible, please comment on the Dreamwidth article using OpenID instead; thanks.