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Cameron might welcome conference coverage without BBC ego-trips
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1 October 2010
Oh how intensely the Beeb's chatterati and Kremlinologists will be studying today's coverage of their letter calling on colleagues not to strike next week.
I'm not saying you have to have an enormous ego to be one of the Beeb 'big hitters' but it helps. So who do The Guardian deem to be the most newsworthy big hitters of 35 names on the letter? Step forward Huw Edwards, Jeremy Paxman, Martha Kearney and Nick Robinson as the four named in the Guardian's intro on page 3.
Knowing them as I do, I would score them at 3, 4, 3, and 7 on the egometer, an entirely subjective AC device that assesses how much I think they like the viewer to be thinking about them rather than the issues and people they are reporting. (3 is healthy, 7 is not)
Alongside pictures of said four are those of Emily Maitlis (5, and the sexy clothes don't help), Reeta Chakrabarti and Carolyn Quinn (3 each) and Michael Crick (joint leader with Robinson on 7). Interesting that the women score less than the men.
The Guardian publishes the letter in full and then adds a longer list of signatories at the bottom of the page. I fear this means this particular paper sees those in the longer list as second league. I think Jim Naughtie and Jon Sopel will be a little miffed not to have been at least in the top 8 - I suspect The Guardian was doing a bit of positive discrimination (aka a cry from what used to be called the backbench for nice pictures of women for the top of the page please). Peter Allen is also quite a hitter but radio faces are a harder shout for picture editors. Ditto John Pienaar who is more radio than telly these days. Radio in general tends to lower the ratings on the egometer, though John Humphrys drives up the average somewhat. His name appears to be absent.
But what are we to feel for people described only as '21 other signatories'. Mon coeur saigne, as the Paris correspondents might say. The '21 others' will be feeling jolly low today.
The celebritisation of TV news presenters and reporters has been quite an important part of the development of the soap-operization of politics. Most broadcast coverage of politics now is anchor talking to colleague with a few 'respected' (by whom I wonder) colleagues from the newspapers thrown in, and every now and then a politician might get a word in, followed by NR7 or MC7 telling you what it all means in their (not so) humble opinion.
With the Labour conference still going on yesterday, I would have imagined The Guardian's 'news' coverage might have got beyond a piece about whether 'middle England' was able to tolerate Ed Miliband's unmarried status and his atheism. I was asked to contribute to this yesterday and said no on the grounds it was just more soap-operization. But little did I expect it to drive out all else going on in Labour ranks (oh, apart from what we call JFOJ - junk food of journalism - aka an opinion poll.)
In their letter, the 'BBC stars' and the '21 other signatories' say it will appear unduly partisan if the strike hits coverage of the Tory conference alone. Given how up the coalition's bum they are most of the time, partly because of Corporation fears about the license fee, and whether the Tories will deliver on some of the demands made by the Murdoch Empire, this is not something that ought unduly to concern them. For those writing the letter, I suspect the real fear is less about accusations of partisanship, and more about losing one of THE big weeks in the 'stars' calendar.
As for the Tories, if I were them, I would be finding out whether the Beeb, if the strike goes ahead, can't just get the Parliament channel coverage (uninterrupted, without incessant interventions from 'stars', sometimes telling you what is being said even as it is being said, while the person saying it is talked over, and then giving their ((unwanted by all but the anchor))opinions,) switched to Beeb 1 or 2. It'd be like the old days, when there was less space but more coverage, fewer channels but more debate, and viewers could find out what was happening for themselves, rather than be treated by those who think they know better as having the attention span of a gnat.
Viva Parliamenta Channel. All they'll need is a few freelance camera and sound engineers.
Cameron Direct - finally, it can happen.
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I agree the coverage on the BBC parliament is the best, as you see the conferences as if you were really there, minus the prima donna performances in the little studio or outside in the cold.
Only Laura Kuenssberg is the one correspondent who I listen to and respect for her take on what is happening.
Does your ego-meter only go up to 7, as I would have thought Nick Robinson should have scored higher
I agree. I very much appreciate the BBC Parliament Channel. I loathe journalists who talk over speeches and then insult me by analysing the speech. I have no time for any of them but admit to reading their blogs to keep up with gossip.
NR7’s interview with D Milliband on Wednesday was perfect illustration of his ego – he could not see past his own opinion of what David said to Harriet and what it all meant according to him! DM looked thoroughly cheesed off with him.
On the Tory conference though, it is such a fantastic conglomeration of weirdos, dinosaurs, ‘twisted red faces’ (copyright JP), hangers and floggers and walking genetic accidents that it can only be to Labours benefit to have them all over the telly. It’s hilarious!
I bet Frances Maude sings this year…..
Yes, they are a strange crowd. But at least they don’t go on about their favourite bloody teams all the time. Can somebody drop the hint to Burnham and co that, actually, there’s nothing particularly admirable or clever about watching other people play football ?
I dont know where you get “all the time” from, I cannot recall a single, front line politician ever mentioning which team they support and I watch/listen to a lot of this stuff.
I agree about the Parliament channel – a blessed is the number 81 on my freeview. It is amazing on the News and terrestrial channels how those inane anchors just keep on talking and talking completely gibberish even after someone has started their speech. It was even worse during the Pope’s visit, when I had to transfer over to Sky to get a bit of unmediated coverage, and that’s saying something!
The letter says that impartiality is the watchword for BBC´s political coverage. Having watched a lot of BBC original programming during the general election, this is news to me!
And please also remember Andrew “you are on a roll” Marr.
And Nick Robinson would not last a week on our TV.
The real problem is that the government is set to start a massive brainwashing operation with the BBC and Murdoch press plus all the other usual suspects.
They will repeat the all too familiar fairy tale that despite attacking Big Government on numerous occasions and wanting a smaller state for ideological reasons, David Cameron does not want to cut a penny but is forced to do so because Labour somehow miraculously caused the global economic crisis.
The financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent recession were caused by banks, traders and economists. Now the right is trying to blame public sector for problems caused by private sector.
The cuts are oversized and ideological. They are too deep and too fast. It is time to forget ideology and be flexible. Keynes said that when the facts change, I change my mind.
If anyone believes this complete nonsense by the government and the media, he also believes that the Moon is made of cheese.
The deficit is a pretext because the coalition knows that their cuts are unpopular.
Hmm. The BBC may go on strike over the cuts that the Tories are implementing, therefore the Tories conference may lack conference coverage. Irony. And those that do protest against their colleagues (who get them on air) right to strike, perhaps should look at their “impartiality” status. Without them, their AC ego-meter would be in negative figures.
I assume you’d give yourself an 8.
Interesting (and robust) responses to the letter from the NUJ’s Simon Vaughan and Ian Pollock (also in the Guardian).
Agree about the Parliament channel – it’s quite instructive to see an unedited debate, without Nick Robinson or Laura Kuenssberg presenting an edited version and spoon-feeding the audience a pro-Tory spin.
Laura K makes Nick (former Chairman of the Conservative Students) Robinson look nearly impartial by comparison. Even Andrew Neill is more critical of the Tories/LibDems than she is!
I love the Parliament Channel its a great service far,far better than the talking heads the beeb has now,I’ve said it before the whole of the BBC news team needs clearing out every last man (and women) of them start again and perhaps this time they wont treat viewers like 4 year olds.
The Beeb lot must be gutted to miss the opportunity to fill out an expenses claim for a little jaunt away….
Despite their ego issues, I think the presenters, and now Ed Milliband, are right in asking the NUJ to move the dates of their strike. If not, it will only be used by the Tories and the Tory media in their rabid anti union and anti Miliband rants.
Sickening that the BBC is now having to be creepy to the coalition because of Murdoch. He seems to win the content war, even when he doesn’t own the broadcaster or newspaper. The situation is wrong and dangerous and getting worse, with the Murdoch empire set to own over 50% of our newspapers and TV.
Will understand if you feel you should delete this, AC, but there is now a campaign calling for a media commission to look at ownership and regulation. It’s called DemocracyFail and recently started on Twitter. It received a lot of interest in Manchester this week and is set to grow. Please support it if you care about these things.
Thanks for the steer on DemocracyFail Jacquie – a much needed initiative. For those like me who are not big Twitterers they have a web site: http://democracyfail.wordpress.com/
While I’m here just got to say that TV news people interviewing each other is absolutely one of my pet hates. Not serious and not news.
Now – remind me – just who WAS responsible in the beeb for pulling the plug on TB at the close of his final PMQ’s?
Didn’t hear many of their own saying how rude, how disrespectful, how biased, how “it lets us all down”.
Dogs that choose not to bark, eh?
To be fair the head of BBC News immediately put something up on the Editors Blog to the effect that it was a massive cock up and offering profuse apologies – so they were quick of the mark.
The one I always find amusing is when the reporter (NR is a culprit) is talking about the politician who is standing right behind them as though they’re not there.
I know it’s meant to feel as though the reporter is ‘right in there’ but it’s always odd when they seem to be clearly within earshot of each other and they pretend they aren’t with the reporter telling you what the politician thinks.
Amusing and annoying in equal measure.
You beat me at the Great North Run again this year.
Enough of that. I have to say I could not agree more with the statements and sentiments in this article.
I love the idea of your egometer Alastair 🙂
I kept reading that as ‘big hitlers’ for some reason.
I quite like Nick Robinson because he seems to have a real and unbridled passion for politics. I can’t claim to know any of them, but Jeremy Paxman would be top of the ego charts for me, purely in terms of how he comes across on TV.
Where would Campbell be on the egometer? I suspect he would be over 7. And why the focus on the BBC? What about Sky news reporters? There is one in particular I’m thinking of.
75% of what the beeb does is wonderful – BBC4 is a gem, but the 25% at the sharp end is a bit tiresome, and that can be seen at times by the blasé attitude of Paxo. I think he finds the beeb getting a bit tiresome in their Little England institutional thinking, at times.
And I hope beeb4 has an honest assessment of Dylan Thomas coming in 2014, the century of his birth.
An Empire son, in the true sense of commenting. World War 2 and all its mushrooms broke his heart, totally.