24-05-2024, 10:17 PM
(24-05-2024, 01:11 PM)Critique Wrote: I’ve had an eye on the news channel over the past few hours and the pacing has been a little strange.
At 11am things started off quite busy, with a headlines sequence that was followed by a series of live interviews with correspondents (both BBC and external) about election things. There was then a bit on the Post Office inquiry, which was interrupted for coverage of a live speech by the Lib Dems, before going back to discuss the inquiry again. Not a packaged report in sight, but it felt reasonably pacy and they covered a range of topics, albeit mostly election-related.
However, when they went back to the Post Office feed the second time round they proceeded to show it, uninterrupted, for nigh-on 45 minutes - it felt like everyone that had been putting the programme together up to that point had wondered off!
Ben Thompson was the presenter at 11am hour, so did he perhaps go to present Business Today on the World feed for half an hour? It was like returning to one of the single-story feeds they’ve been putting on the BBC News website, as with the exception of an occasional name caption for Paula Vennells, the story strap read ‘Ex-Post Office boss accused of living in ‘la-la land’’ for almost the entire time too. In days of old, this would have regularly been updated with quotes and further background to whatever was being discussed.
At around 12:10 things seemed to whir back into life, Ben Thompson reappeared and there was a further 50 minutes with a range of interviews and occasional clips. The Post Office inquiry got a couple of extra minutes in that time, but otherwise attention moved elsewhere.
I was switching between the BBC and Sky and both were seemingly doing the same. The issue with covering inquiries is that you need to let it play out and listen to the testimony without interrupting. I think the news channel got the balance right with its coverage of the PO and the election. I think maybe more could be done on screen to cover other news whilst watching the live PO footage.