[ginnyfan]

Having access to UK feed today, tuning in at 10.25 to see a woman talking to a person on the phone about their hotel room experiences. Switching to Sky News where a presenter is interviewing a guest in the studio about Ukraine war. Both of these are supposed to be NEWS channels.

[Rolling News]

The atmosphere of what it’s like to work at This Morning is now the worlds most important story, judging by the 1100 BST BBC News bulletin.

[ginnyfan]

As soon as the UK joins, they go back to this tabloid trash story. World feed was Schofieldless this morning.

It's beyond ridiculous that this is the top story in the UK as well. Philip's Instagram reaction and how This Morning started today. It's like a TV Forum news channel.

[James2001]

The atmosphere of what it’s like to work at This Morning is now the worlds most important story, judging by the 1100 BST BBC News bulletin.

A show I imagine 99% of non-UK viewers had never heard of before the last couple of weeks. Now are having it forced down their throats.

[DAL1189]

This is the reality of the merger though, no? I can't really criticise them for it because you might not like it but you cannot deny the Schofield story *is* one of the biggest stories in the UK right now. Its perfectly legitimate for them to cover it, and UK viewers would probably expect some news about it when they turn on the channel. Of course international viewers might not know anything about Schofield or who he is, but UK viewers probably wouldn't know too much about the finer points of the recent Greek or Turkish elections either.

[Studio7]

 Switching to Sky News where a presenter is interviewing a guest in the studio about Ukraine war. Both of these are supposed to be NEWS channels.

Well, err, how do I put this...? The Ukraine war is news. Big, big news.

[News76]

And so is Luton Town's Victory parade it seems (since a UK opt-out has started for that)

[DTV]

This is the reality of the merger though, no? I can't really criticise them for it because you might not like it but you cannot deny the Schofield story *is* one of the biggest stories in the UK right now. Its perfectly legitimate for them to cover it, and UK viewers would probably expect some news about it when they turn on the channel. Of course international viewers might not know anything about Schofield or who he is, but UK viewers probably wouldn't know too much about the finer points of the recent Greek or Turkish elections either.

It's not the reality of the merger, no. The merged channel should focus on the major international and UK news. While this story is undeniably a talking point in the UK, it is frankly not actually particularly newsworthy, even before getting on to international viewers. Even though (rightly) not as patrician as it once was, the BBC should still be delivering news more based on what viewers need to/should know than on the tabloid-esque what they want to know. While there might be a level of coverage that can be given over to such a story on the channel, it should be low down the running order, if not an In Brief item. To treat it as not just a major world story but the lead story is a major editorial misjudgement and, in my view, unjustifiable.

I'm also not particularly sure the point you're making comparing the Schofield story to international elections. Sure, there is a knowledge imbalance, but the job of the news is ultimately to explain what has happened and why it matters. That's quite easy to do with an election - particularly in countries of reasonable size. It's a lot harder to do with a story about presenter turnover on a not particularly major UK TV programme.

Honestly, the whole shift in the last few weeks - most noticeable with the Schofield story - just reeks of a typical BBC reaction to criticism they likely got over the lower levels of UK news on the new channel. Rather than stand their ground and make their case or think any changes through, it looks like they've gone down their usual route of knee-jerk overcorrection and are now deliberately pushing UK stories up the running order, regardless of their news value.

[Studio7]

What I found most interesting, though, was that there's been a seeming shift in the last few weeks, particularly in terms of lead stories. In the first four weeks (April), UK news led 7 times (25%) - nearly all of which were reasonably justifiable editorially. But in the last four weeks (May), UK stories have led 15 times (54%). Obviously, some of this is the Coronation, but there does seem to be a greater lean towards certain UK-big, World-nothing stories recently. In the last week, Madeleine McCann led over F16s being given to Ukraine; the Cardiff car crash over De Santis' presidential bid; and UK travel delays over the Turkish election. Does certainly feel like a push to give UK news greater undue prominence.

Obviously this is just a snapshot from (largely) one hour of the day, but it is one of the UK channel's strongest hours, so when more people's perceptions of the channel will be formed.

Weren't we constantly being told, by the self-appointed forum BBC spokespersons, that the channels were merged because only global news channels are viable now? Yet this supposed global news channel has consistently led with nonsense stories like the Schofield saga, which is completely irrelevant to this incredibly important global audience. Most people in the UK probably don't even care, so heaven knows what people in Dallas, Delhi or Dubai must think! 

Instead of this bold, punchy, truly global news channel we were promised, what we have very much appears to be the worst of both worlds.

[ginnyfan]

I've heard it all now. Schofield's Instagram story is equally newsworthy as European country's elections. Only if BBC is becoming TMZ UK in which case they shouldn't even report on the elections.

BBC used to have certain criteria in delivering news but those days seem to be over for good.