[DTV]

I think elections taking priority over showbiz, celebrity and sports topics is something a public broadcaster should do. Even local elections for global audiences are more newsworthy than some TV host on a channel that's restricted to the UK. Very poor form from the BBC though not surprising based on the last few years.

They should, but elections and politics in democracies outside of the UK and US (and weirdly French presidential elections too) have become one of the BBC's real weakspots. The low running order placement of this set of NI local elections is quite unusual though - typically the BBC do give NI elections reasonable coverage, but this time it has been oddly underreported on both the channel and network bulletins - possibly partially down to the NUJ strike. Though, because of that lack of Newsline yesterday, the fact that the elections got little more than a News in Brief paragraph on both the Six and Ten was especially poor.

I guess some would argue that it's part of the BBC's tension in trying to find a balance between not being seen as too patrician/elitist, i.e. 'this is the news you should know', and being too tabloid, i.e. 'the news you want to know' - ultimately, foreign politics is newsworthy, but of little relevance or interest to most people. Though a sensible interpretation of this tension is, of course, somewhat undermined by the incredible placement of the Schofield story, which I wouldn't say was justified as a lead even on domestic bulletins.