Saddam and Gomorrah

[Sweder]

'Playground' seems a wholly inappropriate place for a rant on this sensitive subject, but I need to get this off my chest. I've just written to Five Live - I have no doubt my e-mail won't make the airwaves - to complain about the ghoulish coverage of every one of Saddam's last moments this morning.

It all seems like self-important naval-gazing to me, and it stinks. Report the bloody news by all means; stop trying to embellish it. Here's what I wrote to the Beeb - I feel better now.

Phil (Williams), I'm moved to write this morning to berate the BBC for the mawkish 'coverage' of the execution of Saddam Hussain.

The state execution of this former dictator means a great deal to the families of those he had tortured and killed. But do we, the British people, really need minute by minute updates as to how much footage is currently being shown of his last moments? This is the downside of 'rolling news', the need to cram the airwaves with irrelevant minutiae. I presume this is because the powers that be in the news room assume we are all waiting with baited breath for the next morsel of salacious detail.

Newsflash: we're not.

Keep taking the tablets,
Sweder
Lewes
East Sussex

[El Gordo]

That's an intelligent and compassionate response, but I suppose if I'm honest, I share the fascination for, and fuel the demand for, that salacious detail.

That said, my hunger for this sort of thing is pretty quickly satisfied. When the news is hot, as it obviously was this morning, I'll take whatever they throw at me. The problem I have with the Beeb is that they tend not to know when to let stuff go. I don't want to be still hearing/reading about it for days on end, though I suspect we will be.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Working in the media (though not, I hasten to add, as a journalist) I am always of two minds in responding to criticism of it. Yes, on the one hand, the media tends to "steer" us toward the cheaper end of town, but on the other hand, being the fiercely competitive field that it is, you have to acknowledge that they only give the public what they want - if they didn't, they'd quickly go broke.

At the end of the day, the sad truth is that the general public want this crap. Not only want it, but are willing to pay good money for it. And equally sad, there are media barons out there gleefully raking in that money and pumping out the cheap pap that so annoys Sweder and many others (me included).

But Sweder, you are dead right to complain. Media organisations do take notice of complaints, even if there is no acknowledgement given.

The best solution though is to either go for a run, or switch to the sports channel. And next time you see Mr. Murdoch in the street, tap him on the shoulder and have a gentle chat with the bloke.

[Sweder]

I agree, we get the press (and many other things) that we deserve.
Yet my beef is with a public broadcaster, not a private institution. I expect Sky News, ITN and others to study the innards of every story ad nauseum, but the BBC is funded from the public purse, and whilst certainly under pressure to compete is expected to set the standards in sobriety.

I defend with a willing heart Andy's need to feed on the scraps of a story; I also have a voracious appetite for news detail. My dander was raised merely by the subject matter. Not the death of Dr Evil, or even the potential effect on the people of Iraq, but rather the detailed dissection of what other media agencies were and were not broadcasting at the time. Undisguised, unashamed naval-gazing; interviewing media pundits to sensationalise a story that, for Pete’s sake, just hadn’t whipped up the apocalyptic frenzie we’d all expected. There were desperate attempts to link a car bomb atrocity with the hanging, yet even the most ostrich-like listener will be aware these are a (sadly) daily occurrence in Iraq. News agencies, the Beeb included, have forgotten their principal duty - to report the news. They seem intent upon trying to make it these days.

Five Live is worthy of closer scrutiny.
This is supposed to be a news and sports channel, boasting some excellent presenters skilled in balancing light-hearted items with the gravest issues. Yet it seems to me the station prides itself on the rudeness of its' ‘star’ newsmen and women. I'm all for probing questions, especially to the answer-dodging villains who call themselves politicians, yet it seems de rigueur to ask the next questions before the interviewee has drawn breath to answer the first. It's as if there's a panel of judges to impress - Strictly Come Presenting if you like.

Űberhacks like Nikki Campbell and Victoria Derbyshire need to take a week off and listen to John Humphries grill a victim. Makes the Spanish Inquisition seem like Richard Whitely, and not a trace of bad manners in sight.

I'll get me grumpy old raincoat, and, like the man said, go for a run.
Up the Snake.
In a storm

[Seafront Plodder]

... the BBC (is funded from the public purse, and whilst certainly under pressure to compete) is expected to set the standards in sobriety...

Certainly that would have been true 20 years ago Sweder. Almost makes one ache for the pre-satellite, pre-round the clock TV that said goodnight after the national anthem at midnight.

You just have to watch a bit of BBC News 24 to see that Our Auntie has had to go the way of the the commercial stations to compete and sadly, MLC is absolutely right.

Thank god for my off button. I'm sure we've all flipped through our 'choice' of some 300 channels and found bugger all worth watching.

On the subject of Saddam, I certainly do not support capital punishment per se, but one should IMO respect the laws of the land in which he was tried.

[Sweder]

On the subject of Saddam, I certainly do not support capital punishment per se, but one should IMO respect the laws of the land in which he was tried.

Don't get me wrong, the SOB deserved to hang.
I just don't need to know what colour underpants the bloke third from the right was wearing.

And this wasn't News 24, it was Five Live, and Rio Ferdinand had just announced that Ronaldo* is (IHHO) the greatest human ever to have walked the Earth, narrowly pushing Mahatma Ghandi into a disappointing second. Surely worthy of more air time?

[SIZE="1"]* That's the smirking Portuguese Winker from the World Cup, not the over-rated pie-swallower from Brazil[/SIZE]

[Seafront Plodder]

I just don't need to know what colour underpants the bloke third from the right was wearing.

Ah but you only think you don't.

And this wasn't News 24, it was Five Live,

I thought we were discussing the BBC's coverage?

[Sweder]

I don't watch News 24, mostly because they at leasat do excatly what it says in the Radio Times. I can hardly complain when a rolling news network broadcasts, er, rolling news. But we're splitting hairs.

I love the BBC and so does my wife.
I would gladly give up all my worldly posessions . . .

[SIZE="1"]see Best Of Not The Nine O'Clock News, available on DVD and video from all good stockists[/SIZE]