:00:23. > :00:32.Will continue his watch. Debate is striking a generation or a dance
:00:32. > :00:36.great? And in his diverge sharply on Wednesdays to industrial action.
:00:36. > :00:46.-- opinions diverged sharply. In a moment, I'll be asking if the
:00:46. > :00:51.coverage was balanced and even- handed. Rubbish piling on the
:00:51. > :00:56.street, the dead lying underlit, power cuts and a three-day week.
:00:56. > :01:05.The nine Dean 70s were a time when the industrial disputes featured
:01:05. > :01:11.nightly on the TV's. -- 1970s. A arguments were raging again, even
:01:11. > :01:21.before this week's action. The majority of opinion was summed up
:01:21. > :01:47.
:01:47. > :01:57.Another in the US objected to this interview. -- viewer. A pensions
:01:57. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:53.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 56 seconds
:02:53. > :02:57.Come Wednesday, the complaints kept Some viewers objected to graphics
:02:57. > :03:05.depicting faceless people waving and shaking their fists, which were
:03:05. > :03:10.described as frightening and unnecessary. Another contrast to
:03:11. > :03:20.the strike. But it was OK for BBC journalists to go on strike about
:03:20. > :03:28.their pensions, but it is not OK for public workers. I am sick of
:03:28. > :03:33.the hypocritical journalists. They are sticking up for the big people,
:03:33. > :03:39.not the small people. They say they are trying to be independent. It
:03:39. > :03:49.does not sound like it. everybody had their perspective.
:03:49. > :04:01.
:04:01. > :04:08.Whether are not we are in for another winter of discontent, views
:04:08. > :04:14.on today's industrial disputes are deeply entrenched. BBC News cannot
:04:14. > :04:18.hope to satisfy everyone, but how can it make sure its coverage is
:04:18. > :04:23.fair and as objective as possible? I am now trained by the head of the
:04:23. > :04:27.BBC's newsroom, Mary Hockaday. Viewers on both sides of the fence
:04:27. > :04:33.seemed to see buyers. How do you ensure even-handedness in such a
:04:33. > :04:37.big story? This is a very big story. To use a phrase used in one of the
:04:37. > :04:41.in house, it is a strength of feeling. Our job with a story like
:04:41. > :04:45.this is to report as objectively as we possibly can to establish the
:04:45. > :04:49.facts, find out what is going on, but also with something like this,
:04:49. > :04:53.very contentious and political sensitive, that we have a really
:04:53. > :04:57.wide range of views. We need to speak to people from all sides of
:04:57. > :05:01.the story, challenge ministers, challenge union neighbours, but
:05:01. > :05:05.also when we are out and about, toured the people striking, not
:05:05. > :05:09.striking, affected, not affected. He would have to say and challenge
:05:09. > :05:13.what they have to say. Some dealers thought the union leaders were put
:05:13. > :05:16.under pressure to justify their position, much more ferociously
:05:16. > :05:21.than the Government to justified the changes in public sector
:05:21. > :05:29.pensions. I would not agree with that. We do indeed challenge union
:05:29. > :05:33.leaders about their position. We want to find out what they want
:05:33. > :05:38.compared to pensions in the private sector. But just as strongly, we
:05:38. > :05:41.challenge the ministers, the many ministers we have had on the
:05:41. > :05:47.airwaves over the last few days to explain their proposals and why are
:05:47. > :05:51.they there, are they negotiating? We challenge all sides of the story.
:05:51. > :05:57.Wednesday was an important day for the Government. Did the BBC come
:05:57. > :06:00.under pressure from that quarter? We constantly know that all sides
:06:00. > :06:04.in these big, contentious stories have a sense of what they would
:06:05. > :06:10.like us to be saying. Believe me, do not worry, we make up their own
:06:10. > :06:15.minds about what we are going to do. Whether a specific complaints from
:06:15. > :06:20.Downing Street that the BBC coverage was biased? We are in
:06:20. > :06:24.touch with all those involved on the story. The key job for us is to
:06:24. > :06:28.make sure we carry on and do the job that we need to do. Another
:06:28. > :06:33.issue raised was that it had spent too much time looking at the
:06:33. > :06:36.disparaging -- disparity between public sector and private sector it
:06:36. > :06:41.pensions and not the inner quality of earnings between some of the
:06:41. > :06:46.poorest workers in the country and some of the richest. These are both
:06:46. > :06:51.pretty beat issues. I am interested in one of the e-mails. It said it
:06:51. > :06:55.was not a striker that pensions, it was about more issues. We all know
:06:55. > :06:59.and reported that the strength of feeling was done by many issues.
:06:59. > :07:03.Primarily, the strike, in the words of union leaders, was focused
:07:04. > :07:10.around pensions. On the day of the strike, one of the tasks that we
:07:10. > :07:16.set out to achieve, was to explain the pension system. And many other
:07:16. > :07:18.occasions, many other days, the other sorts of issues that we have
:07:18. > :07:24.been locking out and challenging are indeed these ones about pay,
:07:24. > :07:28.around Venice and around the quality for the country as a whole.
:07:28. > :07:31.Was it difficult for a journalist covering Wednesday strikes over
:07:31. > :07:36.pensions to cover them probably, were not so long ago, they were
:07:36. > :07:40.striking over their pensions? assure you that in the newsroom,
:07:40. > :07:48.the editors and all the teams were focused on the task at hand, which
:07:48. > :07:53.was to report objectively and it about what was happening. Mary
:07:53. > :07:57.Hockaday, think you very much indeed. The strike was one of the
:07:57. > :08:05.topics under discussion in an interview on Wednesday's one show,
:08:05. > :08:14.with Jeremy Clarkson. In the strikes had been a good idea?
:08:14. > :08:19.Fantastic. London today has just been empty. Restaurants are ready.
:08:20. > :08:27.It is also like being in the 70s. We have to balance it though,
:08:27. > :08:37.because this is the BBC. Frankly, I would have them all shot. Thousands
:08:37. > :08:41.
:08:41. > :08:46.of viewers who saw the show bring Last and eight sought the extensive
:08:46. > :08:50.coverage of the former football player, Gary Speed. -- Sunday. It
:08:50. > :09:00.also saw much briefer coverage of a British soldier killed in
:09:00. > :09:00.
:09:00. > :10:07.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 56 seconds
:10:07. > :10:14.We put those objections to BBC News Finally, back to the strike. Or at
:10:14. > :10:20.least to be built up to it last weekend. This is a live link from
:10:20. > :10:30.Heathrow Airport, which elicited a familiar complaint to in his watch.
:10:30. > :10:40.
:10:40. > :10:44.Thank you for your comments this week. If you want to shake your
:10:45. > :10:54.opinion on BBC News and Current Affairs, you can call last or e-