03/12/2011 Newswatch

Will continue his watch. Debate is striking a generation or a dance

great? And in his diverge sharply on Wednesdays to industrial action.

-- opinions diverged sharply. In a moment, I'll be asking if the

coverage was balanced and even- handed. Rubbish piling on the

street, the dead lying underlit, power cuts and a three-day week.

The nine Dean 70s were a time when the industrial disputes featured

nightly on the TV's. -- 1970s. A arguments were raging again, even

before this week's action. The majority of opinion was summed up

Another in the US objected to this interview. -- viewer. A pensions

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 56 seconds

Come Wednesday, the complaints kept Some viewers objected to graphics

depicting faceless people waving and shaking their fists, which were

described as frightening and unnecessary. Another contrast to

the strike. But it was OK for BBC journalists to go on strike about

their pensions, but it is not OK for public workers. I am sick of

the hypocritical journalists. They are sticking up for the big people,

not the small people. They say they are trying to be independent. It

does not sound like it. everybody had their perspective.

Whether are not we are in for another winter of discontent, views

on today's industrial disputes are deeply entrenched. BBC News cannot

hope to satisfy everyone, but how can it make sure its coverage is

fair and as objective as possible? I am now trained by the head of the

BBC's newsroom, Mary Hockaday. Viewers on both sides of the fence

seemed to see buyers. How do you ensure even-handedness in such a

big story? This is a very big story. To use a phrase used in one of the

in house, it is a strength of feeling. Our job with a story like

this is to report as objectively as we possibly can to establish the

facts, find out what is going on, but also with something like this,

very contentious and political sensitive, that we have a really

wide range of views. We need to speak to people from all sides of

the story, challenge ministers, challenge union neighbours, but

also when we are out and about, toured the people striking, not

striking, affected, not affected. He would have to say and challenge

what they have to say. Some dealers thought the union leaders were put

under pressure to justify their position, much more ferociously

than the Government to justified the changes in public sector

pensions. I would not agree with that. We do indeed challenge union

leaders about their position. We want to find out what they want

compared to pensions in the private sector. But just as strongly, we

challenge the ministers, the many ministers we have had on the

airwaves over the last few days to explain their proposals and why are

they there, are they negotiating? We challenge all sides of the story.

Wednesday was an important day for the Government. Did the BBC come

under pressure from that quarter? We constantly know that all sides

in these big, contentious stories have a sense of what they would

like us to be saying. Believe me, do not worry, we make up their own

minds about what we are going to do. Whether a specific complaints from

Downing Street that the BBC coverage was biased? We are in

touch with all those involved on the story. The key job for us is to

make sure we carry on and do the job that we need to do. Another

issue raised was that it had spent too much time looking at the

disparaging -- disparity between public sector and private sector it

pensions and not the inner quality of earnings between some of the

poorest workers in the country and some of the richest. These are both

pretty beat issues. I am interested in one of the e-mails. It said it

was not a striker that pensions, it was about more issues. We all know

and reported that the strength of feeling was done by many issues.

Primarily, the strike, in the words of union leaders, was focused

around pensions. On the day of the strike, one of the tasks that we

set out to achieve, was to explain the pension system. And many other

occasions, many other days, the other sorts of issues that we have

been locking out and challenging are indeed these ones about pay,

around Venice and around the quality for the country as a whole.

Was it difficult for a journalist covering Wednesday strikes over

pensions to cover them probably, were not so long ago, they were

striking over their pensions? assure you that in the newsroom,

the editors and all the teams were focused on the task at hand, which

was to report objectively and it about what was happening. Mary

Hockaday, think you very much indeed. The strike was one of the

topics under discussion in an interview on Wednesday's one show,

with Jeremy Clarkson. In the strikes had been a good idea?

Fantastic. London today has just been empty. Restaurants are ready.

It is also like being in the 70s. We have to balance it though,

because this is the BBC. Frankly, I would have them all shot. Thousands

of viewers who saw the show bring Last and eight sought the extensive

coverage of the former football player, Gary Speed. -- Sunday. It

also saw much briefer coverage of a British soldier killed in

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 56 seconds

We put those objections to BBC News Finally, back to the strike. Or at

least to be built up to it last weekend. This is a live link from

Heathrow Airport, which elicited a familiar complaint to in his watch.

Thank you for your comments this week. If you want to shake your

opinion on BBC News and Current Affairs, you can call last or e-