02/03/2012 Newswatch

Right now on BBC News it is time for news watch. This week, coverage

of the Oscars is under the Welcome to newswatch. Later, what

does speeded-up footage add to news reports? First, it was that time of

the year Again, last Sunday night, the Blitz, the frocks, the glamour

of the Oscars. Viewers of Breakfast on Monday morning were given a run-

down of the result with reports from the red carpet. Comment first

was last year's winner of the best actor award and presented Meryl

Streep with her award. It be my Streep with her award. It be my

mind. The first few frames. Clark was unimpressed. -- June

The programme was interrupted again 20 minutes later. This is something

special as guest lists go. We have seen Tom Cruise, David Beckham. The

At least Tim if it was well positioned to grab celebrity

arrivals at the post-show party. A we hope that most of the winners

and others will come to the Vanity Fair party to talk to us. So far,

of the main winners, only the best supporting actress has arrived, and

she walked straight in and didn't talk to anyone, so fingers crossed

the other winners will be here before the programme ends at 9:15am.

And are later, the search for interviewees was flagging.

Pat Chris Stewart is here. -- Patrick Stewart. I am so sorry!

A real actor, Ben, but not the actor he thought it was. It was by

now a late night in Los Angeles. In the absence of any real surprise

results, or much British interest, had the focus on the Oscars been

worth it? We asked the programme to respond to these comments. They

refused our invitation to be interviewed but gave us this

I am joined by another viewer who contacted us after Monday morning's

programme. Welcome to Graham Birch in our Salford studio. What did you

in our Salford studio. What did you make of the Oscar coverage?

thought it was over the top. It is the breakfast news programme, and

the word is in, news. I would have been happy to see a reasonable

amount of coverage and details of who won and so forth, but the over-

the-top coverage, having a presenter presenting, another

presenter, and simply giving us who went to which party and so on, I

don't think that is used. Was there simply too much of it for your

liking? -- a I don't think that is news. I think there was too much.

The reply from the BBC has referred to all the news stories going round,

but I think the coverage of the Oscars was out of proportion to the

importance of the event relative to other stories around on the day.

Tim if it is a London-based reporter. Was it right for the BBC

to have him standing outside the parties? Absolut the not, I think

this is the point that tipped me over to make no comment --

absolutely not. There have been many comments on your programme in

recent months about having reporters, news anchors, flown out

to Egypt, etc, and in those cases, it has been questioned, whether

that was necessary and appropriate. For what is still a relatively

lightweight news event such as the Oscars, I really can't see the case

for jetting in a presented to present at a perfectly, a perfectly

experienced presenter who was on the spot. D you think the statement

from BBC Breakfast meats or answers the concerns of you and a number of

other viewers? -- meets. I do and think it does. -- I don't think it

does. It is -- to find its judgment in the way it handled it, but I

don't think it is taking on board my views and the views of what

appear to be a number of other viewers who have written in to you.

Thank you. We have had a rash of complaints or read this year about

football stories dominating news bulletins. Last year -- week it was

football delaying it. Millions met -- the Carling Cup final going into

extra time caused the Schedule to overrun. Other work -- other people

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 47 seconds

were waiting for the early evening We put those points to BBC One, and

There were more rejections last weekend about this story. There are

printing more than 3 million copies tonight of Britain's first new

Sunday paper for nearly a decade. Oh no Rupert Murdoch was at the

printing plant just north of London Meanwhile, the state of the Greek

economy continues to exercise economy continues to exercise

European leaders and news editors. Before we go, viewer Phil Bolton

has a bee in his bonnet about... Here he is to explain. I am getting

fed up with the disproportionate use of eye candy on news film, by

that, I mean, the sort of, irrelevant, gimmicky, poorly

produced bits of film you used to One particular example is this

insane use of speeded-up film, and it gets worse when you show some

graphics against a background of speeded-up film, because of course

the eye follows motion much more, and therefore the speeded-up film

distracts you from the graphics and the message we are trying to put

across. It is insane. The news is there to portray information. You

presumably send correspondence out to report stuff, and you want us to

pay attention to the correspondent, not the background, otherwise there

is no point in showing the correspondent at all. It's was

mainly weak spending here at home. Story is about the economy are

generally complex messages to get across, so if you try to make it

interesting by distracting people from the story you were trying to

convey, I suspect it is counter- productive. Other stories about

retailing are often accompanied by pictures of feet walking down the

street. Think about the message you are trying to put across, and stop

the indiscriminate use of eye candy. Better speed on to the end of the

programme. Thanks to Phil Bolton and all of you for your comments