:00:02. > :00:12.Newswatch, with Samira Ahmed hearing views on the coverage of
:00:12. > :00:13.
:00:13. > :00:16.Welcome to Newswatch with me, Samira Ahmed. This week, did the US
:00:16. > :00:25.victims of Superstorm Sandy get more attention than those from the
:00:25. > :00:29.Caribbean? It is as though 70 people have died in the Caribbean
:00:29. > :00:35.and their deaths mean nothing, they are not newsworthy. I find that
:00:35. > :00:40.unforgivable. And he's back, in the cinema, and
:00:40. > :00:48.on TV. But has BBC News allowed itself to be part of the 007
:00:48. > :00:51.promotional campaign? First, the week's news viewing has
:00:51. > :00:57.been dominated by the storm that has wreaked havoc in the Caribbean
:00:57. > :01:00.and the east coast of the United States. But for some Newswatch
:01:00. > :01:10.viewers there was a serious imbalance in the coverage, summed
:01:10. > :01:16.
:01:16. > :01:24.up here by an email from Jane Lewis Other viewers got the same
:01:24. > :01:31.impression and three of them recorded their thoughts for us.
:01:31. > :01:35.The destructive power of the super- storm... I felt the coverage was
:01:35. > :01:41.largely disproportionate. It focused almost entirely on the east
:01:41. > :01:46.coast of America, specifically New York and more recently New Jersey.
:01:46. > :01:54.And, you know, sort of when the hurricane hit Cuba, it was barely
:01:54. > :02:01.mentioned at all. Before Sandy hit the east coast of the USA, it
:02:01. > :02:07.actually hit the Bahamas, 80, Cuba, Dominican Republic -- Hague teeth.
:02:07. > :02:13.They were all affected but there was no coverage in the mainstream
:02:13. > :02:21.media about it. On Thursday morning, the voice-over said "the death toll
:02:21. > :02:26.is more than 70". Actually it is more than 140. You know, this
:02:26. > :02:33.sounds harsh, but it is as the 70 people have died in the Caribbean
:02:33. > :02:42.and their deaths mean nothing. think it is worrying because it
:02:42. > :02:45.shows that the media only panders to public taste, it has moved away
:02:45. > :02:49.from the educational element, where it lets people know what is
:02:49. > :02:57.happening in parts of the world where perhaps the ordinarily would
:02:57. > :03:02.not think about. Because of the lack of exposure and lack of
:03:02. > :03:05.coverage about the countries in the Caribbean, they will not get the
:03:05. > :03:09.aid needed when in actual fact, they are the actual countries that
:03:09. > :03:18.need it, because to start with they don't have the infrastructure
:03:18. > :03:22.compared to New York. New Jersey... I get the impression quite strongly,
:03:22. > :03:27.particularly now it is later in the week when the chance has been there
:03:27. > :03:35.to cover in some depth what has been happening in the Caribbean,
:03:35. > :03:39.that only First World news accounts. -- counts.
:03:39. > :03:43.Thanks to those who put their views on camera there, and to all of you
:03:43. > :03:46.who contacted us on this issue. It is a safe bet that we will be
:03:46. > :03:49.hearing a lot more from the United States in the next week, with
:03:49. > :03:52.Tuesday's presidential election. Please let us know your thoughts on
:03:52. > :03:57.how BBC News covers that story. Details of how to contact us at the
:03:57. > :04:00.end of the programme. Have you seen the new James Bond film, or do you
:04:00. > :04:03.just feel as if you have? You will certainly have heard about it, what
:04:03. > :04:06.with 007 themed Top Gear, Culture Show and Graham Norton Show
:04:06. > :04:09.specials on BBC television over the past week, along with plentiful
:04:09. > :04:12.coverage on BBC News in the lead-up to last Friday's cinema release.
:04:12. > :04:21.But some feel the reporting has crossed the boundary into puffs,
:04:21. > :04:27.plugs and publicity. He has been hard to miss over the
:04:27. > :04:33.past few weeks, and not just on advertising hoardings. Who doesn't
:04:33. > :04:35.appreciate the occasional twist, Mr...? Bond. James Bond. Last
:04:35. > :04:39.week's star-studded premiere of Skyfall was shown extensively on
:04:39. > :04:46.the News Channel but it was by no means the first time BBC viewers
:04:46. > :04:48.had been told about the new film. A month ago, the producers of the
:04:48. > :04:58.franchise went into publicity overdrive with the self-proclaimed
:04:58. > :05:00.
:05:00. > :05:04.World Bond Day, eagerly latched onto by reporters. The cars. Just a
:05:04. > :05:08.few of the things that have made the James Bond series recognise the
:05:08. > :05:11.world over and has helped it maintain its phenomenal popularity
:05:11. > :05:21.for half a century. Some Newswatch viewers were both shaken by this,
:05:21. > :05:39.
:05:39. > :05:42.and stirred into contacting us. How much exposure on the BBC
:05:42. > :05:46.contributes to the box office receipts of the Bond franchise is
:05:46. > :05:50.impossible to determine. But features on the national news can
:05:50. > :05:55.only help give a push to new films, CDs or books, as in the case of JK
:05:55. > :06:05.Rowling's new novel in September. Some thought there was overkill
:06:05. > :06:24.
:06:24. > :06:29.there too, with Anne Hodges What an honour to be honest
:06:29. > :06:36.balcony! Back in 2009, the BBC featured U2 prominently on its
:06:36. > :06:41.airwaves, including this concert on top of the Beeb's own building.
:06:41. > :06:46.There was a reason, a new album. Last night the first live outing
:06:46. > :06:50.for some of the new tracks. There has been some criticism from the
:06:50. > :06:56.BBC for the amount of airtime given to the band but this is one of the
:06:56. > :06:58.world's most popular bands. Later though, the Corporation admitted
:06:58. > :07:03.that the coverage had breached its guidelines, tipping over into
:07:03. > :07:05.promotion. But is this a lesson that has been learnt? With me now
:07:05. > :07:08.is the entertainment correspondent for BBC News, Lizo Mzimba, who
:07:08. > :07:14.shared the red carpet with Daniel Craig and others at Skyfall's
:07:14. > :07:20.premiere last week. Thank you for coming in. The fact is, it is great
:07:20. > :07:24.fun doing that kind of story, but it is not news. It is, people are
:07:24. > :07:29.interested in James Bond, it is the longest running cinema franchise of
:07:29. > :07:34.its kind in the world. It has been going for almost half the age of
:07:34. > :07:38.cinema itself. People are interested in that kind of thing. I
:07:38. > :07:41.did a live interview with Daniel Craig on the red carpet. People
:07:41. > :07:46.wanted to hear what he had to say about the movie and that was
:07:46. > :07:50.repeated throughout the night, but we did not do any pieces on the
:07:50. > :07:54.national news bulletins because we decided it did not merit that kind
:07:54. > :07:58.of coverage. But we put it in context of where it is important
:07:58. > :08:03.and why people do want to hear about it, but I don't think it was
:08:03. > :08:10.overkill. There is always an anniversary, another James Bond
:08:10. > :08:15.film. Did you not feel it was getting a bit excessive? World bond
:08:15. > :08:19.date was not something we came up with. Sony came up with it. We
:08:19. > :08:23.decided weeks before that it was that the deeper anniversary and
:08:23. > :08:28.something as important and interesting as James Bond, we would
:08:28. > :08:35.do something on it -- it was the 50th anniversary. It was only later
:08:35. > :08:38.that Sony... And the BBC went along with it? You could not watch
:08:39. > :08:45.anything without there been a spurious link to 50 years of James
:08:45. > :08:49.Bond, and that is not news. It is an excuse for indulgence. It is
:08:49. > :08:55.something we did because we will Mark King within BBC News as cinema
:08:55. > :09:02.franchise that has been going for 50 years -- we were marking. There
:09:02. > :09:06.are many... Not for 50 years. James Bond is important. Look at what
:09:06. > :09:11.happened in July. The person that turned around to greet him is her
:09:11. > :09:16.Majesty the Queen. James Bond in the 60s and 70s changed the British
:09:16. > :09:20.film industry. Your breakfast piece was three and a half minutes and I
:09:20. > :09:24.recognised every clip and there was a Bond girl saying something
:09:24. > :09:28.vaguely fun... It could have been made at any time in the last ten
:09:28. > :09:32.years. What you have heard from viewers is the concern that this is
:09:32. > :09:36.easy and it has been used to promote a very large multi-million-
:09:36. > :09:41.pound industry, which does not need it, and the same with the JK
:09:41. > :09:46.rolling book. It doesn't mean that reporters should automatically
:09:46. > :09:50.devote airtime -- JK Rowling. think carefully about putting
:09:50. > :09:56.things in the correct context. We do not say, go and see this new
:09:56. > :10:00.film. We say, this is happening. I did not hear any criticism about
:10:00. > :10:08.the James Bond film and I cannot imagine it would have been easy to
:10:08. > :10:14.have done so. The fisted anniversary was not related to
:10:14. > :10:18.Skyfall -- the 50th anniversary. We spoke about James Bond and how it
:10:18. > :10:25.had influenced people around the world. Where is the difference
:10:25. > :10:31.between a genuine news story and a puff. People remember, there is
:10:31. > :10:36.another Bond film out and it is called Skyfall. On the movie
:10:36. > :10:43.release, we did not do any pieces on the national news bulletins, I
:10:43. > :10:46.did one... We had a discussion in the office and decided we did not
:10:46. > :10:50.want to put it to the national bulletins. Do you have no regrets
:10:50. > :10:55.at all about the decisions on some of these, which sound like they
:10:55. > :10:59.should have run on any commercial channel? I think people are
:10:59. > :11:02.interested and I think they were put in the proper context of way
:11:02. > :11:06.James Bond is something special and I think most viewers appreciate
:11:06. > :11:15.that. And that's all from us. Thanks for