:00:13. > :00:18.Now it is done for Newswatch. -- time. Hello, welcome to Newswatch.
:00:18. > :00:26.The Boston bomb attacks were dramatic and significant, but did
:00:26. > :00:29.they get so much coverage because they took place on American soil?
:00:29. > :00:37.Footballer bites footballer. Was this worth all the attention it was
:00:37. > :00:41.given? And one fewer loggers the activity going on in the new
:00:41. > :00:51.newsroom backdrop. It is just a shame the news reader has to get
:00:51. > :00:54.
:00:54. > :00:59.What is a life worth in terms of television airtime? It may seem a
:00:59. > :01:03.brutal question but a string of deaths from violent attacks and
:01:03. > :01:08.natural disasters has forced news editors to decide what priority to
:01:08. > :01:12.give to each of them. About 300 people were killed when a building
:01:12. > :01:16.collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday. This followed Saturday's
:01:16. > :01:21.earthquake in China, were more than 200 people were reported dead or
:01:22. > :01:31.missing. 30 casualties of last week's earthquake in Iran. 14
:01:31. > :01:37.people killed at a fertiliser plant in Texas. And ongoing conflict in
:01:37. > :01:44.Afghanistan and Syria. One attack killing just three people has
:01:44. > :01:48.dominated the news. This should have been a moment of celebration
:01:48. > :01:55.for runners finishing the marathon. Instead there was confusion and
:01:56. > :02:00.then horror. Surveillance footage shows two men with backpacks
:02:00. > :02:06.walking together amongst the crowd. One man is wearing a dark baseball
:02:06. > :02:11.cap, the other a white baseball cap. The man in the white cap was caught
:02:11. > :02:18.talking on a cellphone near the set of the second explosion. A massive
:02:18. > :02:22.police operation overnight in the suburb of Boston. Officers
:02:22. > :02:30.searching for one of the suspected Marathon bombers. He apparently
:02:30. > :02:33.escaped after a car chase and shoot-out. Nobody could have
:02:33. > :02:38.imagined it would end like this. The late night climax of an
:02:38. > :02:45.extraordinary week. As the suspect in the Boston bombing was cornered,
:02:45. > :02:55.shot and driven away bleeding. This was all too much for some viewers,
:02:55. > :03:11.
:03:11. > :03:15.Others drew a comparison with the reporting of other foreign stories.
:03:15. > :03:25.Kate Grant said the disaster and Bangladesh have received less
:03:25. > :03:25.
:03:25. > :04:06.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 40 seconds
:04:06. > :04:11.With me now is the deputy head of BBC newsroom, James Stevenson.
:04:11. > :04:15.Perhaps you could talk us through the decision-making process of how
:04:15. > :04:19.much coverage to give the Boston Marathon over the last few days,
:04:19. > :04:23.given the concern there is about apparent disproportion? This is
:04:23. > :04:29.clearly a complex area, as your contributors have outlined. The
:04:29. > :04:34.thing with the Boston bombing is that by any standards it is a major
:04:34. > :04:40.story and a major event. That is to do with the fact it is the first
:04:40. > :04:44.bombing on American soil in well over a decade, since 9/11. I think
:04:44. > :04:46.that would have made it a very prominent story. People were
:04:46. > :04:51.concerned that after a couple of days it was apparent that there was
:04:51. > :04:55.not part of a major set of attacks. Some viewers felt given the scale
:04:55. > :05:01.of what was going on Iraq, for example, the BBC should have
:05:01. > :05:05.shifted its focus a lot sooner and that the coverage was
:05:05. > :05:09.disproportionately on Boston? it seemed to become clear that
:05:09. > :05:12.these two individuals were acting alone. But then there were
:05:12. > :05:16.significant and important developments in the story as the
:05:16. > :05:26.days passed, in terms of the man on do and the unprecedented lead
:05:26. > :05:28.
:05:28. > :05:35.locking down of Boston. -- the manhunt. The wider employer --
:05:35. > :05:38.International up implications of that in Chechenia. I do think it
:05:38. > :05:44.had arrived at -- wider ramifications and justified
:05:44. > :05:47.continued coverage. Some viewers are concerned with the fact that
:05:47. > :05:52.rolling pictures seem dramatic. You had the manhunt story which took
:05:52. > :05:58.over the rolling news networks. Again the accusation is, was a
:05:58. > :06:03.proportion that given that you have got earthquakes, the Iraq bombings,
:06:03. > :06:10.the Bangladesh factory collapsed, there are not getting anything like
:06:10. > :06:13.the amount of coverage -- they are. We have that reporting of the Bank
:06:13. > :06:20.the best bombing several nights in succession. That is clearly a
:06:20. > :06:24.horrific story which we have been covering. Likewise last weekend
:06:24. > :06:28.recovered the Chinese earthquake. We have been doing those other
:06:29. > :06:33.stories as well. I think it is important to point and some of the
:06:33. > :06:37.logistical constraints. The editorial judgments of Beesley play
:06:37. > :06:44.their part. But the big earthquake in Iran, we do not have the ability
:06:44. > :06:50.to get visas. We cannot report that in the way we would like to. Remote
:06:50. > :06:54.part of China take longer for her teens to get to. Bangladesh. These
:06:54. > :07:00.places are harder to get to. I recognise that material from
:07:00. > :07:03.America is more widely available. That means we have to work harder
:07:03. > :07:11.with the material we have in order to do justice to those important
:07:12. > :07:16.stories. It wasn't about the picture access. Wednesday's 6
:07:16. > :07:21.o'clock News had nothing on Bangladesh. It did mention the
:07:21. > :07:26.break-up of JLS. People will think that is bad editorial judgment?
:07:26. > :07:30.People will question editorial does what all the time. We had one
:07:30. > :07:37.sentence of the JLS breaking up. That is big news for a proportion
:07:38. > :07:41.of our audience. The 10 o'clock News has a bit more of a remit to
:07:42. > :07:47.focus on international news. Some of these other considerations do
:07:47. > :07:57.come into play, about how readily available material is and how easy
:07:57. > :07:59.
:07:59. > :08:04.it is to get stories. Thank you very much. Now for some of the
:08:04. > :08:09.other topics you have been contacting us about. Starting with
:08:09. > :08:15.an image it has been hard to miss. Three days after sinking his jaws
:08:15. > :08:18.into Ivanovitch, it was now the FA's turn to show its teeth. Luis
:08:18. > :08:24.Suarez one of three matches, instead he got 10. That infamous by
:08:24. > :08:34.by Luis Suarez was replayed numerous times, drawing the eye or
:08:34. > :09:01.
:09:01. > :09:05.There was little positive about a report from Jeremy Bowen on
:09:05. > :09:10.Tuesday's News at Ten from Syria. He made a kidnap victim of the
:09:10. > :09:20.conflict. He had had his finger chopped off and sent to his family,
:09:20. > :09:49.
:09:49. > :09:53.along with a video of the event, Finally, it has been six weeks
:09:53. > :10:01.since BBC news bulletins and BBC News Channel moved to a new home in
:10:01. > :10:06.central London. The backdrop continues to attract comment. One
:10:07. > :10:13.viewer is enjoying it but not an away intended. I am fascinated by
:10:13. > :10:20.the guys coming up and down with their cups of coffee, watching the
:10:20. > :10:25.different screens. There was one with in New Court. She brought some
:10:25. > :10:31.flowers to someone. I just wandered through the flowers were for. All
:10:31. > :10:36.those screens are so interesting. It is just a pity really that there
:10:36. > :10:40.is somebody in front of the set reading out the news. I just wonder
:10:40. > :10:45.if you couldn't just persuade them to move to one side so we can
:10:45. > :10:51.actually see the set properly. give for the hopeful suggestion.