:00:18. > :00:24.Hello, and welcome to News watch. Coming up on the programme: You are
:00:25. > :00:29.fired, as the sacking of David Moyes by Manchester United receives
:00:30. > :00:34.extensive coverage on BBC News, some suggest the editors who gave it a
:00:35. > :00:38.priority should consider their positions. The royal trip down
:00:39. > :00:41.under, a triumph in publicity terms for the monarchy, but did the BBC
:00:42. > :00:47.help that PR along with sycophantic coverage. And, is it just actors in
:00:48. > :00:52.dramas like Jamaica Inn who were guilty of mumbling, or are present
:00:53. > :00:58.as guilty of that as well? Football management is not the height of
:00:59. > :01:03.fashion, so after a relatively unsuccessful season, it was no great
:01:04. > :01:06.surprise when Manchester United dismissed David Moyes on Tuesday
:01:07. > :01:10.morning `` presenters. Was it big news? Yes, according to most large
:01:11. > :01:14.media organisations, like the BBC, who put it at the top of most of
:01:15. > :01:19.their bulletins, including News at six. The dream job but turned into a
:01:20. > :01:23.nightmare. David Moyes is sacked by Manchester United. During ten short
:01:24. > :01:28.months at the helm, he was much criticised and Sauber team fail to
:01:29. > :01:34.qualify for the Champions League. `` saw the team fail. Hundreds of
:01:35. > :01:38.viewers were unconvinced that the priority given to this news was
:01:39. > :01:50.justified. Jeff was one of them, writing the following, .
:01:51. > :02:12.Another few who got in touch with us on this issue is Neal, who joins us
:02:13. > :02:19.now from Ipswich. In London is the editor of BBC ones six and ten
:02:20. > :02:24.o'clock bulletins, Paul Royal. What was your objection to the coverage
:02:25. > :02:27.of David Moyes sacking? As much as one of your other correspondence has
:02:28. > :02:35.said, in view of everything else going on in the world, including
:02:36. > :02:42.Ukraine, staff and south America, with riots, prior to the World Cup
:02:43. > :02:45.happening there, large fires in cities in chilly? And the lead is a
:02:46. > :02:49.manager being dismissed from the football team. I know it's a big
:02:50. > :02:57.cloud and basically a large company particular it on every single senior
:02:58. > :03:00.member that was dismissed, you would do nothing but talk about that on
:03:01. > :03:06.your news. What made you choose that news item? Why should it be at the
:03:07. > :03:11.top of the bulletin? We thought long and hard about what goes into the
:03:12. > :03:17.programme, and what goes to the top programmes. We know that sport and
:03:18. > :03:23.sports News polarises some of the audiences at times. In this
:03:24. > :03:27.particular case we had a story with three strong elements, a strong
:03:28. > :03:31.sporting story, with a strong human element in terms of Sir Alex
:03:32. > :03:38.Ferguson and David Moyes, a strong business story, Manchester United is
:03:39. > :03:43.a listed company worth over ?1.5 billion. And a number of commercial
:03:44. > :03:46.issues around this. And a strong global story in the sense that
:03:47. > :03:52.Manchester United is a global brand known around the world. Nothing was
:03:53. > :03:56.squeezed out of our programme to make way for that story. We still
:03:57. > :04:02.covered Ukraine and the Scottish independence to pay that day, and we
:04:03. > :04:05.still covered issues around UKIP and their local and European election
:04:06. > :04:08.launch. What about the claim that nothing was squeezed off the
:04:09. > :04:13.programme as a result of leading must request and Mark I got bored
:04:14. > :04:19.with the news because I was fed up with conjecture about one person
:04:20. > :04:23.being sacked. I can understand it being an item of news but in view of
:04:24. > :04:27.the coverage that you have on the BBC with football, surely any
:04:28. > :04:32.in`depth discussion should have taken place on those programmes and
:04:33. > :04:37.not the top end of the news. It was six minutes of the News at six on
:04:38. > :04:41.Tuesday, that is almost a quarter of the bulletin, whereas Ukraine got
:04:42. > :04:44.two minutes. How is that proportionate? We felt that for all
:04:45. > :04:49.of those reasons outlined, this was the top story of the day. Ukraine
:04:50. > :04:52.was also comprehensively covered and has been all this week on the Six
:04:53. > :04:58.O'clock News and the ten o'clock News and we have not read back on
:04:59. > :05:02.our coverage of stories like that to cover what has been going on at
:05:03. > :05:07.Manchester United. No mention of Nigeria or South Sudan on that
:05:08. > :05:11.programme. Not on that day, but they have been covered on the Ten O'clock
:05:12. > :05:15.News. A lot of people turn on at six o'clock and expect to see the world
:05:16. > :05:20.news, they got six minutes on a story that could have been in the
:05:21. > :05:23.sports section. The Manchester United story would always have been
:05:24. > :05:26.in the programme, whether at the top or the bottom. The two bulletins
:05:27. > :05:31.have a different emphasis in the sense that the Six O'clock News has
:05:32. > :05:36.a more UK focus and the ten o'clock News has a more global focus. There
:05:37. > :05:40.is this issue with the way that the BBC reports the stories, it is not
:05:41. > :05:47.necessarily good news reporting, it could be seen as leading tabloid
:05:48. > :05:50.hysteria. Is he on his own really responsible for the team losing?
:05:51. > :05:54.That is very much the way that the football industry would like it to
:05:55. > :05:58.be, a big exciting story. On bulletins and across BBC News we
:05:59. > :06:03.cover all aspects of this news story to do with commercial issues and the
:06:04. > :06:09.club. When David Moyes was appointed, there was the idea that
:06:10. > :06:16.like Sir Alex Ferguson he would be given a decent duration of time to
:06:17. > :06:21.make a success of the job and within a year he was out of the job. The
:06:22. > :06:24.World Cup lies ahead, what do you think the BBC has two change about
:06:25. > :06:28.how it covers these kinds of football stories? What would you
:06:29. > :06:33.like to see? Frankly, I think sport and sport and should remain in the
:06:34. > :06:36.sports section. What is it about Manchester United? It is a football
:06:37. > :06:39.club and the fact it has a large commercial background to it is no
:06:40. > :06:47.bigger than many big companies in this country. It has a lot of
:06:48. > :06:51.support, as I know, but other supporters probably feel that their
:06:52. > :06:55.teams should be given more airtime. There is an awful lot of time spent
:06:56. > :07:02.on football. You have much of the day, match of the Day two, and
:07:03. > :07:07.repeats. `` match of the day. A lot of this can take place on sports
:07:08. > :07:14.programmes. Thank you to both of you for coming on the programme. Letters
:07:15. > :07:18.know your thoughts on the priority given to football stories or on any
:07:19. > :07:22.aspect of BBC News. Details of how to contact us at the end of the
:07:23. > :07:25.programme. Before that, some of your other comments this week, starting
:07:26. > :07:29.with reaction to the corporation 's treatment of the royal trip to New
:07:30. > :07:32.Zealand and Australia. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince
:07:33. > :07:36.George have completed that three`week tour down under, which
:07:37. > :07:40.was judged as a great success in PR terms. Here is a reminder of photo
:07:41. > :07:53.opportunities in case you missed them. First, George seemed a bit
:07:54. > :07:55.bashful, more interested in his mother 's head than his new
:07:56. > :07:57.playmates. Then, a girl caught his eye. Not an entirely successful
:07:58. > :08:00.encounter, she retired in tears. Walking on sand in three inch wedges
:08:01. > :08:05.cannot be easy, going barefoot evidently wasn't an option. It visit
:08:06. > :08:10.to the zoo, a child's delight. For George, two days short of being nine
:08:11. > :08:14.months old now, there was an enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney
:08:15. > :08:18.named in his honour. And a small animal, a bilby, also called George,
:08:19. > :08:24.to get to know. Pictures to warm a monarchists hard. As one viewer
:08:25. > :09:21.pointed out: `` heart. A tricky subject of how the BBC
:09:22. > :09:25.handles the debate over independence to Scotland reared its head again
:09:26. > :09:29.this week. When the pro`independence backer, business for Scotland,
:09:30. > :09:32.questioned why the BBC had not, like some other organisations, resigned
:09:33. > :09:36.as membership of the anti` independence Confederation of
:09:37. > :09:40.British industry. On Thursday the BBC announced it was suspending its
:09:41. > :09:44.CBI membership, until after the referendum, in order to protect CIS
:09:45. > :09:49.neutrality. It prompted Peter Gledhill to write: `` protect its
:09:50. > :10:07.neutrality. Finally, the subject which occupies
:10:08. > :10:12.the BBC's audience feedback the most this week was not news related,
:10:13. > :10:15.although some felt it had a relevance. Thousands complained that
:10:16. > :10:19.much of the dialogue in this week 's BBC One drama Jamaica Inn was
:10:20. > :10:59.inaudible. Blaming it partly on mumbling on the part of the actors.
:11:00. > :11:07.I will try and enunciated clearly, in saying thank you for all of your
:11:08. > :11:11.comments this week. If you want to share your opinions or even appear
:11:12. > :11:19.on the programme, you can get in touch with us.
:11:20. > :11:30.Have a look at previous discussions on the website as well. That is all
:11:31. > :11:39.from us, we would like to hear your thoughts again next week. Goodbye.
:11:40. > :11:47.April will draw to a close Neymar know before things turn colder at
:11:48. > :11:56.the start of May. For the weekend, there will be mixed fortunes. There
:11:57. > :11:58.will be some decent spells of sunshine and temperatures will not
:11:59. > :11:59.do