26/04/2014 Newswatch

Hello, and welcome to News watch. Coming up on the programme: You are

fired, as the sacking of David Moyes by Manchester United receives

extensive coverage on BBC News, some suggest the editors who gave it a

priority should consider their positions. The royal trip down

under, a triumph in publicity terms for the monarchy, but did the BBC

help that PR along with sycophantic coverage. And, is it just actors in

dramas like Jamaica Inn who were guilty of mumbling, or are present

as guilty of that as well? Football management is not the height of

fashion, so after a relatively unsuccessful season, it was no great

surprise when Manchester United dismissed David Moyes on Tuesday

morning `` presenters. Was it big news? Yes, according to most large

media organisations, like the BBC, who put it at the top of most of

their bulletins, including News at six. The dream job but turned into a

nightmare. David Moyes is sacked by Manchester United. During ten short

months at the helm, he was much criticised and Sauber team fail to

qualify for the Champions League. `` saw the team fail. Hundreds of

viewers were unconvinced that the priority given to this news was

justified. Jeff was one of them, writing the following, .

Another few who got in touch with us on this issue is Neal, who joins us

now from Ipswich. In London is the editor of BBC ones six and ten

o'clock bulletins, Paul Royal. What was your objection to the coverage

of David Moyes sacking? As much as one of your other correspondence has

said, in view of everything else going on in the world, including

Ukraine, staff and south America, with riots, prior to the World Cup

happening there, large fires in cities in chilly? And the lead is a

manager being dismissed from the football team. I know it's a big

cloud and basically a large company particular it on every single senior

member that was dismissed, you would do nothing but talk about that on

your news. What made you choose that news item? Why should it be at the

top of the bulletin? We thought long and hard about what goes into the

programme, and what goes to the top programmes. We know that sport and

sports News polarises some of the audiences at times. In this

particular case we had a story with three strong elements, a strong

sporting story, with a strong human element in terms of Sir Alex

Ferguson and David Moyes, a strong business story, Manchester United is

a listed company worth over ?1.5 billion. And a number of commercial

issues around this. And a strong global story in the sense that

Manchester United is a global brand known around the world. Nothing was

squeezed out of our programme to make way for that story. We still

covered Ukraine and the Scottish independence to pay that day, and we

still covered issues around UKIP and their local and European election

launch. What about the claim that nothing was squeezed off the

programme as a result of leading must request and Mark I got bored

with the news because I was fed up with conjecture about one person

being sacked. I can understand it being an item of news but in view of

the coverage that you have on the BBC with football, surely any

in`depth discussion should have taken place on those programmes and

not the top end of the news. It was six minutes of the News at six on

Tuesday, that is almost a quarter of the bulletin, whereas Ukraine got

two minutes. How is that proportionate? We felt that for all

of those reasons outlined, this was the top story of the day. Ukraine

was also comprehensively covered and has been all this week on the Six

O'clock News and the ten o'clock News and we have not read back on

our coverage of stories like that to cover what has been going on at

Manchester United. No mention of Nigeria or South Sudan on that

programme. Not on that day, but they have been covered on the Ten O'clock

News. A lot of people turn on at six o'clock and expect to see the world

news, they got six minutes on a story that could have been in the

sports section. The Manchester United story would always have been

in the programme, whether at the top or the bottom. The two bulletins

have a different emphasis in the sense that the Six O'clock News has

a more UK focus and the ten o'clock News has a more global focus. There

is this issue with the way that the BBC reports the stories, it is not

necessarily good news reporting, it could be seen as leading tabloid

hysteria. Is he on his own really responsible for the team losing?

That is very much the way that the football industry would like it to

be, a big exciting story. On bulletins and across BBC News we

cover all aspects of this news story to do with commercial issues and the

club. When David Moyes was appointed, there was the idea that

like Sir Alex Ferguson he would be given a decent duration of time to

make a success of the job and within a year he was out of the job. The

World Cup lies ahead, what do you think the BBC has two change about

how it covers these kinds of football stories? What would you

like to see? Frankly, I think sport and sport and should remain in the

sports section. What is it about Manchester United? It is a football

club and the fact it has a large commercial background to it is no

bigger than many big companies in this country. It has a lot of

support, as I know, but other supporters probably feel that their

teams should be given more airtime. There is an awful lot of time spent

on football. You have much of the day, match of the Day two, and

repeats. `` match of the day. A lot of this can take place on sports

programmes. Thank you to both of you for coming on the programme. Letters

know your thoughts on the priority given to football stories or on any

aspect of BBC News. Details of how to contact us at the end of the

programme. Before that, some of your other comments this week, starting

with reaction to the corporation 's treatment of the royal trip to New

Zealand and Australia. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince

George have completed that three`week tour down under, which

was judged as a great success in PR terms. Here is a reminder of photo

opportunities in case you missed them. First, George seemed a bit

bashful, more interested in his mother 's head than his new

playmates. Then, a girl caught his eye. Not an entirely successful

encounter, she retired in tears. Walking on sand in three inch wedges

cannot be easy, going barefoot evidently wasn't an option. It visit

to the zoo, a child's delight. For George, two days short of being nine

months old now, there was an enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney

named in his honour. And a small animal, a bilby, also called George,

to get to know. Pictures to warm a monarchists hard. As one viewer

pointed out: `` heart. A tricky subject of how the BBC

handles the debate over independence to Scotland reared its head again

this week. When the pro`independence backer, business for Scotland,

questioned why the BBC had not, like some other organisations, resigned

as membership of the anti` independence Confederation of

British industry. On Thursday the BBC announced it was suspending its

CBI membership, until after the referendum, in order to protect CIS

neutrality. It prompted Peter Gledhill to write: `` protect its

neutrality. Finally, the subject which occupies

the BBC's audience feedback the most this week was not news related,

although some felt it had a relevance. Thousands complained that

much of the dialogue in this week 's BBC One drama Jamaica Inn was

inaudible. Blaming it partly on mumbling on the part of the actors.

I will try and enunciated clearly, in saying thank you for all of your

comments this week. If you want to share your opinions or even appear

on the programme, you can get in touch with us.

Have a look at previous discussions on the website as well. That is all

from us, we would like to hear your thoughts again next week. Goodbye.

April will draw to a close Neymar know before things turn colder at

the start of May. For the weekend, there will be mixed fortunes. There

will be some decent spells of sunshine and temperatures will not

do