:00:00. > :00:00.the day 's news, before that, it is time for news watch, and this week
:00:00. > :00:08.we asked whether news bulletins went snow crazy last weekend. --
:00:09. > :00:21.Newswatch. Coming up: snowstorms hit the USA
:00:22. > :00:26.last weekend, lovely pictures, did the BBC News get to carried away in
:00:27. > :00:31.reporting them. And the bedroom tax, back in the news, or should that be,
:00:32. > :00:35.the spare room subsidy. Someone in Worcester has won ?33 million on the
:00:36. > :00:39.lottery, Sophie Raworth gets less information than you might hope for
:00:40. > :00:45.from the BBC's reporter on the spot when she asks who it is. We do not
:00:46. > :00:51.know because they have decided to remain anonymous.
:00:52. > :00:57.Last Friday night BBC News began reporting on the heavy snow linked
:00:58. > :01:00.to storm Jonas, arriving on the east coast of the United States, it was
:01:01. > :01:08.one of the top stories on that night's News at ten. Good morning
:01:09. > :01:12.America, blizzard emergency. Is Coast braces itself for what may be
:01:13. > :01:17.the heaviest snow in 100 years. Until Monday the story stayed in the
:01:18. > :01:21.headlines, leading them on Sunday and occupying lots of airtime on the
:01:22. > :01:29.news channel and space on the website. There are some who cannot
:01:30. > :01:34.hide their joint. Striking images on the show, certainly, this panda in
:01:35. > :01:39.the Washington to happen the hearts of many, 36 people did die, however,
:01:40. > :01:42.as a result of the blizzard, and there was considerable travel
:01:43. > :01:46.disruption, scores of viewers felt the BBC got it out of proportion.
:01:47. > :01:50.Jeff Hardy said, " there is more snow than that every winter in
:01:51. > :02:01.Europe but it never gets a mention... " and he went on to say:
:02:02. > :02:07.it has been snowing pretty hard in the United States, fair to say! On
:02:08. > :02:26.Saturday morning, another viewer objected:
:02:27. > :02:35.a lot of businesses are opening but your patrons cannot get to use
:02:36. > :02:39.safely, please work together... Help us get the streets clear, stay off
:02:40. > :02:46.the streets, do not put snow in the middle of the streets. And two
:02:47. > :02:49.excerpts from two press conferences, to the bemusement of one viewer.
:02:50. > :03:01.That was broadcast on Sunday on the news channel.
:03:02. > :03:07.Did the extremity of the weather and the availability of pictures such as
:03:08. > :03:11.these warrants the extent of the coverage? Did the BBC get carried
:03:12. > :03:18.away by a bias towards all things American? Answers to those questions
:03:19. > :03:23.from Paul Guppy and Toby Castle, deputy news editor at the BBC.
:03:24. > :03:28.Heaviest snowfall on much of the East Coast on record, surely that is
:03:29. > :03:33.a news story. I guess it is newsworthy, and would probably be
:03:34. > :03:44.worthy of a mention in the And capital to finally, as often used to
:03:45. > :03:48.happen. -- in the And Finally. Art like a lot of the people who wrote
:03:49. > :03:53.in, the amount of time given to the subject was totally out of
:03:54. > :03:58.proportion... It seems to be far too much on, after all, it is in the
:03:59. > :04:04.northern hemisphere, it is winter, it snows in the winter...! Equally,
:04:05. > :04:11.Japan and Korea were suffering far worse weather, and far more people
:04:12. > :04:16.died! It did not get a mention at all. People did die in the storms in
:04:17. > :04:19.the United States, but this kind of snow is a regular occurrence further
:04:20. > :04:23.west in the United States, and in many other countries, as Paul has
:04:24. > :04:31.said, you do not give them all this airtime. I would like to say about
:04:32. > :04:34.the US snow story, it was significant and unprecedented, 60
:04:35. > :04:41.centimetres of snow in Washington, New York shut down, a loss of life
:04:42. > :04:48.on a large scale. Federal government closing down, legislation on hold,
:04:49. > :04:50.this was significant, from a television news bulletin it had a
:04:51. > :04:58.extraordinary pictures, incredibly strong picture, and so there was an
:04:59. > :05:01.audience interest in it. As proven by the online statistics, just to
:05:02. > :05:08.give you an example, last week, the two most highly read stories on the
:05:09. > :05:13.BBC online UK site were both relating to the snow story in the
:05:14. > :05:20.United States. What do you think about that? Unprecedented, and
:05:21. > :05:23.audiences were interested. If you feed people that much information,
:05:24. > :05:27.give it that much airtime, they will be interested! Is a lot of other
:05:28. > :05:32.stuff going on, this is not August, silly season, there is people dying
:05:33. > :05:40.in the Mediterranean, there is quite interesting times... On the News at
:05:41. > :05:45.ten on Friday night, this was not the new story, this was the story,
:05:46. > :05:49.on the news bulletin, yes, we had Google tax and the migrant crisis
:05:50. > :05:52.had this in the running order is, it did not leave the network news
:05:53. > :05:58.bulletins, I felt it had exactly the correct place in the running orders
:05:59. > :06:01.for the significance. In terms of pictures, that panda video
:06:02. > :06:06.conference sample, on the BBC News Facebook site, was the most shared
:06:07. > :06:11.video of the year! It was something that was incredibly well-received by
:06:12. > :06:16.the audiences. It led so much of the news coverage through the weekend on
:06:17. > :06:19.the news channel, people turning on, acres of coverage, a lot of it is
:06:20. > :06:25.just pictures of Americans dealing with snow...! Did not feel that
:06:26. > :06:28.important. There is a lot of BBC correspondent is around Washington
:06:29. > :06:32.and New York, and people thought that was a bias, and people full
:06:33. > :06:37.that it was cheap and easy news at the weekend when budgets are cut. I
:06:38. > :06:42.reject that, the BBC News model is to have eyewitness reporting on the
:06:43. > :06:44.ground, it would be a bad state of affairs if we did not have
:06:45. > :06:49.correspondence on the ground reporting the story. On all of the
:06:50. > :06:52.stories that we cover, internationally, our aim is that we
:06:53. > :06:56.have reporters based locally, to be able to give their opinion and their
:06:57. > :07:01.review on the ground. Is there something broader here about the
:07:02. > :07:07.Americanisation of British news? Based partly on what Toby has said.
:07:08. > :07:11.I'm not anti-American, I am not anti-panda, Eva(!) what it is
:07:12. > :07:23.horrible when one person dies, but this was not a sin army, -- this was
:07:24. > :07:30.not a tsunami. -- and I'm not anti-panda, either. You have made
:07:31. > :07:35.the point about a lot of BBC staff being in and around Washington and
:07:36. > :07:40.New York, that does make it easy reporting. Thank you very much to
:07:41. > :07:45.the both of you. We will have to leave it there. Expect more coverage
:07:46. > :07:49.of the United States over the next week as attention turns to the
:07:50. > :07:57.presidential election campaign, please let us know your thoughts on
:07:58. > :08:00.that, or on any aspect of BBC news. Before that, one of the biggest
:08:01. > :08:05.stories of the week, the row over the amount of tax paid by Google in
:08:06. > :08:12.the UK. ABC news claimed a scoop on this last Friday night. Google
:08:13. > :08:17.revealed to the BBC iD has a agreed to pay and ?30 million in backdated
:08:18. > :08:22.tax. What proportion of UK profits was that ?130 million? That was much
:08:23. > :08:26.discussed later in the week but it did not get a mention on that
:08:27. > :08:32.addition of the news at ten or the following morning, wanting a retired
:08:33. > :08:50.mathematics teacher to write: -- prompting.
:08:51. > :08:57.On Wednesday the Court of Appeal ruled that the government withdrawal
:08:58. > :09:00.of the spare rooms at the back in 2013 ads discriminated against
:09:01. > :09:03.domestic violence victim and the family of a disabled teenager, Clive
:09:04. > :09:10.Coleman reported on the story for the lunchtime bulletin. A family
:09:11. > :09:15.challenged the bedroom tax, with a victim of domestic violence who was
:09:16. > :09:18.raked and stalked, in 2013, households deemed to have spare
:09:19. > :09:21.rooms receive less in benefits, those affected lose 14% of their
:09:22. > :09:30.housing benefit, for a spare bedroom. -- rates. The terminology
:09:31. > :09:35.used from two this call: in other areas of reporting the news, the BBC
:09:36. > :09:40.have the disclaimer when referring to organisations and the like.
:09:41. > :09:47.However, why did the BBC News outlet stake the so-called bedroom tax when
:09:48. > :09:51.the subject referred to has a correct and official name and also
:09:52. > :09:54.when it is not a tax anyway. On that addition of the news at one on
:09:55. > :09:59.Wednesday, changing benefit rules was described three times as the
:10:00. > :10:03.so-called bedroom tax, and three times simply as " the bedroom tax
:10:04. > :10:17.close " but never as the spare room subsidy. -- simply as " the bedroom
:10:18. > :10:44.tax". We put this point to BBC News and they told us:
:10:45. > :10:51.finally, the search for the second winner of a record ?33 million share
:10:52. > :10:56.of the national lottery jackpot is declared to be over on Thursday,
:10:57. > :11:01.almost three weeks after the ticket had been bought, Sophie Raworth
:11:02. > :11:08.revealed almost all on the News at ten... The ticket was bought in
:11:09. > :11:13.Worcester, whose is it? We do not know because they have decided to
:11:14. > :11:16.remain anonymous, which means there is a rather curious suspicious
:11:17. > :11:40.atmosphere... A disgruntled viewer e-mail us:
:11:41. > :11:46.thank you for all of your comments this week am if you want to share
:11:47. > :11:49.your opinions on BBC News and current affairs, or even appear on
:11:50. > :11:58.the programme, you can get in touch.