11/03/2016 Newswatch

He dropped out of the race in March. At 10pm Fiona Bruce will be here

with a round-up of the news, but first Newswatch.

Accusations that outrageous sound bites and media stunts have trumped

the discussion of policy in the BBC's

coverage of the US presidential campaign.

It is not the Boris Johnson show, it is the

Andrew Marr Show, I get to ask the questions.

A struggle for sovereignty on the Andrew Marr Show

between the presenter and the mayor of London.

In a month's time, voters in United States of America

You may have had an inkling of this already as the various candidates

for that role, and one in particular, have featured

In a moment we will hear from the BBC's North America editor,

but first where have we got to so far?

Although the front runners for both parties are pretty clear by now,

there is still a long way to go in this race.

The process of choosing the Republican and Democratic

candidates began on the 1st of February.

Each date there is an election with a winner klaxon number of collection

points. Next Tuesday's primaries,

including Florida and North Carolina, page proved

decisive in this process. The delegates then have the right

to vote for the chosen There the candidates

will be formally Then the real campaign starts

commentating on a nationwide It is too much for

some who wrote last I am going to build a wall

and Mexico is good to pay for it. To the surprise of

some, many Americans have already been

voting for this man. But has Donald Trump's success be

mainly down to media attention? I think in the run-up to super

Tuesday, Trump was pulling the media strings and there was lazy

journalism in that the BBC journalists were reacting

to the latest Trump big show or comment, rather than helping us

understand the policy issues behind it and rather than giving us balance

coverage of the several people We were not hearing from the other

candidates, or Hillary Clinton, instead we were having response

to the latest outrage, Taking a brief respite

from the campaign show back in the UK is the BBC's

North America editor. The field has narrowed that many

viewers felt that the BBC's coverage has focused too much

on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton from the start, and that other

candidates never really got Then you could have been

in danger of boring If you covered everyone equally,

even though you need the researching candidates had next to no chance

of being in the race, then you could have given us

the criticism that we are doing too much on marginal figures who do not

stand a chance of being president. There have been times

when I thought we have done too much in that has been

will be focused on the minor There is a phenomenal

situation that the next president of the United States

of America with the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world could be

a billionaire businessman who has never held any elected office,

who has said some pretty extraordinary things

in terms of building a 200 mile wall between Mexico

and the United States, who would like to ban

all Muslims from the country, there is an inevitability

that you're going to focus on a character

like that and we did that and focused on Hillary Clinton

and Bernie Sanders He is very smart at playing

the media to maximise attention without scrutiny and consider

audiences, like some of our viewers, that the BBC is along for the ride

and they're not really analysing him I think we have tried

to scrutinise his policies I have done a number of pieces that

have tried to look at health care or international

relations to try and... It is trying to nail blancmange

to the wall in terms He is out in front,

he is going to be the Republican But the process of that is

part of the concern. In Britain he is widely

seen as Maybe we should have taken him more

seriously all along? Last June it seemed

like a joke and without -- we thought it would

be over in six weeks. I heard from an authoritative

source that he was planning to back out of the race

after a few weeks having had the publicity and he

was going to back I have felt, and I have been

saying to BBC bosses, that we need to take

him seriously as it could

be the Republican nominee. He could be the next

president in the United In the UK he would have

a policy release every week in the run-up to a general

election, but here there seems to be no policy coming out of Donald Trump

so you cannot hunt for it. There are flourishes but if you look

beyond the detail of that to any policy positions,

and other toppings as diplomats and other day from a number

of countries, the normal processes and Election Day will mark

who these candidates are, so they know who the key people

are if they win the election they will be in office

with. Donald Trump stands up

and says things that we do not know who the policy people

are over the detail of anything. That is one of the things

that is good to come under closer scrutiny as the election

process was forward. I think broadly

in the balance of our coverage, there are some

things we have gone wrong, but I would defend that we are told

an extraordinary story pretty well about the phenomenon that is Donald

Trump on the populist right and a phenomenal

that is Bernie Sanders on the left. Political nerds and journalists get

very excited by the detail of that. There are viewers who said

that it is November when the election happens and they

feel they're getting too There was a debate before Iowa

which kicked off the election It is a caucus as opposed to a

primary. I said at the end of the day it is an election but letters

not get bogged down in the process of voting. We know there is going to

be a winner emerging and whoever wins was any better position than

they were before the election. If we did not start coverage until

October, we would not have explained to Donald Trump is, we would not

have explained the rise of Bernie Sanders, and is yearning of young

people in particular for a socialist solution in the most capitalist

country in the world, I think we would have been doing the viewers a

disservice. We still have a monster called and this election. Can you

promise us that we will not get bored? Where do we go from here? It

will not be wall-to-wall. I'm sure there will be a lot about the

European Union in the coming months. It is only on when it is

interesting. If the Pope launches an attack on Donald Trump, we should

cover it. It was incredible. Like so much of this US election race. Thank

you. No doubt we will be hearing more

opinions on that before the election in November. A vote that is more

imminent is also been concerning this week, coverage of the EU

referendum has again arose the attention of viewers, specifically

an interview on the Andrew Marr Show with the most visible figure on the

B-side, Boris Johnson, clashed with Andrew Marr on several issues. That

is exactly what he said. This report says very clearly that the best

future is to get out often unreformed EU. But he says... Can I

just explain for the benefit of our viewers who remain listening to this

conversation why I think... What I think the problem with the EU is. I

give you the chance to do that. Let us move on. We do need to move on.

I'm good to tell you what I'm going to cover. It is not the Boris

Johnson show, it is the Andrew Marr Show. I get to ask the questions. I

have sovereignty over this programme. To viewers recorded

reactions. I was totally disgusted by the way their Boris Johnson was

treated. She was never allowed to answer a question and he was being

interrupted all the time. This is an important issue. We heard plenty

from the we must seeing campaign and the threats and the come out and I

could see Boris Johnson's frustration and we need to know

more. I just want to explain the single market... You have explained

it three or four times. I need to explain the difference between what

we have in Europe... I watch programmes like these to get as much

information as possible so I can make an informed decision. This fell

short of my expectations are left me none the wiser. The consul

interrupted to the extent the Boris Johnson was unable to finish

answering the questions. If all of the interview was the shot it and

the feel of the interview was uncomfortable, verging on road. The

editor of the Andrew Marr Show, who also oversees Newswatch, had this to

say in response: thank you for all your comments this

week. If you want to share your opinions on BBC news and current

affairs or appear on the programme, you can call us on this telephone

number or e-mail us at the address on screen. You can find us on

Twitter and a look at our website. -- do look at. That is from us. We

will be back to your thoughts again next week. Goodbye.

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