27/05/2016 Newswatch

saving and 87-year-old woman. At 10pm Fiona Bruce will be here was

a full round-up of the day's News, first, time for Newswatch. Hello and

welcome to Newswatch. Coming up later: Darling, you have been

sacked. How did Louis Van Gaal's wife find out the news from the BBC

website before he did? And with Jose Mourinho confirmed as his successor

six days after we were told he got the job, but BBC jumped the gun? --

did the. But first, the rhetoric of the debate of British membership of

the European Union has noticeably heightened in recent days with less

than a month to go to the referendum claims are being made by one side

and disputed by the other on a daily basis. Here are a couple of examples

this week. Vital public services could face further cuts, benefit

could go the same way, taxes would rise, austerity could be extended by

two years... That was the gloomy outlook published today by one of

the most respected UK economic organisations, the IFA is.

Which way to the worst crisis yet in A? Stay in the European Union and

watch what's become overwhelmed by demands of treatment from millions

of new migrants. Scared? The leave campaign were doing their best.

Voting to leave the EU would trigger a year-long recession, the bleak

forecast from the Treasury. But the way addictions and counter

predictions have been presented on BBC News or that Richard Green. He

wrote... Thursday saw the first of the BBC

televised debates leading to the referendum, focusing on younger

voters and presented in Glasgow. We don't give ?350 million a week to

the EU... If you look at how much we give us how much we get back, and we

do get some back, there is a net difference of around ?10 billion a

year... The campaign will throw out a figure that you will rubbish, and

then you will produce wonder they will rubbish. What do we do? I have

no idea what to do and I blame you lot.

The morning after that programme Richard Collins was irritated,

writing... The casting and scheduling of the

other televised debates has been a fraught issue and in the past week

the BBC announced there will be too special Question Time programmes,

one with the Prime Minister, the other with Michael Gove, after it

became clear that David Cameron would not share a stage with an

opposing fellow conservative. We welcome your views on that and any

aspect of the busy coverage. Last Saturday was a day of mixed emotions

for the football manager Louis Van Gaal, first he won the FA Cup final,

then, here was the headline on the BBC news bulletin...

How that stunning goal won the FA Cup for Manchester United. But

winning was not enough to save the job of Louis Van Gaal who will be

replaced by Jose Mourinho. But confirmation he had lost his job

did not come until Monday and it was not until Friday, six days later,

that we knew for sure his replacement was chose a Marine you.

How come BBC sport's editor reported the fate of Louis Van Gaal that

Saturday afternoon, minutes after he lifted the cup? And how come the

manager apparently discovered the news shortly after his wife read

about it on the BBC website? The strange Case of news being reported

well before it actually happened concerned some viewers. Gregory

asked the... We received this phone message on

Sunday, echoing that view. I would like to complain about the fact that

the manager of Manchester United is being harassed by the BBC news. They

are just having a witchhunt, they are saying that he is going to be

replaced. Yes, you most probably is. The Manchester United club have made

no comment about it whatsoever, and the man in question is saying that

he has not been officially told. Can you please explain to me, a mere

mortal, how this can possibly be news? To respond to those point I am

joined by the BBC head of sports journalism. What viewers are saying

is until it is official and it is not news. It felt, to them, wrong

for the BBC to broadcast it when they initially did.

I want to challenge that, in the sense that if we waited just for

things that artificial than actually we would not find out many of the

facts that exist, or when we want to find out them. Actually it was based

on credible reporting, from experienced journalist, who

discovered that the story, and having known about it, because it

was already breaking in other places, it would be very ought not

to start reporting ourselves. Did you know that Louis Van Gaal did not

know this when you broke the story? That his wife would we did on the

news website? There was no way of knowing for sure

what he knew, I don't think many of us know what he knew and when he

knew but I suspect he knew more about it than most of us have come

to learn at this stage. But I don't know what he knew and when he knew

it. Dan Rowan got the story and it was broken on the BBC breaking use

Twitter feed. What was the source? Obviously we don't reveal our

sources but I can assure you it was a range of credible sources, not

just run down, but other people within the BBC sports department who

had worked on the story for a long time and we would not have reported

it had we not be certain about the information. Was there a process of

authentication? Or was it a case of, we know this person therefore it is

true? It was the culmination of weeks and months of work and

expertise in this area covering Manchester United. The combination

of that knowledge, and the contacts that have been built up over many

years, and our understanding of the credibility and knowledge of the

sources and that by the time we reported it in the way we did we

were absolutely confident of the story and subsequent events have

shown the report was accurate. It was nearly one week before Jose

Mourinho was confirmed as manager. People think there was an agenda.

Whether it was Manchester United or chose a Marine you leaking it

deliberately, it looks shabby, and what was the BBC doing enabling it?

I would push back on that I think it is harsh. What we were doing is what

we are meant to do, as journalists try to find out what is going on. We

found out that Manchester United reached April and we agreement with

Jose Mourinho to take over and that Louis Van Gaal would be sacked

regardless of the FA Cup final result and once we knew that it

would be very odd not to share it with the audience even though it

obviously took Manchester United a little while to decide what they

would do about it. The reality was that help those talks and come to

that preliminary agreement, whether they chose to help lose fine goal or

not is ultimately up to them and their question for them to answer.

There's also a question about whether the BBC should have enabled

them. The question is whether the BBC was being used by a big

corporation to do some quite shabby business. To serve their gender. We

were not being used by anyone. We were doing what we always try to do

which is trying to find out what was happening, try to make sure that we

on, get to the bottom of what is going on, and then share that with

our audience. Very authors to find that this was a situation that was

the case and the not to share and that Italy audience. Even though

other people reporting. That would be a kind of very odd position for

us to be in. Thanks much. One or two of your other comments

this week. You may have noticed that this Sunday brings the return to our

screens of one of the best-known BBC brands. The revamped Top Gear has

received lots of the city and media attention with airtime on BBC News

including breakfast and the Victoria Derbyshire show. That prompted David

from Milton Keynes to write. Finally, do you spend time looking

at the background to live interviews instead of concentrating on what

they are saying? Some of our viewers do, particularly when breakfast

presenters in Salford interview guests in London in a spot

overlooking the BBC newsroom. Look at those men coming in on the left

of the screen. Now watch another interview shown on a different day.

There are the men again. And again. And again. Spot that man with the

backpack. Yes, that is him. And once more. And then there is that woman

with the blue dress. Also featuring in this interview. Don Barber is

intrigued. Who is the lady in blue? For that matter, what about the man

with the rucksack? The strange thing is that on other

programmes the same camera is used with a proper life background. So we

asked the breakfast why they use recorded footage on a loop. A

spokesman said... Does that solve it for you? Thank

you for your comments. If you want to share your opinions on news and

current affairs or even appear on our programme you can call us, or

e-mail. You can find us on Twitter, and you can watch previous

discussions on our website. That is all from us. We will be back to hear

your thoughts about BBC News coverage again next week.