:00:00. > :00:00.just some of the poignant moments, marking the 100th anniversary of the
:00:00. > :00:14.Battle of the Somme. Now on BBC News Channel, here is News watch.
:00:15. > :00:22.Hello and welcome to News watch with Mesa Mir Ahmed. Has the BBC response
:00:23. > :00:26.to the Brexit vote been unfairly dominated by doom and gloom and if
:00:27. > :00:30.possible negative consequences? And has those who voted to leave the
:00:31. > :00:38.European Union been stereotyped as old, ill educated racists.
:00:39. > :00:43.Journalistic consensus has taken a bit of a hammering in the past few
:00:44. > :00:46.days, Boris Johnson was widely held for a week as the frontrunner to be
:00:47. > :00:50.our next Prime Minister only for him to crash and burn before the race
:00:51. > :00:54.had been started. In an's footballers were seen as dead cert
:00:55. > :00:59.to beat the minnows of Iceland in Euro 2016 and winner what happened
:01:00. > :01:02.and going back to June the 23rd, we will be exploring that the BBC
:01:03. > :01:08.assumed that the country would and should vote to remain in the
:01:09. > :01:11.European Union. But first, first a's surprised that element in the
:01:12. > :01:14.Conservative Party leadership battle that led the assistant political
:01:15. > :01:20.editor Norman Smith to speculate on Boris Johnson's next move. I would
:01:21. > :01:24.not say it is a given at all that he will row in behind Michael Gove, and
:01:25. > :01:30.he has certainly offered no indication at all that was his
:01:31. > :01:34.intention, expression of that news reporters summed up the shock of
:01:35. > :01:41.many at the news of Michael Gove standing instead of Boris Johnson.
:01:42. > :01:46.It is fair to say that this guy didn't see it coming. Of course the
:01:47. > :01:50.Conservatives are not any critical part in some turmoil, as John
:01:51. > :01:59.Pienaar reported, the photo of Jeremy Corbyn and his newly reformed
:02:00. > :02:03.Shadow Cabinet. This seems like a bad idea this photo, Jeremy Corbyn
:02:04. > :02:06.is uncomfortable, a Shadow Cabinet patch together after mass
:02:07. > :02:11.resignations, what were his advisers thinking?
:02:12. > :02:18.The media were sent away but when they were called back later, empty
:02:19. > :02:23.seats around the table representing unfilled posts, were commented upon.
:02:24. > :02:25.But was this ebbing away partly the responsibility of the BBC. Yes
:02:26. > :02:53.thought somebody from Colchester. So much has happened since, it seems
:02:54. > :02:56.strange that it is a little more than a week since the referendum
:02:57. > :03:00.vote. The way that the result and its aftermath have been reported by
:03:01. > :03:03.the BBC has attracted hundreds of comments and we will be hearing in a
:03:04. > :03:07.moment from some of those viewers who were accorded their thoughts on
:03:08. > :03:11.cameras for us. First, a taste of what has been on our screens since
:03:12. > :03:17.the public's verdict became clear early on Friday morning. Watch and
:03:18. > :03:23.listen carefully, this is history in the making. The British people have
:03:24. > :03:26.spoken and the answer is that we are Radstock loop negotiation will
:03:27. > :03:32.produce a quite unacceptable deal for this country. Thursday night I
:03:33. > :03:35.was going to bed and I woke up, thinking we would still be in
:03:36. > :03:40.Europe, I will shocked, stunned and then scared. Like most young voters
:03:41. > :03:46.he wanted to remain in the EU, he told me he felt betrayed. I'm
:03:47. > :03:50.literally shaking because this is probably the biggest change of my
:03:51. > :03:55.generation. Governments of Europe are very worried and in Brussels,
:03:56. > :03:59.the mood is despondent and resentful. Meanwhile passionate
:04:00. > :04:04.Europeans are now dubbing how referendum day, Black Thursday. It
:04:05. > :04:10.has been another day of turmoil and as fears of Brexit seized the
:04:11. > :04:16.markets. The pound sank by 3.4%, its lowest for 30 years.
:04:17. > :04:23.in this take your country back, take our current feedback. It is not
:04:24. > :04:30.racism, they're coming across too much stop once the vote happen? A
:04:31. > :04:37.sense of relief. I'm joined by the BBC's head of news gathering,
:04:38. > :04:43.Jonathan Munro. We have put together examples of viewers' comments. The
:04:44. > :04:47.first one is typical of complaints. I am fed up with the constant
:04:48. > :04:51.coverage of people he wanted to remain, and the worries and
:04:52. > :04:56.negatives being generated. The country has voted, regardless of the
:04:57. > :05:02.size of the majority, the majority has made the decision. We now need
:05:03. > :05:08.to focus as a country, looking towards the future and the positives
:05:09. > :05:12.this may hold. Stop reiterating how bad things may or may not go.
:05:13. > :05:22.Essentially the BBC being far too alarmist. The result is in, and the
:05:23. > :05:26.decision was to leave. In that scenario, what does it look like to
:05:27. > :05:30.leave the European Union? A lot of the details are quite technical. We
:05:31. > :05:34.don't know what the deal will be like when Britain signs and access
:05:35. > :05:39.arrangements under the articles of the European constitution. That is
:05:40. > :05:45.difficult to be precise about. Looking at the options, how it the
:05:46. > :05:50.currency and jobs market, inward investment. Looking at things that
:05:51. > :05:54.have already happened, the decision by the Prime Minister not to confirm
:05:55. > :05:58.the decision on Heathrow Airport, that is a result of the leadership
:05:59. > :06:03.challenge in the Conservative Party, which was part of the referendum
:06:04. > :06:10.result, those are real news stories. Let's look at our second complaint.
:06:11. > :06:14.I have noticed on the BBC, a reluctance to speak about the
:06:15. > :06:23.positive aspects of the decision. The station seems to talk about the
:06:24. > :06:30.dire consequences. Sometimes fabricated, supposition of future
:06:31. > :06:37.scenarios. That may involve, they seem to consider it disastrous, this
:06:38. > :06:42.situation. A reluctance to talk about the positive aspects of the
:06:43. > :06:45.leave result. That is not the case. We did a lot of work and what it
:06:46. > :06:52.will mean for immigration from non-EU countries. Big issues in the
:06:53. > :06:54.campaign about what people on the League campaign described as
:06:55. > :07:01.immigrants coming to the UK from non-EU countries, parts of the
:07:02. > :07:09.Commonwealth. Trade deals which may open up with New Zealand and Canada,
:07:10. > :07:13.for instance. The story is focused on the macro consequences of leaving
:07:14. > :07:17.the European Union, that tears up a lot of the arrangements this country
:07:18. > :07:23.currently has. We are right to scrutinise those things. A brief
:07:24. > :07:28.e-mail from Dave Jones, saying he voted for Remain, but he is irked by
:07:29. > :07:39.the BBC's coverage of hand-wringing. The idea of what went wrong in the
:07:40. > :07:43.campaign? The Remain campaign were pretty confident they would win.
:07:44. > :07:48.Widely reported, not particularly on the BBC, that they would win by a
:07:49. > :07:54.narrow margin. Of course we know they were wrong. They did have a
:07:55. > :07:58.numerical victory in London, Northern Ireland and Scotland, but
:07:59. > :08:03.the UK voted out. We have not done our coverage of what went wrong from
:08:04. > :08:06.an impartial point of view, but we have looked at the relationships
:08:07. > :08:11.that did not work of the messages that did not get across. The
:08:12. > :08:16.negativity of project fear, by the League campaign, what they called
:08:17. > :08:21.it. Two comments about a sensitive issue. A lotto viewers got in touch.
:08:22. > :08:29.The BBC coverage was completely imbalanced. The coverage on the 24th
:08:30. > :08:37.of June basically implied all out voters did not understand the
:08:38. > :08:40.argument. Railing against the bankers, and all in voters were well
:08:41. > :08:47.informed and intelligent, which I did not think was fair. The coverage
:08:48. > :08:53.is implying many of the out voters were racists, which is not fair. It
:08:54. > :08:59.has created divisions. There has been inferred racism, the BBC making
:09:00. > :09:05.a beeline to those who come across as uneducated or racist. This is
:09:06. > :09:11.unhelpful. They cannot be 70 million-plus people uneducated
:09:12. > :09:13.racists. I had understood the BBC were an impartial public
:09:14. > :09:22.broadcasting service. I questioned this. The BBC accused of
:09:23. > :09:26.stereotyping all Leave voters. There is nobody I know he thinks there are
:09:27. > :09:32.17 million people who were racists. Nobody in the BBC takes thank you.
:09:33. > :09:36.Only uneducated point, we need to talk to all our audience, no matter
:09:37. > :09:40.what their education is. The person there is making a judgment we are
:09:41. > :09:44.not making. In the clip we showed at the beginning of the compilation,
:09:45. > :09:52.the gentleman with a swastika tattooed, films on Canvey Island,
:09:53. > :09:55.Ten O'Clock News, we ran two reports talking to ordinary people than
:09:56. > :09:59.ordinarily walks of life. The north-east of England and Canvey
:10:00. > :10:05.Island. We must have interviewed 12 different people. One of them
:10:06. > :10:11.tattooed, you have chosen to show that. Not ever sample. If you look
:10:12. > :10:18.at the programme, the vast majority of people in those two reports, what
:10:19. > :10:20.you might call honest, everyday people, with perfectly valid and
:10:21. > :10:26.honourable intentions, whichever way they voted. Interesting we got those
:10:27. > :10:35.complaints. Watching the news coverage, a spike in racist attacks.
:10:36. > :10:40.Question Time saying the BBC as part of a London centric consensus, not
:10:41. > :10:44.understanding why they voted league. Question Time from Preston, not
:10:45. > :10:48.exactly in the London bubble. The life question Time was from
:10:49. > :10:53.Birmingham. Very balanced questions, panel and audience. Is there
:10:54. > :10:57.something about the tone of the referendum, the unexpected
:10:58. > :11:02.consequences of the result taking BBC News by surprise. Proving a real
:11:03. > :11:09.challenge in how to cover it? Undoubtedly a challenge. Clearly the
:11:10. > :11:13.case. Unprecedented thing the United Kingdom has chosen to do. All kinds
:11:14. > :11:19.of challenges in the period covering the fallout. There will be
:11:20. > :11:22.challenges around balance, particularly the case when we get
:11:23. > :11:27.towards a general election, we don't know what parties will say as they
:11:28. > :11:31.approach manifesto time. Leadership contest going on, we will get a
:11:32. > :11:38.better idea. We want to talk to the viewers who are the voters. That is
:11:39. > :11:42.an important dialogue. That is all from us. Thank you for all your
:11:43. > :11:45.comments this week. If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and
:11:46. > :11:55.current affairs, or appear on the programme contact us on the number.
:11:56. > :12:01.For our website. You can find us on Twitter, have a look at our website.
:12:02. > :12:05.That is all from us, back to hear your thoughts about BBC News
:12:06. > :12:19.coverage again next week. The Battle of the Somme
:12:20. > :12:25.commemoration is taking place this evening in Eden Park in Manchester.
:12:26. > :12:26.A concept under way. We will join the people gathering this