22/07/2016 Newswatch

Welcome to Newswatch with me, Paddy O'Connell.

Ahead on the programme: Mass murder in Nice.

How did the BBC deal with such big, breaking news just hours apart?

Have you ever come across anyone quite like Boris Johnson?

Should the new Foreign Secretary, should he be questioned

This is a brutal reshuffle, Mrs May, isn't it?

And, was the Prime Minister ever likely to answer that question?

First, Donald Trump has now been officially adopted as the Republican

candidate for the presidency of the United States.

There were not many predicting that one year ago.

News from the party convention in Cleveland, Ohio, has focused

largely on weather Mr Trump's wife copied sections of her speech

from one by Michelle Obama and on the booing delegates

gave his former rival for the candidacy, Ted Cruz.

But beyond rows like this, are we hearing enough

about what a Trump presidency might actually be like?

For one viewer, the coverage has all been about one man.

On Thursday night, we did hear a bit more substance, with coverage

of Donald Trump's speech, accepting his nomination,

but some feel there is an unfair spin being put on his words.

It has been a busy month of news as you or I can remember.

Editors need to react swiftly to unforeseen and complex events

An example came at the end of last week when Friday night's attempted

coup in Turkey came so soon after Thursday night's lorry

Bastille Day celebrations turned to horror.

People running for their lives as terror strikes the Riviera.

France declares three days of national mourning

For several hours, information on the ground in France was scarce,

leaving news organisations relying on eyewitness accounts and footage

Our viewer, Nicky, thought some of that material,

used on the news at six, was unsuitable for

Some of the interview is transmitted were equally harrowing,

With me to discuss this is Hilary O'Neil, deputy

editor of the BBC One, six and ten o'clock News bulletins.

We have the say before we reach some criticism, there has

seldom been a time like this for the news.

I think what we are seeing in the criticism from viewers

is that maybe we are all becoming desensitised, maybe even you.

The footage that was sent to you, was it right to put all of that

The first thing and the most important thing to say

is that we take enormous care over what pictures

we put in the bulletins and there is a process for doing

that and it will involve a number of people in the newsroom looking

very carefully at the material coming in and deciding

on an editorial basis and using our best judgment,

what pictures we use and what we don't use.

We understand a lot of it is very distressing.

It is an appalling story and something dreadful has happened.

If you look back at the pictures that we used on the six

and ten o'clock that night, every single bit of footage told

part of the story, none of it duplicated, none

of it was extraneous and it allowed us to build a picture

of what happened that evening and it is one of the extraordinary

things of the times we live in that that kind of picture is available

to us because nobody could have expected it to happen and there

The question is, because it is available, does it need to be used?

You used something our viewer didn't like.

But what about the fact that it goes on and on and on.

The other viewers say you should step away at times

because the terrorists want to dominate BBC News,

All we can do is tell the story as best we can

If all we did was talk to traumatise people who were extremely upset and

unhappy you may have a point but we did not just do that. We tried to

piece together a story about the perpetrator and the intelligence,

the operation around him, we went for international reaction, we did a

lot of explaining as well of emotional reaction. We tried to get

to the context of the whole story. The focus changed on Friday evening.

Tonight, just at months after the attacks in Paris, France is in

mourning once again. And there is another major developing this story

tonight. Reports of a military coup in Turkey. Bridges in Istanbul are

blocked and there is gunfire in the capital, Ankara. Most of the stories

were still concentrating about the attack in France.

On the first sight, did you go too late on the news on Turkey? No, we

did not. 21 minutes pass. It was in the headlines and, secondly, there

was enormous confusion and events were still unfolding. Nobody knew

what was happening, it was completely unexpected and it is our

duty to get the best possible take on what is happening. People look to

us to be telling them what we know to be true, even if we have to stay

on some occasion we are not exactly sure what is going on. You cannot

pass a story as big as the story in Nice where 84 people were killed. We

may have been accused of going to something that was not confirmed and

neglecting the story. You can be criticised from one direction and

the other. One viewer showed grabs from other News channels. You could

have gone a bit earlier? Of course, we could have. There is always one

more way of doing it. And it is never going please everybody. It was

a decision to defend. One of our priorities is to give people as much

authenticated information as we can. Thank you very much. Domestic

politics has come down from 100 miles per hour to 70 mph but on

Tuesday, the new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, gave a news

conference with John Kerry. There were questions for both of them. Can

I give you this opportunity to apologise to the rumours you may

have been connected to. Have you ever come across anybody quite like

Boris Johnson? I will give you sometime think about that, John.

This man is a very smart and capable man. I can live with that. A viewer

was not laughing. In fact, she was annoyed and disgusted that...

BBC journalists have been spending a lot of time in Downing Street none

more than Norman Smith. Casting our mind back to Thursday, last week, he

was there with Simon McCoy as the Prime Minister arrived back at her

new residents seek to complete appointing her team. You asking the

questions? I will leave this to you. This is a brutal reshuffle, Mrs May?

Are brutal reshuffle. No surprises at no answers. I do not know how

long I have been doing this and you never get any answers. One viewer

commented... I have been watching him shouting various questions

across Downing Street. And then ducking out of the way of the

camera, in expectation that they would be a useful reply, which they

never is. Vicki Young does this as well. They remind me of schoolkids

teasing each other across the street for the sake of their group of

friends. I find it embarrassing to watch. I expect a bit more dignity.

Is that possible? The question hanging in the air. We are off the

air for a few weeks over the summer but, fear not, we will be back in

September. You can call us, e-mail us, or find us on Twitter. Do look

at the website. That is all from us, we will be back to heat your

thoughts about BBC News coverage in September. Goodbye.