:00:00. > :00:00.This week, did BBC News win a gold medal for its
:00:00. > :00:13.Hello and welcome to Newswatch with me Samira Ahmed.
:00:14. > :00:15.Coming up: Looking back at the event which dominated news
:00:16. > :00:20.Yes, there were gold medals galore for our competitors in Rio,
:00:21. > :00:22.but was BBC News coverage of the Olympics quite
:00:23. > :00:30.First, the fallout from the Brexit vote in June's referendum continues
:00:31. > :00:41.On Wednesday Daniel Sandford reported for the BBC News at Six
:00:42. > :00:44.on the murder of a Polish man in Essex.
:00:45. > :00:46.The fear is that this was a frenzied, racist attack
:00:47. > :00:50.While detectives are not ruling it out it may be that Arek Jozwik
:00:51. > :00:53.wasn't targeted because of his race, but simply because he was there
:00:54. > :01:00.when a group of youths was looking for trouble.
:01:01. > :01:23.A number of viewers reacted in a way described here by Chris Wilkins.
:01:24. > :01:27.On Sunday, BBC One news bulletins marked 100 years since the founding
:01:28. > :01:32.of the coastal Marine force which began as a fleet of high-speed
:01:33. > :01:35.torpedo boats in the First World War and sank over 500 enemy
:01:36. > :01:45.They first fired up in 1916, were the idea
:01:46. > :01:51.They were just 50 feet long and carried one or two torpedoes.
:01:52. > :01:57.Enough to hit large enemy ships then escape at high speed.
:01:58. > :02:04.Unfortunately, the archive footage of the explosion there was not
:02:05. > :02:09.a British torpedo hitting a large enemy ship, as a couple
:02:10. > :02:20.of eagle-eyed viewers spotted, as John Bryant wrote:
:02:21. > :02:26.And now, as they say, for something completely different.
:02:27. > :02:28.On Wednesday morning Breakfast showed some rather striking footage.
:02:29. > :02:33.Explain what this is, this is a professional unicyclist.
:02:34. > :03:17.Malcolm Thomas thought showing that was:
:03:18. > :03:20.Now, for many the highlights of the their summer television
:03:21. > :03:23.viewing would have been the triumphs of Usain Bolt and Mo Farah
:03:24. > :03:25.on the track, Laura Trott and Jason Kenny in the velodrome,
:03:26. > :03:27.or Britain's women on the hockey pitch.
:03:28. > :03:30.All gripping stuff, but what else was there on the box?
:03:31. > :03:32.Well, there were BBC One's news bulletins and the news channel.
:03:33. > :03:35.But for 16 days in August they, too, had a distinctly Olympic flavour.
:03:36. > :03:39.Hello, this is Breakfast with Louise MInchin and Charlie...
:03:40. > :03:42.-- Hello, this is Breakfast with Louise Minchin and Charlie...
:03:43. > :03:45.For the duration of the Olympic Games BBC Breakfast reinvented
:03:46. > :03:47.itself as Olympic Breakfast with many of the big events
:03:48. > :03:51.happening overnight it was the first opportunity for most of us to catch
:03:52. > :04:10.But there was also plenty of reaction and background material.
:04:11. > :04:12.Too much for Kathryn Coury who wrote:
:04:13. > :04:24.to see the race, but a bit more non-sporting news.
:04:25. > :04:44.British success soon started, of course, but a couple of days
:04:45. > :04:46.later Carol Mabbutt had this reaction to the news at six:
:04:47. > :04:58.And here's Bill Dickie on the following day:
:04:59. > :05:15.On the 15th of August, Grant Privett echoed that by adding:
:05:16. > :05:24.And on August 21st we receive this tweet:
:05:25. > :05:32.Well, to discuss this I'm joined in the studio by viewer
:05:33. > :05:36.and the editor of the BBC six and ten o'clock news,
:05:37. > :05:38.Paul Royle, and in our Cambridge studio is another
:05:39. > :05:41.Cathy, first, what was your concern about the Olympics
:05:42. > :05:49.The amount of time that was devoted to it.
:05:50. > :05:52.And also, that it seemed to become the prime focus of all news that
:05:53. > :06:06.It almost seemed as though the rest of the national and international
:06:07. > :06:09.news sort of got lumped into other news, you know,
:06:10. > :06:11.for about ten minutes onto the end of the Olympics.
:06:12. > :06:13.And then reverting back to the Olympics afterwards.
:06:14. > :06:16.I just felt that when I switch on the news that is what I
:06:17. > :06:23.I want to see the whole of the news, not just a repeat of what I've
:06:24. > :06:28.Tim, what about you, adding to what Cathy said.
:06:29. > :06:32.I very much agree with what Cathy has said.
:06:33. > :06:34.My concern was that the news bulletins seemed to be dominated
:06:35. > :06:41.Particularly given the BBC was providing virtually wall-to-wall
:06:42. > :06:46.coverage of the Olympics in any case, I didn't really think
:06:47. > :06:49.it was necessary for the news bulletins to be dominated
:06:50. > :06:52.by the coverage of the Olympics in the way that they were at
:06:53. > :07:02.the expense of other important news coverage.
:07:03. > :07:04.For instance, you sometimes had to wait ten or 15 minutes before
:07:05. > :07:07.you got onto any other items of news at all.
:07:08. > :07:09.Paul, this is the general feeling, the Olympics people
:07:10. > :07:11.were happy to see coverage, there were lots of great stories,
:07:12. > :07:13.but the disproportion and particularly the sense that
:07:14. > :07:16.you got ten minutes of Olympic pride and then suddenly a couple
:07:17. > :07:20.of minutes of Aleppo just stuck in in a tiny amount.
:07:21. > :07:33.Burst, the Olympics is a global event. -- first. Once every four
:07:34. > :07:39.years. There is a huge amount of audience interest in the Olympics.
:07:40. > :07:43.In this case, from Team GB's sporting performance all the way to
:07:44. > :07:48.issues around Rio, Brazil, tickets, the Paralympics afterwards, and so
:07:49. > :07:56.on, there were a number of stories and news attached to the Olympics. I
:07:57. > :07:59.would reject this idea that are the news wasn't covered, or we weren't
:08:00. > :08:03.thinking about other news when Aleppo should be the lead story, the
:08:04. > :08:07.chlorine gas attack, for example, it was the lead story on the ten
:08:08. > :08:13.o'clock news. We covered international and domestic stories
:08:14. > :08:18.in the same way as... They were squeezed, work today, within shorter
:08:19. > :08:21.bulletins often. On a number of occasions there was less airtime but
:08:22. > :08:26.always with the proviso that on any given day, and we looked at this and
:08:27. > :08:31.thought hard about this every day, on any given day if there was
:08:32. > :08:34.additional stories or news and we needed to include it in the
:08:35. > :08:38.bulletins, or we thought we should, we would extend the programmes. That
:08:39. > :08:43.was always the role we carried through the whole Olympic Games.
:08:44. > :08:48.Cathy, you had an example of a specific story, I think it was the
:08:49. > :08:55.Labour leadership debate getting interrupted by Olympics. Can you
:08:56. > :08:57.tell us about that. Yes. I was additionally frustrated by having
:08:58. > :09:03.taken time out of my day I specifically wanted to spend time
:09:04. > :09:07.watching the Labour leadership debate. Everybody was introduced.
:09:08. > :09:12.Then they said, right, before we do all that we are just going to go
:09:13. > :09:17.back and find out about the Olympics. And we had another, oh, it
:09:18. > :09:22.must have been a five, ten minute report about what was going on in
:09:23. > :09:28.Rio again with all of the same clips we'd already seen many times that
:09:29. > :09:33.morning. One of the things you raised, ten, was just how far it was
:09:34. > :09:40.cheerleading the British side all the way in this coverage. That is to
:09:41. > :09:48.some extent true. They concentrated, it seemed to me, on the successes of
:09:49. > :09:53.Team GB. Apart from Usain Bolt, or Michael Phelps, hardly anyone else
:09:54. > :09:57.got a mention at all. Also, even when there wasn't a medal for Team
:09:58. > :10:03.GB, you then had speculation about who might get a medal in the future.
:10:04. > :10:07.I wouldn't have said that was news. There are two things viewers would
:10:08. > :10:11.like the news teams to rethink. The proportion of the coverage but also
:10:12. > :10:15.the accusation made just now by ten that perhaps there was a bit too
:10:16. > :10:19.much cheerleading and not enough impartial coverage of who were the
:10:20. > :10:23.most important athlete at Rio, and not so much on just British
:10:24. > :10:29.prospects. Again, that is always a challenge. It was in 2012, as well.
:10:30. > :10:34.Team GB had an amazing Rio games. Second in the world. 67 medals. At
:10:35. > :10:39.the same time we covered stories about other countries, around other
:10:40. > :10:42.athletes, Michael Phelps, said mobiles, other athletes who broke
:10:43. > :10:45.records, we covered the controversies in the games, weather
:10:46. > :10:55.it was the questions over Castres amend your questions around the
:10:56. > :11:01.Paralympics. -- Simone Biles. On the night the Team GB hockey team won
:11:02. > :11:04.that with medal, the top story on the ten o'clock news which followed
:11:05. > :11:15.was about the problems of the funding to the Paralympics. --
:11:16. > :11:19.Caster Semenya. A lot of the audience were appreciative of com
:11:20. > :11:23.and we were getting big audiences into news programmes and news
:11:24. > :11:28.coverage. That was part of it. It was a challenge. I'm not disputing
:11:29. > :11:31.that. I accept there would be some frustration if you are expecting one
:11:32. > :11:35.thing and you have to wait a bit because there are some Olympics you
:11:36. > :11:42.feel you've already seen. Thank you all. And that's all from us. Thank
:11:43. > :11:47.you for all of your comments this week. If you would like to share
:11:48. > :11:57.your opinions, or even appear on the programme, you can call us on:
:11:58. > :12:06.We will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC News coverage
:12:07. > :12:09.again next week. Goodbye.