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At ten o'clock in Bruce will be here with a full round-up of the news. | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
First, here is news watch. Hello and welcome to Newswatch | :00:14. | :00:23. | |
with me, Samira Ahmed. She won't take part | :00:24. | :00:26. | |
in a televised leaders debate. Will the BBC do more to make | :00:27. | :00:28. | |
a head-to-head happen? And are the Green party being given | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
a fair share of airtime on the BBC's There has been a bit | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
of a phoney war feel Before the parties began | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
publishing their manifestos. Many questions had been fobbed | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
off with this answer, given to Laura Kuenssberg | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
by Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday. Well, you will have to wait | :00:49. | :00:54. | |
for the manifesto for the details. Those manifestos will be | :00:55. | :00:57. | |
officially unveiled next week, but on Wednesday night we got | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
a sneak preview of what Somehow, an earlier | :01:01. | :01:02. | |
version had ended up I can't claim I've read it | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
all, but here it is. Stamped right through the middle | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
of the document, about 20,000 words In other words, they hadn't quite | :01:14. | :01:15. | |
anticipated me waving it But I can do, because we've | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
received this leaked draft. Well, he could leave it | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
around on the telly, Tim Grant was among several | :01:29. | :01:30. | |
Newswatch viewers who thought not, asking, if it's got confidential | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
written on it, is it right And David Gregory | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
elaborated on that. One report explained how the word | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
draft was on every page and that this report was not meant | :01:44. | :01:45. | |
for public viewing. Why, then, do the BBC take | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
the opportunity to make a moral stand here and not report | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
on what was in the manifesto? This is, in effect, a stolen | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
document, and therefore should have not been used in the way | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
that it was. We didn't discover much | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
about the Conservative Party's policy plans on Tuesday night's | :02:03. | :02:04. | |
One Show, but we did get a few insights into the personalities | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
and marriage of Mr and Mrs May. I get to decide when | :02:08. | :02:15. | |
There's boy jobs and girl jobs, you see. | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
Now, we're not leaving that as well, are we? | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
I'm tempted to say in current circumstances I'm not sure how | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
Alison Norcross found that a stomach churning interview, | :02:29. | :02:38. | |
it made uncomfortable viewing on many fronts, not the least | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
of which is the absolute obsequiousness of the presenters. | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
And one Twitter user wondered, how can this propaganda be | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
allowed when May runs from a face-to-face debate? | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
The format in which senior politicians appear in the set piece | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
election programmes only started in 2010, but has since become | :02:58. | :02:59. | |
In 2015 David Cameron refused to follow the example of his | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
predecessor as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and take part | :03:06. | :03:07. | |
in a head-to-head discussion on the BBC with other party leaders. | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
Five of whom appeared without him in a so-called challengers debate. | :03:11. | :03:18. | |
Theresa May has followed his example and Jeremy Corbyn has said | :03:19. | :03:21. | |
he won't take part in such a programme either, if she doesn't. | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
So this time round we were told this week the BBC will be showing | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
a debate featuring senior representatives from Labour, | :03:30. | :03:31. | |
the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
the SNP, Plaid Cymru, Ukip and the Green party. | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
The press release also announced Question Time specials and election | :03:40. | :03:41. | |
questions programmes featuring separately the leaders | :03:42. | :03:43. | |
of six of those parties, but not the Green party, | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
to the annoyance of many viewers, including Christopher Corey. | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
I understand that the BBC in their forthcoming election | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
specials have invited Ukip to take part and have excluded | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
I think this is unfair and ludicrous, to be honest. | :04:02. | :04:11. | |
I am not a Green party supporter, and I am certainly not | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
a Ukip supporter, however, I do think that the Green party | :04:17. | :04:18. | |
should qualify far above Ukip to have their voice heard | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Other viewers were annoyed about the absence of a televised | :04:22. | :04:32. | |
debate between the two main candidates to lead | :04:33. | :04:34. | |
Some comparing it to the long established tradition of American | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
presidential hopefuls squaring up to each other, a debate in March | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
between the two leading candidates to become Prime Minister | :04:45. | :04:46. | |
of the Netherlands, and the TV discussions before the recent | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
If those countries can do it, wondered Terry Pearson, | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
why should our potential leaders avoid that sort of scrutiny? | :04:57. | :04:59. | |
Isn't it about time the BBC took on the clearly prepared Conservative | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
strategy of not letting May face searching political questions? | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
The One Show "Who takes out the bins?" | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
I still don't understand why we will not see May | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
If the BBC had seriously threatened to empty chair her, | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
Well, let's discuss some of those issues with the BBC's | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
head of news gathering, Jonathan Monroe. | :05:26. | :05:27. | |
Jonathan, let's start with whether the BBC should have | :05:28. | :05:29. | |
done more to try to get Theresa May to take part in a leaders debate | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
by threatening to go ahead with her seat empty. | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
Well, we're really disappointed the Prime Minister's not | :05:37. | :05:38. | |
doing the leaders debate, we would have liked to have done | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
a leaders debate featuring the party leaders themselves. | :05:42. | :05:43. | |
The day after the Easter weekend the Prime Minister announced | :05:44. | :05:45. | |
Number one, there would be a general election. | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
And number two, she would not take part in television debates. | :05:50. | :05:51. | |
And our judgment was that wasn't a negotiating position, | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
So threatening to empty chair would have led to an empty chair. | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
Ultimately, the viewer doesn't learn anything from an empty chair. | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
She has paid no price for refusing the leaders debate. | :06:03. | :06:04. | |
In fact, there she is on The One Show sofa, | :06:05. | :06:06. | |
and viewers have said, whatever you say, they feel | :06:07. | :06:09. | |
that's wrong, and maybe she would have given in. | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
But she hasn't paid a price for saying no. | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
We don't know she's not paid a price. | :06:16. | :06:17. | |
Some viewers may decide that they're going to change their vote | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
as a result of the strategy of the leaders of the election. | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
But it doesn't help anybody to say that because the Prime Minister | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
is going to appear in one format she can't therefore appear | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
in other programmes, whether it's Question Time | :06:31. | :06:32. | |
or election questions or Andrew Neil interviews. | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
Or The One Show or Jeremy Vine or any of the other programmes that | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
actually had leader debates, and people thought we were going | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
It's a shame that we're not getting them. | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
Basically what happened in 2010 is that all the main party | :06:54. | :06:56. | |
leaders at the time, by which I mean just three of them, | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
we didn't include the seven in 2010, they all felt, for whatever reason, | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
it was in their interest, it was the right moment to say yes | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
That changed by 2015 with, as you say, David Cameron not | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
A very complicated negotiation then followed about exposure of parties | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
We didn't have Nick Clegg in the TV debate either. | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
And it has changed again this time round with the Prime Minister | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
Let's hope we can get them back again in future elections. | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
The BBC is going to run these special Question Time format | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
programmes with individual party leaders and studio audience. | :07:31. | :07:32. | |
At the start of this week the BBC said the Greens | :07:33. | :07:34. | |
A lot of viewers complained to Newswatch. | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
And they complained to us, too, and I've heard the comments your | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
Let me explain the formula we use, not in too much detail. | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
We are obliged by our regulations to take into account the electoral | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
support over two election cycles, that means two general elections, | :07:53. | :07:54. | |
in other words back to 2010, and all the elections that happened | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
Lots of local elections in that time, obviously, | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
If you take all those figures, the Ukip support over that period | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
is significantly greater than the Greens. | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
The Greens have been stable but very low. | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
We saw, as you know, a week or so ago, they didn't do | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
But over the seven-year period we are obliged to count, | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
But when you apply that format to the schedule, | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
the programmes we are actually going to make, we do think | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
in retrospect, actually, that the gap between what Ukip | :08:31. | :08:32. | |
is getting and what the Greens are getting is too great, | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
so we're going to make a change and we've invited the Green party | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
in the last 24 hours to take part in an extra programme | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
in the elections questions format in the last weekend | :08:42. | :08:43. | |
They've accepted that and we're really pleased to have | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
that extra programme going into the BBC One schedule. | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
So you've either caved in to pressure or you got it wrong. | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
We're not going to cave in to pressure from political parties. | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
We looked at the schedule in retrospect, what we'd lined up, | :08:58. | :08:59. | |
and the differences between the parties. | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
There were two differences, effectively, that the Greens | :09:03. | :09:04. | |
One was the Question Time elections questions programmes, | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
The other was the series of Andrew Neil interviews, | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
which are going out the week after next on BBC One. | :09:14. | :09:16. | |
So what we've done is we said to the Green party, we think | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
the gap's too great at the moment, but you can't have equivalents | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
to the other parties because of that electoral support issue. | :09:23. | :09:25. | |
So we've given them, we hope, a good compromise | :09:26. | :09:27. | |
and an offer I'm really pleased to say they've accepted. | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
Away from the election, shock were created this week | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
by President Trump's sacking of the FBI director James Comey. | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
The White House has said he was fired because he'd | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
Here's Jon Sopel on Wednesday night's News at Ten. | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
But if it really is all about the way the FBI conducted | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
the Hillary Clinton investigation, why sack him now? | :09:53. | :09:54. | |
Why not do it when Donald Trump first came to office? | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
And how do you reconcile it with the praise that was | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
Roger Witt from Poole felt there was a lack | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
of balance in the reporting of Mr Comey's sacking. | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
I'm struggling to understand why the BBC should imply that the reason | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
behind it is the fact that the bureau were closing | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
Yes, it's what the Democrats say, but without any evidence. | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
In months of investigation, Comey has produced no evidence either, | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
so I'm curious as to what facts the BBC is privy to. | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
Or is the corporation merely reporting selective rumour? | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
Finally, Alexander Blackman, known as Marine A, was freed two | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
weeks ago after serving three years in prison for killing a wounded | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
An incident recorded on a helmet camera. | :10:40. | :10:45. | |
On Tuesday, Clinton Rogers met the former Royal Marine | :10:46. | :10:47. | |
To be fair, you can put quite a few different spins on what's said. | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
And unless you were actually there, you don't know the full story. | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
Obviously, I told my version of events when I was at trial. | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and given especially what's | :11:05. | :11:05. | |
happened to us in our life, if you could go back, | :11:06. | :11:08. | |
One viewer was watching that and the her response for us on camera. | :11:09. | :11:17. | |
I have absolutely no sympathy with the allegiances | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
of his Taliban victim, but allowing the man who breached | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
the Geneva Convention and killed and injured prisoner of war | :11:26. | :11:28. | |
to justify himself in this way is disgusting. | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
He was provided with a platform and allowed to minimise his actions | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
and suggest there was justification not known to the general public. | :11:37. | :11:44. | |
Thanks for all your comments this week. | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs, | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
or even appear on the programme, you can call us... | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
Do have a look at our website for previous discussions. | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
We'll be back to hear your thoughts about BBC news | :11:59. | :12:09. |