17/06/2017 Newswatch


17/06/2017

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Hello and welcome to Newswatch, with me Samira Ahmed.

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Praise but also concerns about how BBC News reported the terrible

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Grenfell Tower block fire in London.

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And was the general election result wrongly presented as a disaster

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for the Conservatives and a triumph for Labour?

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There have been many shocking and distressing images on the news

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There have been many shocking and distressing images on the news

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recently and Tuesday night's fire which engulfed a West London block

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of flats provided yet more.

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The following morning Victoria Derbyshire spoke to a man

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who had escaped from the tower.

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There is a man who threw two of his children.

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Two of his children.

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Come on, man.

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Wow. We saw a lot.

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We saw a lot, man.

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We saw a lot with our own eyes.

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We saw friends, families...

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Honestly, it's all right, you don't have to say any more.

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Sandra Martin e-mailed us with this message

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about Victoria Derbyshire:

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Some viewers, though, objected to what they saw as the intrusive

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nature of that interview.

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And others, including this one from home affairs

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editor Mark Easton.

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My sister, and her son.

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How old was he?

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He's 12 years old.

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His name is Brooke.

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That's why I ask...

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A 12-year-old boy.

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John Gosling contacted us about the BBC's coverage

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following the fire, here are his thoughts:

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Is it now the job of BBC reporters to chase

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down the traumatised,

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the bereaved, the despairing, and, basically, ring out every last drop

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of despair from that person in the of ratings?

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I watched one particular person being interviewed with a microphone

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thrust into their face.

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They were crying, they were distraught,

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they had lost somebody, they had no idea what had happened

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to a member of their family.

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And...

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There just seemed to be no benefit in this interview.

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You are not ambulance chasers.

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But that's the impression you are starting to give.

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Later, on Wednesday, news bulletins were presented

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from the site of the still burning tower, with Sophie Raworth fronting

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the news at six location, and Hugh Edwards doing the same

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at ten o'clock.

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Scores of viewers said they found it inappropriate to have that

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background while presenting news about the tower and other topics.

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Here's John Sutton.

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Sophie Raworth, chatting about the DUP and Tim Farron

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while standing in front of a burning tower block, presumably

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containing the charred corpses of people's loved ones.

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How has it come to this?

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A channel should pool resources, share footage,

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not send the main presenter.

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And if you must, have the basic respect and human decency to not

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treat it like a chat back on a studio sofa.

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Thank you for all of your thoughts on the issues arising

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out of the coverage of the Grenfell Tower fire.

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We may well be discussing them with the BBC News editor next week.

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It's been a week since the general election results

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and its implications are still unclear.

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Last Friday political editor Laura Kuenssberg reflected

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on what was widely considered to be something of a political earthquake.

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What was surprised at the start...

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And what we're saying is the Conservatives

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are the largest party, note they don't have an overall

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majority at this stage.

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Gradually, seat after seat was glorious shock for Labour.

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Loss after loss for the Conservatives.

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Images of cheering Labour politicians and supporters,

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and of disappointed or angry conservatives made it hard

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to remember at times that the latter had won 56 more seats

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than the former.

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And were back in power.

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When the Prime Minister from ten Downing St on Friday

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was the question Laura Kuenssberg shouted out to her.

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Is this strong and stable, Prime Minister?

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She who dares doesn't always win.

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But she had won, some Newswatch viewers pointed out.

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At least in the sense that the Conservatives were forming

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the next government.

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And Graham Watts objected to what he saw as:

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There certainly seemed to be some relish in comments

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made by George Osborne on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show,

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repeated widely on BBC News.

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Theresa May is a dead woman walking.

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It's just how long she's going to remain on death row.

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I think we will know very shortly.

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David Hines objected to the airtime given to that phrase,

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and what he saw as a wider trend.

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Later in the week, on Thursday night, there was Laura

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Kuenssberg began talking again about how the government might

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respond to the London tower block fire.

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Remember also right now this is an extremely fragile government,

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the State Opening of Parliament is not even under Theresa May

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is only just days after a bruising political defeat.

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Nigel Rawlins was one of a number of viewers to pick

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up the phrase there, a bruising political defeat,

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writing:

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The charge of a lack of political balance was one

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we heard many times during the election campaign.

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For instance, after the BBC's debate from Cambridge,

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eight days before the vote, featuring the leaders of Ukip,

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Plaid Cymru, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats

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and Labour parties.

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And representatives from the SNP and the Conservatives.

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But since the result, the omission from that line-up,

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and from most of the coverage of the Democratic Unionist Party

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and other Northern Irish parties, has been questioned by viewers such

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as Jack O'Dwyer Henry, who recorded this video for us.

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As a Northern Irish voter I was somewhat dissatisfied

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with the BBC's general election coverage because it didn't seem

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to include the parties from Northern Ireland and never

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the issues Northern Irish voters were concerned

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about in the election.

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I think this is especially obvious whenever it came to the big set

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piece television debates and interviews of the campaigns,

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such as the leaders debates, and the leaders interviews

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with Andrew Neil.

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First, I'd like to ask what the justification

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is for excluding all Northern Ireland parties

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from those programmes?

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And secondly, given that the DUP is in such a prominent national

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position after the election, will the BBC reconsider this for

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future general election coverage?

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Let's discuss some of those issues which the BBC's

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head of news gathering, Jonathan Munro.

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Jonathan, let's start with the DUP.

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In hindsight was it a mistake, it was, wasn't it, not to include

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them in that debate?

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No, it wasn't a mistake it was deliberate.

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The reason for it there are five parties in Northern Ireland

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who are described as major parties.

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Parties of significant support in the constituencies

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in Northern Ireland.

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We cannot put the DUP into a networked programme

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without also putting Sinn Fein, the SDLP Alliance,

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and the Ulster Unionists.

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That would have taken Cambridge from a 7 handed debate

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to a 12 handed debate.

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It would have been completely impossible to Marshall.

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People in the rest of the UK don't have the option to vote for the DUP,

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whereas everyone on the Cambridge debate was facing each other in some

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part of the UK or another.

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So what we did instead was we did a Northern Ireland only debate

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on the Tuesday just before polling day, which went out

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in Northern Ireland, and was then seen on the BBC News

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channel across the UK.

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Viewers have complained that the BBC presented the election result

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is a triumph for Labour and defeat for the Conservatives.

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Now, that was just wrong, wasn't it?

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I don't think we did that, actually.

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We reported it as a result relative to expectations.

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Theresa May herself said that if she lost six seats to Labour

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she would have lost the election, that was her phrase, not ours.

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Obviously she lost a lot more than that, in fact

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she lost her overall majority.

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She was, of course, as we know, the leader of the biggest

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party in the Commons, and therefore forming a minority

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government with the DUP support.

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Relative to expectations, it was undeniably a setback

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for the Conservative Party, and undeniably better

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achievement for Labour than they better expected.

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Expectations, this is what viewers are concerned about,

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the expectations were wrong.

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They've been wrong in previous elections, such as the referendum.

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Newswatch viewers have said the BBC has allowed itself to get swept up

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into focusing on expectations when covering the election.

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When you should just be reporting facts.

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Every election comes with a, a degree of expectation

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about what the result might leave us with.

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That is not unusual.

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At this election, people of the Conservative Party

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and the Labour Party were saying to us, both privately

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and indeed on the record, and in interviews, the Conservatives

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will get a landslide.

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I remember Nicola Sturgeon doing an interview for the BBC

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in which she used that exact phrase, we are headed for a

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Conservative landslide.

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So, the expectations were quite out there in terms of where people

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thought the results would be.

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All those expectations turned out to be false.

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And it really depends on the work that's done now about how voters

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behaved when political analysts get involved about why that happened.

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With every election there was a learning

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curve about those things.

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Some viewers detected a sense of relish and colleagues

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in the reporters' tone and questions to the Prime Minister.

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Notably the repeating of George Osborne's dead

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woman walking quote.

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I think it's a slightly odd thing to ask is not to report

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what the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was sacked

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by Theresa May, is now a major newspaper editor,

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is saying on the record on air.

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There was no relish in any of the questions...

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The strong and stable comment shouted at her?

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But Mrs May campaigned on a mandate for a strong and stable government.

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That was her phrase.

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In the spirit of robust questioning, and calling people to account,

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it's perfectly reasonable for us to put that back to her.

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Looking back, what should the BBC not do, or do differently next time

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in covering a general election?

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Well, I think it all depends on the circumstances

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in which the election is called.

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There is bound to be a different political landscape.

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There will be new programme ideas, things we will do differently,

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I think one of the things that we did very well this time

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around, and want to do even more of, is tapping into the youth vote,

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which we think turned out in bigger numbers than people expected.

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So, although there was a dedicated Newsbeat debate for young voters

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just before the election, I'd like to see even more voices

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from the younger generation's first-time voters and see them even

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more visible across the BBC.

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Jonathan Munro, thank you.

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Thank you for all your comments this week.

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If you want to share your opinions on BBC News and current affairs,

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or even appear on the programme: That's all from us, we will be back

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to hear your thoughts about BBC News coverage again next week.

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Goodbye.

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