14/07/2017 Newswatch

Welcome to Newswatch. Wimbledon fans have been glued to television

screens this past fortnight but should tennis take priority over the

news? And would a male politician have been asked if he had shed a

tear on election night? We are coming to the end of the Wimbledon

fortnight, the annual treat the tennis fans, but the source of

frustration for others, never mind the many hours of live action on BBC

One and BBC Two, the tournament has featured strongly over the past two

weeks and breakfast, the news channel and news bulletins. There

have been features on the famously long queue for spectators to get

into Wimbledon, the condition of Andy Murray's dodgy hip and

discussion of the baby his wife has on the way. A number of injuries

sustained by other players in matches, a state of the grass on

court and of course the progress of our great British singles hopes, all

lapped up by the aficionados but not by sceptics like Josh.

On Tuesday not it wasn't a question of tennis featuring in the news, as

instead of the news, specifically some local news bulletins, as it

came up to six o'clock the British number one woman Johanna Konta was

battling it out on centre court in her quarterfinal and it was decided

to keep showing that match on BBC One instead of the scheduled use at

six, and on BBC Two they had abandoned their planned Wimbledon

coverage for unscheduled repeats, as rain meant no other matches were

being played. Confused? John Wilson did not understand the logic.

Another viewer Pat Brown was also annoyed by this and recorded this

video to explain why. Hello. We have been subscribers of the radio Times

for many years but when it comes to Wimbledon the scheduling might as

well go out of the window. Prime example of this was on Tuesday, when

at six o'clock the news was turned over onto BBC Two, can't Wimbledon

fans click the channel? Perhaps not. And no London news at all that

night. Why was that? Not very good, BBC. The London news was in fact

shown that evening later than scheduled but in other parts of the

UK such as Scotland and Northern Ireland the early evening regional

bulletin was dropped altogether and we hope to discuss the reasoning

behind this with someone from BBC television but no one was available.

Instead they gave us this statement. It has been a month since the fire

at Grenfell Tower in London in which at least 80 people died and on

Wednesday morning our reporter reported on the impact the disaster

has had on the local community especially children. All the

children who have witnessed unimaginable horror, we asked for a

show of hands of those who knew someone who had died. This is just

the beginning of the healing process. But we know that the

healing is going to take years, a very long time. Having watched that,

Jan had this to say. Justin contacted us with more

general thoughts on coverage of the Grenfell Tower, one month on.

And another report on the aftermath of the tragedy came on the news at

ten, it began like this. A black nail, hammered into London's

conscience. Grenfell Tower demands your attention. In his shadow the

faces of the missing are everywhere -- in its shadow. On trees and walls

and bus shelters, unblinking, it is hard to hold their accuser treat

gays. -- accuser Adrienne made the same point on

camera. -- Adrian. Come on, BBC, this is a serious news item, why did

we have to have dramatic build-up music, more akin to a drama like

Silent witness or a Hollywood movie? This is the BBC and not Fox news,

this was unnecessary, trivialising a serious news item. On Wednesday MPs

debated the abuse and intimidation of parliamentary candidates after a

cross-party report said the Sergeant and racism and bigotry was on the

rise and politicians like Diane Abbott and Stella Creasy had

described the repeated online abuse they have been subjected to an

Theresa May has now ordered an inquiry into the subject. William

McNulty gave us his thoughts after considering the interviews with

Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. If you look at the way the Prime

Minister is addressed or Jeremy Corbyn is addressed, certainly by

members of Newsnight and the media in general think the aggressive

tones that are used against politicians... And this

unfortunately translates to members of the public. And I think the

media, so leave the BBC, and they are not alone in it, they have

contributed to the levels of abuse that politicians have to put up with

today. On Wednesday's daily politics the Labour MP Jack drew me came to

discuss the scale of personal abuse directed at politicians. It has been

getting worse for some years, and I personally don't get that much, if

you will excuse the language, but it comes overwhelmingly from the right,

but that doesn't matter where it comes from, it is not acceptable and

anyone who practices that is completely wrong. When we're talking

about abuse it would be best if we did not use abusive language and

daytime -- and daytime terrorism. I feel -- on daytime television. I

feel very strongly about it. The Daily Politics team were not able to

lead out the term as we have done and that led to this response. I

don't want to sit and hear people coming out with disgusting language

like that, I'm amazed you allow people like that to come on the

television and speak like that. When there are little children around.

Another political interview caused more controversy this week, one

conducted on Thursday by Emma Barnett for radio five, she asked

the Prime Minister how she reacted on election night when she saw the

exit poll. Did you have a cry, how did you feel? I felt devastated,

really. Enough to shed a tear? Yes, a little tear. At that moment? At

that moment, yes. That admission was headlined on television news

bulletins throughout the day and it is worth bearing in mind that

interviews like this are arranged between the Prime Minister's office

and a programme and maybe the line of questioning is anticipated, but

some viewers felt the prominence given to it and the line of

questioning played into gender stereotypes.

Finally back to tennis, and the defeats of Britain's's great hopes

Andy Murray and Johanna Konta. These are the headlines from the news at

six on Wednesday and Thursday. And Andy Murray crashes out of the

quarterfinals at Wimbledon and finally admits he was injured. And

the end of a dream for Britain's Johanna Konta as she crashes out the

Wimbledon semifinals. Sarah wondered, can we get newsreaders to

stop using the sensationalised term of crashing out in reference to

tennis players, getting to the quarterfinals with an injured hip

and then losing is hardly Andy Murray crashing out, she said.

Thank you for your comments this week. If you want to share your

opinions on BBC news and current affairs and even appear on the

programme, you can call us or e-mail Newswatch. You can find us on

Twitter and have a look at our website. That is all from us. We

will be back to hear your thoughts about BBC news coverage again next

week. Goodbye.