0:00:00 > 0:00:09of a certain royal announcement.
0:00:10 > 0:00:17Hello and welcome to Newswatch. Everyone loves a wedding, but the
0:00:17 > 0:00:22BBC News go into overdrive over Harry and Meghan? And...My
0:00:22 > 0:00:26congratulations to Harry and Meghan...Jeremy Corbyn
0:00:26 > 0:00:30congratulates the happy couple. What could possibly go wrong with BBC
0:00:30 > 0:00:38subtitling? First row involving Donald Trump's Twitter account is
0:00:38 > 0:00:42not a new thing, but this week was the first time Theresa May got
0:00:42 > 0:00:46involved so directly. The US president had retweeted three videos
0:00:46 > 0:00:49from the far right group Britain first, alleging to show violent acts
0:00:49 > 0:00:54by Muslims. They shall felt the wide coverage given to the story was
0:00:54 > 0:01:05unhelpful. E-mailing... At the start of the week the Government handed
0:01:05 > 0:01:10over a document detailing how it felt the UK's departure from the
0:01:10 > 0:01:14European Union would affect 58 sectors of the economy. But some
0:01:14 > 0:01:17sections of the so-called Brexit impact studies were blacked out to
0:01:17 > 0:01:22the fury of opposition parties. There was little about this and BBC
0:01:22 > 0:01:34News on Monday or Tuesday, which prompted Chris Hill to write...
0:01:47 > 0:01:51One reason why that story received less attention than it might have
0:01:51 > 0:01:55done was a certain engagement announced this week which we think
0:01:55 > 0:01:59you might just have noticed. Toure Derbyshire was on their won the
0:01:59 > 0:02:04long-awaited and much predicted news broke on Monday morning.Clarence
0:02:04 > 0:02:08House have just announced in the last few seconds Prince Harry is to
0:02:08 > 0:02:12marry his American girlfriend Meghan Michael.But the rest of the day the
0:02:12 > 0:02:19BBC News operation went into overdrive with presenters and
0:02:19 > 0:02:22reporters deployed to getting ten pals, Bolton is devoting more than
0:02:22 > 0:02:26at that time to the engagement, scheduled addition of Panorama
0:02:26 > 0:02:30changed to a special programme on the Royal News and extensive
0:02:30 > 0:02:43coverage of the new Tom online. The response of Sarah Louise Ellis...
0:02:53 > 0:03:00Ian Holton told us...
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Of their viewers had another objection, articulated here.I was
0:03:20 > 0:03:29quite amazed a heard the new -- newsreaders say Ms Merkel who is of
0:03:29 > 0:03:32mixed race, and then the news of the arrangements that were going to take
0:03:32 > 0:03:40place. Why does she have to say that? Why does it make a difference?
0:03:40 > 0:03:46I feel that I'm making these statements, the BBC is being
0:03:46 > 0:03:48divisive and actually setting up barriers were there and then eat.
0:03:48 > 0:03:54They don't exist. I know she herself says she is mixed race and has used
0:03:54 > 0:03:58this to her own benefit and to others benefit and I think that is
0:03:58 > 0:04:03great, but to actually say it in the factory line, I don't think that is
0:04:03 > 0:04:09right.Another viewer who contacted us about this week about the Royal
0:04:09 > 0:04:13engagement was Bob Davey and he joins us from Sheffield. With me
0:04:13 > 0:04:17here is Richard Burgess the UK news editor from BBC News. Bob, what did
0:04:17 > 0:04:23you feel about the garbage?I just thought that with other events
0:04:23 > 0:04:27happening in the world, far more significance and importance to the
0:04:27 > 0:04:33-- you feel about the coverage? To waste more than half of the six
0:04:33 > 0:04:35o'clock News bulletin to coverage of the engagement which everyone knew
0:04:35 > 0:04:44about already, I thought was absolutely pointless.This is the
0:04:44 > 0:04:48issue, isn't it? It is the excess. It is a simple fact, most people
0:04:48 > 0:04:52knew it was coming and more than half the bulletin.It was announced
0:04:52 > 0:04:55that morning so we didn't know it was definitely happening that day.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59Six o'clock it was the first time we had the chance to hear from both
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Harry and Meghan in the interview they did with Michelle the same. I
0:05:03 > 0:05:08think there were a lot of interesting issues to get into, held
0:05:08 > 0:05:11their relationship developed, how he proposed. All the stuff we found out
0:05:11 > 0:05:16that the first time in the six o'clock news bulletin. I appreciate
0:05:16 > 0:05:20the point that there was a bit of time devoted to it, but as far as we
0:05:20 > 0:05:23can tell, a lot of the audience was really engaged with the story and
0:05:23 > 0:05:28really enjoyed the coverage.Bob, did you feel a lot of other stories
0:05:28 > 0:05:33got squeezed out?Yes. The announcement of the engagement
0:05:33 > 0:05:37matters not the slightest. It does not making the slightest difference
0:05:37 > 0:05:43to anyone in this country's life. And yet events that are happening in
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Parliament are going to affect people in this country for decades
0:05:45 > 0:05:52to come. Surely we should be paying more attention to that than the
0:05:52 > 0:05:59fripperies of the Royals get to. Look at what was on the news, the
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Pope in Burma, the redacted Brexit impact studies which the Government
0:06:02 > 0:06:08released. Chennai six. We needed to have these properly explained and
0:06:08 > 0:06:13other stories get dropped off to find out how he proposed?I think we
0:06:13 > 0:06:16covered all the stories and have done over the course of the week. We
0:06:16 > 0:06:23lead with the Muslim situation on Monday when the Pope didn't mention
0:06:23 > 0:06:29the Rohingya by name.Chennai six would have been your lead, wouldn't
0:06:29 > 0:06:35it?Maybe, but the interest in the Harry, Meghan engagement was
0:06:35 > 0:06:40extraordinary. 5.6 million watched the news on Monday at six o'clock.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44That is the biggest audience all week. The most popular story on the
0:06:44 > 0:06:47website by a long distance, nearly 7 million people read the main story.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53There is interest therein it. We continue to cover other stories in
0:06:53 > 0:06:58depth.They also had concern about the tone of the coverage of the
0:06:58 > 0:07:03engagement, didn't you?It seems as though the Royal reporters are
0:07:03 > 0:07:12bonding and sycophantic. I don't know how they -- forming. I thought
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Nicholas Witchell was quite a good reporter until he became a royal
0:07:16 > 0:07:21reporter and seems to have gone the way of Jennie Bond.To be fair, do
0:07:21 > 0:07:23you have an issue that you personally don't care for a royal
0:07:23 > 0:07:30coverage?Not really, no. It was perhaps worth a mention and would be
0:07:30 > 0:07:35in at the bottom of page eight of the Guardian or something like that,
0:07:35 > 0:07:41but apart from that, no.Richard, it is a happy occasion, but a lot of
0:07:41 > 0:07:50viewers do detect what they see as a fawning tome, don't they?We were
0:07:50 > 0:07:53reporting it as a happy story and most people saw it as a positive
0:07:53 > 0:07:59story. You often reflect that on the tone of your coverage but we also
0:07:59 > 0:08:04reflected the issues the issues have -- the Royal family have had in the
0:08:04 > 0:08:09past about marriage, and the fact she is a divorcee, but ostensibly it
0:08:09 > 0:08:15was a happy story, and the audience clearly enjoyed it.Richard we had
0:08:15 > 0:08:20one viewer on webcam there dealing uncomfortable about the amount of
0:08:20 > 0:08:25discussion of Meghan Marco's mixed-race background, into an
0:08:25 > 0:08:30introductory line, did the BBC perhaps misjudge how to discuss that
0:08:30 > 0:08:38and make too much of it?No, it was one story, one element of the story.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42We are telling the audience about who she is. She is also raised at
0:08:42 > 0:08:47her -- raised at herself. She and Prince Harry raised the equipment
0:08:47 > 0:08:54about it. -- a statement about it. She talked of pride about ethnicity.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58It was an element of the story and it was important we were like.Do
0:08:58 > 0:09:03you think you got anything wrong in the coverage?Quite clearly people
0:09:03 > 0:09:06have enjoyed the coverage and we had a lot of positive feedback but I
0:09:06 > 0:09:09know there are people like Bob who will always think actually too much.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15There are people in my family who think that. It divides people. This
0:09:15 > 0:09:18was a good news story but a lot of our audience and they think they
0:09:18 > 0:09:23enjoyed the positive news.Final word to you, Bob, the wedding is in
0:09:23 > 0:09:27May, how would you like to see BBC News handle the story of the next
0:09:27 > 0:09:33six months?I think it will be interesting to some people, I don't
0:09:33 > 0:09:37know if OK or hello magazine will cover it but I think it would be cis
0:09:37 > 0:09:43-- sufficient. Those who are interested will buy hello magazine
0:09:43 > 0:09:48and the rest of us will get on with our lives.Bob Davey, thank you so
0:09:48 > 0:09:54much, and Richard Burgess. Finally the BBC to come the season W one
0:09:54 > 0:09:57they presented a satirical but not unfamiliar view of either the BBC.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00One observed in the last series dealt with in a suit we have
0:10:00 > 0:10:06addressed on this programme.It has been live for 24 hours and we are
0:10:06 > 0:10:12looking at 93% accuracy.12 errors. The new version of the BBC in-house
0:10:12 > 0:10:17operating system has just gone live, including a major upgrade of the
0:10:17 > 0:10:23automatic live subtitling software. Can we talk about the other 7%.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29Although it is already doing better than its predecessors in many areas,
0:10:29 > 0:10:35the area it is least accurate as the area of proper names.The medically
0:10:35 > 0:10:40it is pretty close to stop but politically and every other way it
0:10:40 > 0:10:48is a disaster.Subtitling blunders like that couldn't happen in fact
0:10:48 > 0:10:54like that could they? Jeremy Corbyn was congratulating Prince Harry and
0:10:54 > 0:11:01Meghan Markle, saying I admired that they have drawn attention to medical
0:11:01 > 0:11:06conditions. This is what they saw. It was a particularly unfortunate
0:11:06 > 0:11:13error considering the criticism he has faced for referring to his
0:11:13 > 0:11:25friends in Hezbollah. Some viewers were not impressed... The BBC said
0:11:25 > 0:11:35the voice recognition use when subtitling live news broadcasts and
0:11:35 > 0:11:39recognised his brother. That was not the only on-screen oddity on Monday.
0:11:39 > 0:11:45Not the subtitling issue but it will have come sub to surprised that it
0:11:45 > 0:11:50will have led to crisis talks between the two main parties. If
0:11:50 > 0:12:01they want to share anything you can call us. Or e-mail us. You can find
0:12:01 > 0:12:12us on Twitter. Have a look at our website. More next week.