26/01/2018 Newswatch

And in the the United States

this is how the Dow

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Now it's time for Newswatch,

with Samira Ahmed rounding

up your reactions to this week's BBC

News coverage.

Hello and welcome to news watch.

Coming up: A report's questions

prompts tears from a bereaved father

and anger from viewers. What did he

ask and why? And is BBC news going

overboard in reporting allegations

of sexual harassment? We discussed

on last week's programme viewers'

concerns that BBC News is making too

much of reporting on this winter's

difficulties in the NHS. It is no

surprise the attention of some of

you was drawn to the Monday evening

bulletins which led with a long and

powerful piece about the challenges

being faced at the University

Hospital of North Tees and its staff

and patients.

He is 83. She is struggling to

breathe.

They are marvellous these

two men. They have never left me. I

am in agony.

It is awful. We don't

like it, nobody likes patients to be

in the corridor, but I physically

have no room to put this lady in.

Sandra Smith felt the top of the

news programme was not the right

place for reporting of that kind.

She recorded this video to explain

why.

We all know the NHS is

struggling and we all understand

that sometimes these things have to

be reported, but to go on for nearly

15 minutes on a news programme is

not right. There are programmes such

as Panorama for this sort of

investigative journalism. There are

lots of other things going on in the

world, not just the NHS.

Jerry

Etheridge agreed with those

sentiments and took exception to the

tone of the coverage. Nearly 50% of

the day's news at six is covering

problems in the NHS. Clearly this

should be reported, but can we have

more succinct coverage. Jonathan

Bush called it the shameful report.

John Weaver put the opposite point

of view.

In politics are plenty of attention

was given to Ukip over last weekend.

Its leader Henry Bolton has been

under pressure since news broke of

his relationship with an ex-model

and the racist messages she had

sent. Alex Forsyth reported on the

story for the news that one on

Monday. Despite growing pressure, he

says he is not going anywhere. Henry

Bolton is insisting he wants to keep

leading Ukip, even though the

party's ruling body says he should

quit and now a string of senior

members have resigned because he

will not go. Sheila Grant was

watching that and wondered, why on

earth is Ukip the lead story on the

news that one reporting live from

Westminster? This party has no MPs

and following the referendum no

longer has any relevance in this

country as can be seen by the

haemorrhaging of their support and

constantly leaving leaders.

By the end of the week much of the

media's focus had switched to

Switzerland where many of the well's

business leaders and heads of state

were meeting at the World Economic

Forum in Davos. The BBC were there

in force, but some felt that

coverage concentrated too much on

the global elite and not enough on

the economic realities of people's

lives.

On Thursday BBC News reported on the

sharp rise in serious, violent

crimes recorded by police in England

and Wales. Hugh is Tom Symons on the

BBC News at Six. Behind the

statistics, wasted lives. A decade

after this boy tried out the bike he

had been given as a present, he

became one of four young men stabbed

in London New Year's you, leaving

his father confronted with a

nightmare. You saw his body?

Yes.

What is it like for a father to see

their son dead in front of them?

It

was just painful.

A number of

viewers took exception to the

question and recorded this video.

I

could not believe my ears on

Thursday night when I was listening

to the six o'clock News and your

reporter talking to that poor

gentleman who had just lost his son

after a bout of street violence. The

reporter said, what does it feel

like to see your son lying dead on

the floor in front of you. How

insensitive and disrespectful. I

thought the BBC were better than

this. I just could not believe what

I was hearing.

We put that point to

BBC News and a spokesperson told us:

let us know your thoughts on any of

the issues we are covering or on any

other aspect of BBC News. There will

be details of how to contact us

before the end of the programme.

Before that, some more of your

comments. On Wednesday it was this

top story that caught the attention

of some of you.

All the President's club men appear

to be enjoying themselves at their

charity dinner, the women working

there much less so. Claims they were

groped at the men only event for

those in business and politics.

Women working as table host testers

were made to where revealing

outfits, their phones confiscated.

It was filmed by an undercover

Financial Times journalist, but some

viewers but the BBC was making too

much of it.

And this telephone caller felt that

BBC news was not telling the whole

of the story.

A lot of the girls said they were

not harassed at all. Shouldn't the

BBC be finding out both sides of the

story?

Another viewers thought the

prominence that went on at the

dinner detracted from more important

news.

I wanted to express my

surprised that you did not bother to

include anything at all about the

Save the Children fund offices being

bombed in Afghanistan on the six

o'clock news, although you chose to

devote loads and loads of time to a

bunch of elderly, wealthy perverts

in the Dorchester hotel. Really, you

have got your priorities completely

wrong in my opinion.

As well as

leading on that charity dinner,

Wednesday evening bulletins featured

reports on the sentencing of the

former US gymnastics team Doctor

abusing athletes. Also allegations

by nuns at a care home in

Lanarkshire, also sexist remarks

made on Twitter by the New England

women's football team Phil Neville,

also stories about the rapist John

Warboys. All different stories, but:

the court appearance of the Doctor

and the summing up of the judge in

the case had already been broadcast

live for more than half an hour on

the news channel, prompting this

reaction.

I was watching the news on

Wednesday when coverage of the trial

came on and on and on. After ten

minutes listing to the judge's

tedious summing up I switched off.

However, this left me wondering why

this man, not exactly a household

name in this country, was warranted

such extended coverage in the first

place. Surely a post trial and post

sentencing report would have been

quite sufficient?

Finally, British

tennis has a new hero, Kyle Edmonds,

who this week reached the semifinal

of the Australian open. As he

progressed through the tournament we

heard more about him with BBC News

tracking down his boyhood coach on

Tuesday. It was all a little too

detailed as someone describing

himself as confused on twitter. I am

disappointed with coverage of Kyle

Edmonds, they did not even interview

his dog.

You can telephone us, you can find

us on Twitter or you can have a look

at our website. That is all from us.

We will be back to hear your