23/02/2018 Newswatch

post-Brexit position

with the EU "pure illusion".

Those are the headlines.

Now it's time for Newswatch

Hello and welcome to Newswatch

with me Samira Ahmed.

Coming up - has BBC News

coverage of the Winter

Olympics been too focused

on badly performing Brits?

We speak to the head

of BBC sports journalism.

Certain newspaper front

pages made a lot of

allegations about Jeremy

Corbyn and a Czech spy.

Did the BBC make too little?

And, as KFC stores across the UK

temporarily shut this week,

did BBC News get clucking

mad with its coverage?

First, for the past week

many of our national newspapers

have featured headlines

such as "Corbyn the

collaborator" and "Corbyn

urged to reveal his Stasi file."

Allegations that the Labour lady had

questionable contacts with a Czech

diplomat and agent in the 1980s

emerged from files held by the Czech

security service archive.

The Labour leader called

the story nonsense and

accused the newspapers of covering

it of lies and smears.

But not all Newswatch

viewers were so dismissive

of the claims.

This anonymous telephone

caller thought they were

at least worthy of

an airing on the BBC.

You've covered the story

regarding Donald Trump and the

Russia investigation ad nauseam

for months and months and months

on end but there's nothing on BBC

News even

though it's featured very

prominently in the newspapers and

I'm a bit staggered and a bit

flabbergasted by this.

Although there were

some mentions of the

story on BBC News it didn't feature

on the main television bulletins

until a brief mention on Tuesday,

and then gained more prominence

throughout the week.

By Wednesday on the Daily

Politics Andrew Neil

tackled the subject to much claim.

The Defence Secretary says Mr Corbyn

has "betrayed his country".

In what way?

Well, the Defence Secretary has

chosen his own words.

I mean, the point for me

about this debacle is

that...

How has he betrayed his country?

Jeremy Corbyn is a grave danger

to this country, I believe,

but that's because...

Has he betrayed his country?

But that's because of

the ideas in which he

believes and what that would mean

for our economy and our society if

he were elected.

People have all sorts of ideas.

But your Defence Secretary,

our Defence Secretary,

the Defence Secretary of this

Government, of our government, has

said the leader of Her Majesty's

opposition has betrayed his country.

In what way has he

betrayed his country?

Although the claims lacked evidence

and were firmly denied,

some Newswatch viewers thought

it was too little too late from

BBC News.

Lynette Smith asked on Monday: why

have you not even passed

comment?

Admittedly they are only allegations

but you are quick enough

to cover showbiz stars when years

old allegations of sexual abuse were

laid at their door.

And Barbara Stevens

had the same question.

"Why has there been

no headline coverage

based on the allegations?

Surely this is a matter

of public interest."

Well, we put that to BBC News

and they told us:

"BBC News has covered this

story and Jeremy Corbyn's

response in a range of our output.

The BBC correspondent

in Prague interviewed

both the director of

the

Czech Secret Service archive

and the former agent who made

the original allegations."

Every now and again,

we are posed a question put here a

couple of weeks ago

by Pascal Freeman

who describes himself

as an

incredulous licence fee payer.

Can you please tell

me why regional news

is not broadcast in high definition

in this day and age?

My mobile phone can record

video in 4K resolution.

It seems very antiquated

that the BBC cannot

afford the technology

so

that broadcasts are not interrupted

with the message BBC One HD cannot

yet show programmes from your area.

As a middle-aged person I thought

test card interruptions were

consigned to history.

We tried to find out an answer

for Mr Freeman and BBC

News told us:

"Upgrading the 15

regional versions of BBC One across

England and the Channel Islands

to full HD is a priority.

However, this would cost

the equivalent of a third

of the annual editorial

budget for regional TV

bulletins, so we have

to

balance our plans with the best

interests of the licence fee payer."

Now, the Winter Olympics come

to an end this weekend

and for the next four years most

of us will probably

forget what the difference

is between the skeleton and the luge

and exactly how Russian competitors

there are not competing for Russia.

But for the past fortnight the Games

have occupied a lot of airtime on

BBC One and Two, online

and also on BBC News

with much focused on British

performance, some of

which was pretty poor.

Let's look at examples from the News

at Ten and Breakfast.

It's heartbreak for

Elise Christie yet again.

After failing to win a medal

at the last Olympics four

years ago, history has repeated

itself here in Pyeongchang.

Morning from Pendle

Ski Club in Lancashire

where we have been up all night

cheering on the local hero Dave

Ryding who started on the dry slopes

here, and as you can tell they

are so proud he came

in the top ten in ninth,

so well done to Dave.

Clarke goes fourth!

Yarnold wins gold again!

Laura Deas has won bronze as well!

The BBC's commentary team seen

celebrating Lizzy Yarnold's skeleton

gold, about which more very shortly.

But it was the extent

of the coverage on BBC News that

exercised a number of viewers

like Tim Elliott.

"Why is the BBC so interested

in the Winter Olympics?

It is getting an inordinate amount

of coverage following the fortunes

of privileged people

taking part in sports

that have not been heard

of

in the UK."

Clive Wilce had this to say.

"I have enjoyed the Winter Olympics

but I cannot believe the

amount of coverage that has been

given to Elise Christie's speed

skating races.

I lost count of the number of times

I heard the story of

her disqualification,

over and over again."

For others, it was not the quantity

of the coverage but its

focus on British

competitors which rankled.

Brian Bollen and tweeted

about the BBC's chauvinistic

coverage of the Winter Olympics.

"I've heard at least one

reporter refer to GB as we.

In the Falklands War the BBC

referred to the British."

Richard Brown thought:

"The BBC coverage of

the Winter Olympics

is

pretty poor.

They are far more interested

in the British athletes

rather than the world's best."

And Alan Dawson agreed.

"The Winter Olympics just

shows British media,

the BBC particularly,

just cheer leads losers.

We love somebody who tries.

Oh, but isn't he or she brave?

Oh, but isn't he or she brave?"

Well, let's discuss those issues

with Stephen Mawhinney, the BBC's

head of sports journalism.

He joins us from Salford.

Thank you for coming on Newswatch.

We know that some audiences

don't care about sport.

But was there too much on BBC News

particularly on Breakfast?

Samira, perhaps you won't be

surprised to hear me

say I don't think so.

Obviously it was up to every

programme editor of each news

programme to decide

whether they covered

the Winter Olympics and how

much they gave to it.

But I'm not surprised that

many of them chose to

give it extensive coverage because

there was some spectacular sport,

there has been some really

compelling human stories, some wider

issues at stake as well in terms of

some of the politics and diplomacy

that was going on around the Games.

And, of course, we know

that there is huge audience

interest in this.

In fact, on the television

coverage alone more than

30 million people have tuned in

through the Games, that's more than

many of the other major sporting

events that we cover, for instance,

Wimbledon or the Six Nations.

So there is no doubt

there has been a

wide audience interest,

although of course I

appreciate some viewers

and

listeners are not going to be

as engaged in sporting stories.

This story of building

up the athletes'

journey is another issue more

generally that viewers raised.

A lot of focus on British

competitors who

ended up crashing out,

like Elise Christie,

wouldn't it have been better sports

journalism to focus on

the events themselves

and the winners?

So, we absolutely did focus

on the events and the winners and I

can come onto that.

But just to deal

with Elise Christie.

Hers was an absolutely

compelling human drama,

there's no question about it.

She went into the

Sochi Olympics as the

favourite in the short track speed

skating and ended up having a really

dramatic but disastrous

time and she ended up

being disqualified,

or

crashing out of each of those.

And then had to deal

with a huge amount

of abuse including death threats,

and thought about walking away from

the sport.

But she decided to continue,

became a multiple world

champion, came again into these

Olympics as the favourite, and yet

unbelievably again went

through a series in each of her

three events where she was either

pushed out,

disqualified, or injured

before her final race

where she attempted

to

compete, fell over again, seemed

to have qualified, but then got

disqualified again.

By any standards, it

was an extraordinary

human drama and kind of news story

around Britain's favourite athlete

going into the Games.

We had specific complaints

about seeing the

BBC commentary team celebrating

British skeleton medal success, also

using the word 'we'.

Isn't the BBC supposed

to be impartial?

Obviously we do understand

the importance of

being impartial and across our news

coverage you would have seen that.

Of course, in our live sporting

coverage, there is no question these

are moments of huge

drama, huge passion,

many of our pundits

are

obviously former Olympians

themselves and they have close

relationships and understandably

have a real engagement and personal

closeness to all of the athletes

that are out there and their

performances, and sport is partly

about passion, is partly about that

kind of excitement that we get

wrapped up in and we want

to share that, encompass

it and embrace that

with

our audience.

Many of our audience really

appreciate that from us.

It's certainly true

to say that with the

Summer Olympics too Newswatch

viewers have said they feel BBC News

coverage of these events is too much

about British competitors regardless

of outcome, when it should be

about the top stories of who won.

Do you accept that BBC

news coverage needs

to be rethought about whether you

have got that balance right?

As I say, it is

absolutely a balance and

always done on a case-by-case basis

for every single programme, every

news programme, and you know, I make

no apology for the fact that there

has been a focus on Team GB.

There is no doubt

there is huge audience

interest for that, all

of the evidence suggests that.

Don't forget that Team GB

are funded by public

money through UK Sport,

so we literally have a stake in both

seeing that as well as holding them

to account in terms of their

performance.

Stephen Mawhinney,

thank you so much.

No problem.

Finally, Monday brought the bizarre

news that the fast-food outlet KFC,

which used to be known as Kentucky

Fried Chicken, had run out of

John Kay reported on the

story the News at Six.

Oh!

No!

When you've been promised KFC

as a half-term treat but there is no

chicken.

The company says it is working flat

out to rectify the problem.

Oh!

But for some that is

little consolation.

So, was there something

of an overreaction, not just from

customers, but from the BBC too?

A Twitter user describing himself

as Giacomo G Casanova, thought so.

"Let me get this straight, you're

endlessly histrionic re UK's child

obesity problem, then

devote a lengthy slot

to a supply issue that

shuts KFC stores.

Who cares?

Featuring unhappy kids

and closing with one

wailing as though it

were

some national tragedy."

And that's all from us.

Thank you for all of your

comments this week.

If you want to share your

opinions on BBC News

and current affairs,

or even appear on the

programme, you can call

on

0370 010 6676, or e-mail

[email protected].

You can find us on

Twitter @NewswatchBBC.

Do have a look at our website.

The address for that is

bbc.co.uk/newswatch.

That's all from us,

I will be back to hear

your thoughts about BBC News

coverage again next week.

Goodbye.