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There really seems to be a growing tendency at the BBC TV News department to go for touchy-feely correspondents, with some sort of perceived populist touch and ability to communicate to us, the unwashed masses.

My main gripe is the two new features I’ve seen become increasingly common on both national and local news. First is the “live summary”, with the subject of the report leaving some building in the backdrop. Watch the BBC news from today, and you have the usually insightful Nick Robinson talking to the camera as John Prescott is bundled into a car in Hull, surrounded by the usual horde of cameras.

Why? What possible value does it add to the story in question? It’s increasingly common, adds nothing, other than perhaps helping the technical crew settle bets about the abilities of the chap in front of the camera to ‘pull it off’. OK, if you want to go one further, “live” reports from outside buildings that have only a passing relationship to the story: Going live to a common where somebody was murdered five years ago and is in the news again is an example.

Then there’s the bouncy lilt used by presenters to, presumably, make what they’re saying more engaging. I find it patronising. Take the new(?) business correspondent on BBC1, who takes it too far and seems almost to peer down his nose when speaking (and seems to have no ability to think off the cuff when asked an unexpected question). You can almost see the punctuation when he speaks from script, and they all seem to be trying to reach out to be as encompassing in what they’re talking about as possible. Mr Robinson is guilty here again, but he again makes up for it by making our increasingly insidious politics more interesting. Enthusiasm goes a long way in a correspondent.

OK, what’s the solution? Sure, I don’t want our reporters to go back to deferential, similarly it’d be a shame to see news and current affairs become dry and boring, and lose the remaining interest it has. I’m just asking for a bit more seriousness, a little less patronising, and an end to those silly stunts with cameras that add nothing to the story. Oh, and another series of Broken News wouldn’t go amiss. Showing news programmes as they really are. Marvellous.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 6:49 pm and is filed under BBC, Media, Rants, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.