Vocal Voices

Why is there so little news on the actual news?

If I can explain. On the BBC six o'clock news last night there was virtually no news. What there was though, were lots of "features".
These were:-
A feature on remarkable medical advances treating a paralysed man in Switzerland.
A feature on "sustainable eating" which was urging us to eat less meat.
A feature on the lack of "social mobility" in certain areas.
A feature on the possible effects of Brexit on sport in the UK.

To me, most of that isn't actually news.

What news there was, was:-
The Kashoggi murder in Turkey
The Suzy Lamplough murder
A robber throwing a policewoman out of her car and
Jaguar Land Rover lost money last year.

The last two bits were literally only seconds long.

If you wanted to know what happened, today, in this country (or anywhere else) there was virtually nothing. The news they did show, put together, wouldn't have stretched to five minutes out of twenty seven.

No wonder so many people don't bother with it any more.

BBC News is now a magazine: Victoria Derbyshire meets The One Show.

Internet news is little better. Create a headline. The opening paragraphs explain the headline. A spokesperson from somewhere comments on the headline. There is little analysis or presentation of any possible solutions to the issue in the headline - just the headline.

See what I did there......?

Yes, lol.

The One Show is a bit like kid's tv; Blue Peter for grown ups.

Watched BBc News this morning.
Two presenters were chatting to the Sports reporter. No news.
There has been no mention of the floods in Venice.
Lots of Trump speaking.
No mention of knife attacks in London and other areas.

It is part of the 24 hr news phenomenon.

I was in Seattle the year after CNN launched. It was a network news aggregator for happenings in US big cities and their hinterlands thousands of miles apart. Instead of the traditional focus on Washington and NY items from Chicago were now 'news' in LA, Houston, Miami..... and on. It made the country 'smaller' and more accessible.

The UK is already small. There are very few events in Birmingham of interest to the people of Leeds, or in Manchester to the people of Edinburgh..... but the time has to be filled: somehow.

So we get "Fish fingers 'surprisingly sustainable'" and "Little football fan's amazing memory trick" and "Men 'still seen as the ideal MP'"

Those are real headlines from today.