- Peter Barron
- 23 May 06, 04:12 PM
Here's a selection of viewer feedback on Newsnight's redesign which aired last night.
My personal favourite was the anonymous viewer recorded on the overnight duty log:
Felt that the new set was excellent. Totally excellent, 100% approval.
And there was a pretty lively session on the , that wonderful uber geek talking shop on TV presentation.
My favourite there was approving critique of our new Astons.
You can see more viewer comments below...
Continue reading "Simple and stylish"
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight
A selection of comments being made about the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ on blogs around the world...
• Adam Smith Institute: "Some ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ staff are reportedly annoyed that which would in the past have been fixed by a couple of workmen in a cradle has degenerated into an expensive and long-running farce" ().
• Idents.tv :"I really like the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News sets" ().
• Chris Doidge: "The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is supposed to be 'ours', yet at the moment is greatly detached from society in many respects" ().
• Standing in other people’s shoes: "I love this audience analysis from Newsnight editor Peter Barron - I suspect I might actually be a dedicated loyalist" ().
- Vicky Taylor
- 23 May 06, 01:18 PM
When the Six O'Clock News commissioned a survey into the UK's attitude to the problem of drugs, the results were perhaps surprising.
Three-quarters of respondents said they believed drugs were a problem in their area and of the 1,900 people surveyed more than half said the police weren't doing enough. As often with these statistical insights into life, we ran pages of the news website to capture more of these experiences.
The responses were extraordinary. Literally, hundreds of e-mails telling of direct experience of the problem of drugs; users of all ages and backgrounds, anguished parents and friends of users, shopkeepers and householders affected by dealing outside their front doors and the GPs and teachers coping with it all.
One wrote to us: "Well done, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳! It was brave decision to take this investigation as main extended item. It is the only way that the public will have a full picture of the enormity of the problem and the lack of action to deal with it."
Many painted a hopeless picture: "Drugs are the scourge of this country and have been for decades. Drug dealers just laugh at the police because they have been operating for so long now they fear no one. The drug business is so powerful and effective that it is hard to break down their operation."
There were also a huge number of people who felt drugs weren't in themselves the real culprit. "The biggest drug problem in my area is alcohol," wrote Simon from Fife, who was the top recommended comment on the debate.
It's by getting this direct route to our audiences that we can explore issues that are at the heart of our communities. We're not policy makers and may have not come up with any answers, but this week we really did feel we had touched the nerve of a nationwide problem.
Vicky Taylor is editor of Interactivity
- Ben Rich
- 23 May 06, 12:13 PM
It's not often that we devote the first 12 minutes of the Six O'Clock News to one subject, but last night we did just that, on the subject of drugs, and the effects they are having on our communities. There was not a particular news story it was attached to. We did our own survey with ICM of what people thought of the effect drugs were having in their area, and our special correspondent, Richard Bilton, went and visited some of the worst affected places. The issue was covered in combination with News 24, the Ten O'Clock News, and the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News website.
I don't think there would be much argument that it was powerful and important stuff and that broadcasting it was in the public interest. But we did have to balance it against the other news stories of the day, and justify the scale of our committment to it.
And our committment was tested. The verdicts in the Lozell's case arrived just before lunchtime. They were the final stage in the story of the murder of a young black boy in Birmingham, who was simply trying to avoid trouble. It was a racially motivated attack that coincided with some of the most serious riots we've seen in Britain. It also had wider social importance in that it highlighted the divisions between the Asian and Afro-Carribean communities in the Lozell's area, and resonated with more general worries about integration between people of different ethnic backgrounds.
After some thought we continued with the plan of running drugs as our lead item. Our poll had shown that three quarters of people thought drugs were a problem in their area, more than half thought the police were not doing enough. By definition in News we are usually driven by events, but sometimes it's good if we step back and find the time to address in a significant way some of the realities of our society.
Ben Rich is deputy editor, One and Six O'Clock news
- David Kermode
- 23 May 06, 09:29 AM
It's raining, it's pouring... This weather is boring me to tears...
So what better week to choose to highlight the water shortages affecting parts of the UK? Well, OK. If I'm honest, we'd be in the grips of an early summer heatwave, rather than a Donna Summer retrorave.
And ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Breakfast's rushed-to-air reactive might look more timely too.
But the fact remains that water levels are at record lows in parts of the UK. And hundreds of of thousands of people are already subject to water restrictions even though it's only May. We know our viewers care about it because when we made reference to the hosepipe bans in force around the South East, we had a huge response.
Many people were concerned about the water companies wasting water. Something we have already put to Thames Water in an interview last Friday. But many more seemed determined to do something in that "Dunkerque" kind of way.
So, why not ask them for their ideas? They've already started flooding in, if you'll excuse the pun. And we shall be highlighting some of the best ones this week on Breakfast.
We've even asked the legendary inventor Trevor Bayliss, of wind up radio fame, to invent a way of getting bath water into the garden (Bill Turnbull's idea).
So, why my obession with parts of the UK? Well, we've also had a steady trickle of viewer e-mails from northern England and Scotland asking us why we're obsessing about water shortages when the problem isn’t nearly so bad there.
A pertinent question. But surely, saving on water consumption is good for everyone isn't it? You don't have to be in the grip of a drought to want to cut your water use a bit.
As for the rest of our Water Week, the forecast is for more wet weather. In fact, apparently it's going to be wet until our special week ends. I don't think I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again.. Again…(to fade)
David Kermode is editor of
- Rod McKenzie
- 23 May 06, 09:25 AM
Halle Berry. Soooo gorgeous. Sigh. But is my, as yet, unrequited appreciation for her sublime beauty a reason for tolerating her "people" - and how far should we entertainment journalists go in meeting the stars' demands and foibles for the greater good of bringing top interviews to millions of listeners and viewers - even if they are drop dead dazzling?
Take the day Halle met Chris Moyles. She was badly briefed - they didn't hit it off and when she left Chris gave, on-air, his less than complimentary verdict on her attitude.
Trouble was, those pesky PRs were listening and when our reporter Nick Wallis (a perfect gent and a top reporter) turned up at her five-star suite to interview Halle about her new movie X-Men 3, her "people" had taken against Radio 1 and we were barred.
Putting extremely rich, young and, ahem, creative people into an environment not unlike house arrest at hotels like the Dorchester or Sanderson is, I think, a recipe for disaster. As a result, the people who tread around these world-famous multi-millionaires, do so extremely carefully.
The PR running this particular junket circus (no, no-one knows why they're called junkets) was spitting blood/all ties severed with R1 etc. Luckily Nick is very charming and rather than walking away, his powers of persuasion worked. Then disaster struck. His recording machine ran out of batteries and he had to raid his digital camera for AAs, spilling them on the carpet as he hastily fumbled to get organised. Halle gracefully slipped to her knees (sigh, again) and joined our Nick on the carpet to retrieve the rogue batteries (OK... you can invent your own headline here).
Anyway despite their star's hand of friendship, Radio 1's relationship remained officially terrible until around midday when they threatened to pull a special screening being held for Radio 1 listeners. We told them to go ahead by all means if that was what they really wanted. Of course, they didn't.
And the moral of the story: sometimes it's worth putting up with PR tantrums if you get to look for batteries on the floor with one of the world's most beautiful women. Or something...
Rod McKenzie is editor of Newsbeat and 1Xtra News
Telegraph: "The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ needs to be put back in its public service box, says the chief executive of the radio group Chrysalis" ().
The Times: "A leading teacher has said that some rap music is undermining classroom discipline and has urged the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ not to broadcast it" ().
The Herald: "³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland's head of radio is to relocate to Inverness as part of the corporation's plan to position key editorial roles in regional offices" ()
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