London-based TV news has failed to rise to world events challenge during crisis
For nine long weeks Londonbased TV news has been repetitive, tedious, patronising, boring and childlike with its impact during the pandemic dangerously diluted.
Every evening we get the familiar Ppe-clad reporter getting under the feet of medical staff in some ICU. We have a ghastly intrusive interview with a sobbing relative recounting the death of a loved one. We get highlights of a daily briefing as we consciously differentiate news for England from the rest of the UK.
If it is BBC news, it will be padded out with US domestic news, with little pertinence for us but everything to do with justifying their huge staff there. As awards are heaped on worthy Captain Tom, one recalls the metonymic phrase, by the Roman poet Juvenal: “Bread And circuses.”
If one writes in, controversially suggesting other news items may be worthy of inclusion, you will receive a courteous stock letter reminding you that it is difficult for a news editor to select items for a bulletin. They then revert to their default position, ie news of interest to London and the Home Counties.
We have had minimal or no coverage of the UK failing to join the EU procurement scheme for PPES in the early days at a time when the NHS was desperate for supplies.
In another blatant political decision, the UK approached Turkey but the delayed PPES were sub-standard. There was fury in Whitehall when the Scottish Government ordered from China till the FCO was ordered not to facilitate the Scottish Government securing more equipment abroad. This mirrored the accusation that English PPE firms were advised not to supply Scotland or Wales.
We also hear little of the Brexit talks or the remark by
European Commission presidet Ursula von der Leyen that Scotland could rapidly be readmitted to the EU.
In addition, RAF Typhoons from Akrotiri have blitzed Isis bases in Iraq; Royal Navy warships are under almost daily attack from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz; the worst locust outbreak in 70 years in East Africa has brought famine; Cyclone Amphan is devastating India and Bangladesh; UK debt and borrowing are at levels not seen since the Second World War yet £41 billion is assigned to building Dreadnought submarines at Barrow; the UK needs a new hospital ship, not the super-carrier white elephant, and so it goes on.
It is thanks to the quality Press, such as The Scotsman, which has risen to the occasion, that we are au fait with so much of this. In contrast, TV news has been found wanting.
JOHN V LLOYD
Keith Place, Inverkeithing